Great joy of Chess: Bai Jinshi - Ding Liren

"The night advances toward dawn,
Dew drips from the bamboo onto my brushwood gate.
My neighbour to the west has stopped pounding his mortar;
My little hermit's garden grows moist.
Frogs croak near and far,
Fireflies flit high and low.
Wide awake, it's not possible to sleep tonight.
I smooth my pillow and let my thoughts drift."
- Ryokan (18th Century Zen poet and recluse)


.....and so did I.....!

after having witnessed that great game......
.....and not without reasons, Tarrasch said...."Chess like music and love has the power to make men happy"

Some of the many positions.....will stay ever on top of our minds........and keep constantly inspiring and giving us......great hope....!

                           Bernstein - Capablanca, 1914           Capablanca - Janowsky, 1918

                            Paulsen - Morphy, 1857                   Pillsbury - Lasker, 1896

                            Reti - Alekhine, 1925                       Zukertort - Blackburne, 1883

                                                         Mc Donnell - de Labourdonnaise, 1834


....and the hope is...



.....such games and conceptions are still possible.....Chess is still fertile.....!!


Let us time travel to 19th Century!!


Bai Jinshi - Ding Liren, Chinese Chess League, 2017


1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 OO 5.Bg5 c5 6.e3 cd4 7.Qd4?


Did we not learn in our first lessons.....do not bring out your Queen early and expose her......7.ed4 was in order, but we need to thank Bai for treating us and co creating this masterpiece......
.....by this move..... he prepares her highness for a rape!

7.....Nc6 8.Qd3 h6 9.Bh4 d5 10.Rd1 g5!?

Whites sin 6.Qd4? provided the indemnity to this overture!

11.Bg3 Ne4 12.Nd2 Nc5! 13.Qc2 d4 14.Nf3

14.ed4 Nd4 15.Qc1 Qf6 does not bring any respite either.

14.....e5!

Strap your seat belts for a rollercoaster ride....piloted by Ding Liren!

15.Ne5 dc3!!



16.Rd8 cb2 17.Ke2 Rd8 18.Qb2 Na4


Great attacks are like the scent of prey for the carnivores.....they just follow the whiff!

19.Qc2 Nc3 20.Kf3 Rd4!!




Sublime!  It just threatens a mate in two!

21.h3 h5!

Mate threat renewed.

22.Bh2 g4 23.Kg3

If 23.hg4 hg4 24.Ng4 Bg4 25.Kg3 Bd1!! and the Queen will eventually be hunted!

23....Rd2!!



I spelled that four letter word.....in the beginning....in the comment for 6.Qd4?


24.Qb3 Ne4 25.Kh4

25.Kf4 Rf2! 26.Ke4 Bf5! 27.Kd5 Be6! 28.Ke4 f5 29.Kd3 Rd2#


Beauty strewn everywhere!

25.....Be7 26.Kh5 Kg7! 27.Bf4

27.Nc6 Bf5!! mates

27.....Bf5 28.Bh6 Kh7 29.Qb7 Rf2!! 



The final nail in the coffin.....The White King on h5 is trapped like a mouse!

30.Bg5

30.Qa8 Bg6 31.Ng6 fg6 32.Kg4 Ne5 #

30.....Rh8 31.Nf7 Bg6 32.Kg4 Ne5   and here......

 Bai resigned unceremoniously here.....depriving us of.....

33.Kh4 Kg8 34.Nh6 Rh6! Mate


Great polyglot Alberto Manguel wrote.....in his magnum opus..."A history of reading"......thus....
"Many nights I would turn on my bedside lamp, and try to reach the end of the book I was reading, and to delay the end as much as possible, going back a few pages, looking for a section I had enjoyed, checking details that I thought had escaped me...

I never talked to anyone about my reading; the need to share came afterwards. At the time, I was superbly selfish, and I identified completely with Stevenson's lines:

 "This was the world and I was King;
For me the bees came by to sing,
For me the swallows flew..."

Chess games...chess world..... evokes similar sentiments in the heart of its ardent followers!

I remain!



Comments

  1. Mark Hathaway6 November 2017 at 00:23

    If Ding's performance in the World Cup wasn't enough, this game should be a flashing red light to the world of chess that there is another who has arisen and must be taken seriously.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Srikanth Govind6 November 2017 at 05:39

      Yes.. certainly! And both Ding and Levon are capable of giving Magnus a great fight and the ability to charter the course with their unique style.....along with MVL

      Delete

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