My Chess Blog

....no he is definitely not haughty ....he literally meant what he said! If you take cognisance of what others say.....then you will never become what you can become. After all, that is the definition of being at the top....staying at the top - no place for the other and others viewpoints! It is said that Groucho Marx will say boldly and quickly, what the rest of us might think but are too timid to say !  He once wrote to the President of a Hollywood club....." Please accept my resignation. I don't care to belong to any club that will have me as a member" . What Carlsen said quickly and boldly is what everybody....even a ELO 2000.... would " like to say " when someone says something contrary to what they think! American writer Simone Elkeles wrote...." Opinions are like assholes (no it is not a bad word), everybody has one ...." ......so has Kasparov and Kramnik and million others who voiced in private.....all of us have one. Meanw...

"What lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do" - Aristotle  ......Not much to write about the second game. .....yet it was not a boring draw ........as it happened in the past ...... It had certain moments of interests .......      .......and....hence I shall deal with the REST DAY! Is this a state of rest......? NO! Both the army is in readiness.....erect and ready for action.....a calmness which conceals huge rumble ....beneath....!.....State of inertia.....but..... Possibly the most complex position!! ".....a longing for the articulated and immeasurable, for eternity....To rest in the arms of perfection .....a desire of any man intent upon creating excellence; and is not nothingness a form of perfection?" Thomas Mann asks this question through the mind voice of Aschenbach  - his protagonist in Death in Venice! Let us deal a bit with .....rest....beingness......nothingness..... .....but to understand this...

"The problem is that, on the board, one sees only the outward aspects of the position - the placing of the pieces - and the interconnections between them are concealed from view...."  - David Bronstein It was pleasing to see a fight on the board......after long! .....and possibly most of it happened on the board....! Caruana - Carlsen, WC 2018: Game 1 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bc6 dc6 5.d3 Bg7 6.h3 Nf6 7.Nc3 Nd7 A slight deviation from what he did in Tata Steel 2015 against the same opponent, to avoid what could have happened....then!  Carlsen played  7.....b6  (instead of ......Nd7), then and the game continued....  8.Be3 e5  9.OO .....the last two moves reflects true chess perception in over-the-board-play....whomsoever you may be.... Magnus or his challenger or......perhaps.... even god ! Both the players had overlooked the possibility of..... 9.Ne5! Ne4 10.Qf3!   .....perhaps, they may have seen it....