Consciousness, awareness, in Chess
"Consciousness is a multi-dimensional affair" - Arthur Koestler
A game of chess is a constant struggle between the apparent and the hidden. There is always something which falls under the visible range, as the game progresses..... move by move....
.....and there is always something hidden!
And Chess owes a great deal to this hidden aspect..... for its existence....
There are two types of "mistakes" that happen in a Chess game: overestimation and underestimation not only about the position but of the possibilities too - both one's own and opponents.
Rojahn, Ernst - Czerniak, Moshe; Olympiad, 1939
White is enjoying a considerable advantage due to unduly risky handling of opening by Black......who incidentally is also a very good player who even held the great Cuban in the same Olympiad!
As Alekhine noted in his book "107 great chess battles", 12.c3! followed by Be4 would have consolidated the advantage for White.
Rojahn's name is familiar to us because of the game Bronstein - Rojahn where Bronstein played 8.de4!!? in the following position!
A move of this nature is very very unique and it corresponds to the Chess culture of that particular player. Tal confessed later that he got the idea of playing 19.Bc5! against Ghitescu, after seeing this game by Bronstein!
Coming to the game.....White played.....
12.Be4? Ne5! 13.g5! Nc4!
13......Bg5? 14.Rg5! Qg5 15.de5 and now if the Queen takes on e5 then Bb7! or if 15....Nf5 16.Bf5! Qf5 17.Qh5!
14.gh6 Ne3 15.hg7
Probably White overlooked Black's reply! 15.Qe2! would ensure a firm advantage for White
15.....Bf2!!
Often, such intermediate moves fall under blindspot during thick of action.
16.Ke2 Rg8 17.Qd3 Bg1 18.Qb5 c6!
18.....Kd8 does not require any substantiation through variation to know that it is bad. A mere look at the Black Rooks on back rank and the precarious position of the Black King, in comparison with its majestic counterpart who is sitting pretty in the center under the strength of White pieces would suffice
19.Bc6 Kd8!
Such is the nature of Chess.....strewn with paradoxes! With the opening up of the 2nd rank, the King feels safe despite the exposure!
20.Bb7 Nc2! 21.Qa5 Qc7!
A picturesque position which deserves a diagram! All the Black pieces are vulnerable......and yet!
22.Ne6!!
This moves opens the h5-e8 diagonal for perpetual checks! 22.Qg5 Ke8 23.Qb5 Qd7! 24.Bc6 fails to Nd4!
22.....fe6 23.Qg5 Qe7 24.Qa5 Kd7 25.Qb5 Kd8 26.Qa5 Qc7 27.Qg5 Ke8 28.Qh5
....and the game ended in a draw through perpetual checks
What is consciousness?
The closest word that describes Consciousness is another abstract one! "Awareness"
Awareness is not about memory. In fact, awareness has no prerequisites - it is all about knowing your surroundings perpetually, the current moment....all about the immediate and near.
Humans have - humans alone have - the capacity to self learn .......and perhaps it is the best way to learn! Not believing in self-learning, they succeeded in making a "self-learning machine" - AlphaZero!!
Action from a state of awareness is rooted in tacit dimensions. Tacit dimension is best described by its exponent Michael Polanyi....".....it is an act of attending from something for attending to something else"!
Polanyi further said something which is very significant for any art and especially Chess (where players seek "knowledge" ....."certainty" ....."concreteness" ........ "memory" and all such things which only makes them drift further away from mastering their art!) He said, "unbridled lucidity destroys our understanding of complex matters. Scrutinize closely the particulars of a comprehensive entity and their meaning is effaced, our conception of the entity is destroyed."
The words do not define or enrich the art of poetry and literature. Likewise, in Chess, the moves does not define or enrich the art of chess. You cannot understand Poetry only through words and you cannot understand Chess only through moves. This is very difficult to understand until one starts indwelling.
Grischuk, Alexander - Riazantsev, Alexander, Moscow - 2009
11.Re6!
The exclamation mark is not to denote that the move is great, or unique.....it is just to denote that this move exists - both in the present moment, as well as historically as a concept.
And you do not require.....say .....
The move disrupts the coordination amongst Black pieces and erects a wall in the center bifurcating the Black side of the board into two halves. Now it is upto Black to restore the coordination amongst his pieces and cope up with the current position, as it was he who invited White to do this to him!
Psychologist Richard Farson observed in his fine book "Management of the absurd" that in life people often confuse themselves with problem where it is more about predicament!
Most of the chess situations - barring tactical blunders and outright strategic mistakes - fall under predicament ....where one has to cope up with what they have and there is nothing to be solved.
To quote Farson, "Predicaments require interpretive thinking. Dealing with a predicament demands the ability to put a larger frame around a situation, to understand it in its many contexts, to appreciate its deeper and often paradoxical causes and consequences."
On a lighter note.....it is like an Indian arranged marriage: where the parties (both husband and wife) quickly learns to live with whatever they've got, coping up with things everyday as it unfurls and live happily!
11.....fe6 12.Ng5 Qd6 13.Qe1 b5?
Now this is uncalled for. Already his light squares in the center are shaky after allowing Re6 and he further vitiates it. 13.....c6! reinforcing the light squares in the center is imperative and keep playing thereof.
14.Bb3 a5 15.a4! ba4 16.Nc4 Qc6 17.Ra4
All of White pieces are very active, including the one sitting on c1! The Bishop on c1 and c8 are often best placed in their original squares, from where they control the c1-h6 or c8-h3 diagonal whilst protecting the b-pawn. This way they do not interfere with the activity of their other pieces and the Rook conveniently comes into play via the a-file.
17.....Ra6 18.Ra5 Rfa8 19.Bd2 Bh6 20.h4 Bg5?
This one compromises the dark-squares as well....... but it is already difficult to suggest anything good for Black.
Rest of the game requires no commentary.
21.hg5 Nd7 22.Ra6 Qa6 23.Na5 c5 24.Ba4 Rd7 25.Bd7! Rd7 26.dc5
Now Black would have realised the implication of his 20th move.
26.....Nc7 27.c4 Qa8 28.c6 Rd3 29.Bc3 Qf8 30.Qe5 Rd1 31.Kh2
Black Resigned
The art of Chess has to be learnt.....not taught! The guru (the apt term) should enable the student to learn through exploration and not try to teach or impart "knowledge"
He has to be alone!.....and Alex Honnold said....."When I am free soloing, I am totally focused on what's in front of me. The universe shrinks down to me and the rock.....! For the next few hours, I would be alone in a unique way, locked in a high-stakes game of solitude. I don't take a single hold for granted. It is the most important thing in life right now"
In the above picture, Alex is climbing without rope at an angle - defying gravity - where anybody can fall even with support! You can imagine the amount of stress the muscles on his limbs would be subjected to, so as to bear his whole body weight compounded by the gravitation pull from such heights!
.......and Chess players talk about "risk taking" over the board ......
Chess players need to see Alex Honnold's videos ......most of his climbs are shot live and made available on YouTube. One should also read about Petite, the wire walker who walked across twin towers in 1974!
A Chess player requires such an attitude, fearlessness.....and a great letgo, which alone will liberate him from all fears and conditioning and enable him to comprehend not only what is hidden.....but first of all what is plain to the eyes!
Gerald Abrahams wrote, "When the mind is not revealing as effectively as is required by the situation, then one is omitting to take into account appearances from a field of apparent irrelevancy. The unexpected emerges from the dark; yet it was always there"
Giri, Anish - Shankland, Sam, Tata Steel - 2019
45.b6 Black Resigned??
The Knight on h3 is lost.....but not the game!
All that Black need to do is to play a few moves, taking the King to c8 square to 'discover' that his King cannot be holed-out of c8! He need not even know before hand that it is a stalemate even on c8 square! After all, Shankland is a very strong Grand Master who has started playing in Elite league now!
Knowledge is futile......and assumption is a crime!
Total awareness about the current position on board is required.....forgetting what has happened so far and not worried about what beholds in future.
If you want a prototype, there is a nice study by Kubbel
1.Bb6! (you may have a look at why other moves fail) 1.....Kd7 2.Ba5 b3 3.Kd2!
It is this tempo which saves White.
3.....Bg6 4.Kc1! Bh6 5.Bd2 Bd2 6.Kd2 Kd6 7.Kc1 ....and the King stays on c1 and d2
Continuing the above discussion ......I wish to quote Abrahams again....who said, "In Chess, (and not only in Chess!) awareness is not a simple and isolable mental process. Ideas inhabit the Chessboard, to be seen or missed, as animals inhabit the forest. One fails to see them because one is looking at the trees, or because the play of light on other objects constitutes a camouflage"
But I would add that you would also be required to look at the broader picture - the forest or the tree - and the mental illation should toggle between the specifics and larger picture, suspending all conditioning, in order to have a plain grasp of the position which will also allow one to have a glimpse at what is not apparent.....at times even concoct!
Shirov, Alexie - Short, Nigel D, Yeravan Olympiad, 1996
A lot happened so far in this interesting game and Shirov suggested here 28.....Rh8!? and said White probably has no clear plan to press home his advantage. Defense is such a difficult thing while in action.....but on hindsight one might say so many things....
Short played a very natural human move....
28.....Kh8 29.Qh5 Kg7 30.g5 hg 31.hg5 Rd8 32.Bf5 Nf8 33.Qh6 Kg8 34.Qf6 Rdd7 35.Kg3 Nh7 36.Bh7
Obviously 36.Bd7? would not do as Rd7 37.g6 hg6 when the Queen cannot capture on g6 because of Rg7 and if the King steps aside from the g-file, Nf8 builds a fortress!
36.....Kh7 37.Kg4 b5 38.Qh6 Kg8 39.Kf5 f6
A forced move to avoid mate.
But now it is White's turn to miss a simple win!
40.g6??
40.gf6 Rh7 41.Qg6 Kf8 42.Ke6 Rcd7 43.b4! Emphasizing the helpless state of Black 43,,,,,c4 44.a3 Rhf7 45.Qh6 Kg8 46.Qh5! Zugswang!
40.....Re7 41.Kf6
(1-0 on 60th move)
Fortunately, the move g6 did not throw away the win but Shirov had to find an ingenious plan and play for another 20 moves, which is not relevant to our current topic
Let me conclude with an endgame position where, the move played defies conventional thinking!
Karpov, Anatoly - Kasparov, Gary; WC - 1984
Kasparov played....
46.....hg4
and got a jolt when Karpov replied....
47.Ng2!!
Now, such moves happen when one is immersed with the current position as Alex Honnold is engrossed totally with his next hold, next foot.
In-depth analysis has been done in this position by the players as well as many commentators in the past.
Recently Timman wrote (in his splendid book "The longest game"), "One of the most brilliant moves in the entire Chess history". The significant point is that, this position is only into a few moves after adjournment and it would have been subjected to thorough analysis by team of seconds. The 46th move b4! came as surprise to the Kasparov team it seems, which apparently shuts a route for White King via a5.
Karpov instead found a very ingenious route for his King via Kingside to penetrate into Black position.
Karpov won the game in another 23 moves.
Consciousness, awareness, being....., are the key for any art! Whatever you study and work on, would be rendered futile unless you are present in every given moment vibrantly, observe the current position with total awareness and always "be" present in every given moment and be alive for the possibilities that emerge!
The flower invites the butterfly with no-mind;
The butterfly visits the flower with no-mind.
The flower opens, the butterfly comes;
The butterfly comes, the flower opens.
I don't know others,
Others don't know me.
By not-knowing we follow nature's course. - Ryokan (Zen poet)
I remain
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