Chess - The art of imperfections!

 "Nobody is perfect" - Billy Wilder 

......and nothing in this world is perfect!

Literature is all about depicting the time it belongs to and not its interpretation! It is different from History in a way, that, literature is not merely facts but is about expression! It expresses a given time and its happening unadulterated!

A game of Chess is a piece of literature! The annotator is like a litterateur who records the games at the time of its happening and tries to bring out the expressions that the moves intend to! The moves that are played is significant and constitute the words in a poetry. And as the words in the poetry evoke different meaning for different persons who read it at different point of time, so does a chess move, which may evoke different feel and perception and may give rise to different options! It is not the job of the annotator to give all options ..... at best he may indicate a few that occurs to him, not worried about the "correctness" of a move or a "precise move" in a position.....as there are no correct or precise move!

Imperfection is the key word! The world is imperfect, the nature is imperfect, the living beings are imperfect, so are human beings! But in this imperfectness, there is beauty and harmony!

Mandelbrot studied about the imperfections in the world and imperfect shapes that surround us and permeate everywhere! And that lead to a field of geometry called "Fractals" - and it revealed something profound! The seemingly imperfections in the nature has a beautiful inner order and symmetry!

"From its seeming to me - or to everyone - to be so, it doesn't follow that it is so. What we can ask is whether it can make sense to doubt it" - Ludwig Wittgenstein

I am not going to explain the above proposition by Wittgenstein, as that is essense of any art.....in life! Life itself is an art! But, I shall try to demonstrate the above statement through a recent game.....played by Dubov in Grand Swiss!

But before that, a Tamil verse by a great poet called Vaali which reflects the above statement made by Wittgenstein!

இன்று நேற்று வந்ததெல்லாம்
நாளை மாறலாம்
நீரில் தோன்றும் நிழல்களைப் போலே
நிலையில்லாமல் போகலாம்
நான் பார்த்து ஒன்றாக காணலாம்
நீ பார்த்து வேறாக மாறலாம்
வருவது ஒன்று புரிவது ஒன்று 
 - கவிஞர் வாலி 

That which comes today may change tomorrow and it may keep changing like the impermanent image which appears on the surface of the water body,. It may look in a particular way when I see it and may look differently when you see it. But what is there and what is seen are two different things!

Questioning is the key! We should question anything and everything in life, but.....without the conditioning of getting an answer ..... as there are no finite answers to any questions! The ultimate realisation is when the questions themselves dissapear as the conditions and the conditioner wears off!

Chess is also an imperfect art....where the players pose questions at all times...."What if...?" and would not get a finite answer to the questions.... The game moves on and would reach a climax and the result too is not an answer to the questions posed at various points!

Just that ...."What if....!?" would remain and linger.....

Daniil Dubov - Ivan Saric, Grand Swiss - 2021

1.e4 c5  2.Nf3 d6  3.Bb5 Nd7  4.OO a6  5.Bd3 Ngf6  6.c3 b5  7.a4 Bb7  8.ab5 ab5  9.Ra8 Qa8  10.Na3 b4  11.Nb5 Qa5  

Nothing wrong with this move, but the other option .....Qb8 is equally good, if not better. 

12.cb4 cb4 13.Bc4

Dubov has a knack of providing space for his pieces and give them a free hand to express themselves! This is an uncanny art, which will be very difficult to explain even by the artist himself!

This game reminds me of Bronstein vs Rohjan and the story associated with it which involves Tal! 

Tal was playing a game against Ghitescu in 1963. It so happened, before the game he was talking to Bronstein and the latter had mentioned about his game with Rohjan which was played in 1956! Brontein told Tal about his idea of sacrificing the Bishop for a central pawn phalanx! Bronstein played 8.de4!! in the above position and won the game in grand style with the pressure exerted by his central pawn mass!

Tal was impressed with this idea and it so happened, in his game with Ghitescu, he reached the following position:

......and Tal recollected his discussion with Bronstein on central pawn palanx....and played 19.Bc5!! here and won a fine game.

The art of chess is all about being sensitive to little things....finer frequencies! As you atune yourself to the finer aspects, your moves will happen harmoniously without your deliberate effort! That state is referred to as "Flow State" - where the moves happen!

Vera John Steiner - a cognitive psychologist - wrote, "Collaborations offers an opportunity to transcend individuality and overcome limitations of habit, and of biological and temporal constraints. Collaboration allows one to amplify their vision and purpose. Further, it allows one to redefine their boundaries and lead to deep understanding"

Any art is about collaboration. Painting or photography or poetry is about collaborating with nature and the feelings that it evokes. Music is a collaboration with notes, rhythm. And all the above are also associated with something which is infinite and slips into an arena which is dealt in metaphysics.

Chess is a high art which ranks with the above and the players collaborate with chess pieces which are alive and throbbing.....and ofcourse the mind of the fellow being who sits on the other side of the Chessboard!


Coming back to the game

13......Ne4  14.d3 d5!  15.Bf4!!? e5 

With his move 15.Bf4!!, Dubov sacrifices a piece just to keep the King in the Centre and conduct the play futher in an absolutely unclear terrain! You may try to calculate the consequences of this move by yourself or using engines and both will be redundant! Both the players travel in a hazy terrain and will have vision hardly to see a few steps in front ....nothing beyond as that wont mean anything!

Leave the Kotov's method of tree and branches to botany and return to the geometrical patterns that the 64 squares unfolds with every passing move by your opponent!

16.Ne5 dc4 17.dc4 Ne5  18.Be5 Bc5 

Will you have guts to play 18.....f6! here and if 19.Re1 Qd8 (ofcourse 19.Nc7? Ke7 would lead to a losing position sooner) ..... Black manages to curb White's initiative and perhaps would even get better gradually when his material advantage would start talking!

19.Bd6 Bd6  20.Nd6 Nd6  21.Qd6 Bc8  22.Re1 Be6  23,Rd1!? Qa8  24.c5 Qc8  25.c6 h5  26.Re1 Rh6  27.Re5 Qd8?

The question mark is just to denote that there is a more potent option here in 27.b3!

Why Black has to give that pawn in quest of exchanging the Queens and allow White to get connected passers - the reason for all his subsequent trouble!? 

28.Qb4

Instead of 28......Qc7 which was played in the game here, 28.....Rg6! utilising the time to actively place his Rook ....as White has a necessity to clear his backrank weakness. For eg. if 29.h3 Qd1 30.Kh2 Qf1! and now if 31.Qe4 Qf2! (c-pawn is not dangerous as 32.c7 can be met with .....Kd7 too!) or White may opt for a perpetual with 31.Qb8 Ke7 32.Re6! etc

28......Qc7?  29.Qc5 Qe7  30.Qc3 Qc7  31.b4 Ke7  32.b5 Rh8  33.Qg3 Rd8  34.h4! Kf8?  

Final mistake and a fatal one! Black steps away from the threatened 35.Re6! which anyway is the retribution!  

34......Qb6 is an option, which would have allowed Black to continue the game further....and perhaps.....!


35.Re6! Qg3  36.fg3 fe6  37.c7 Ke7 38.cd8 Kd8  39.Kf2 Kc7  40.Ke3 Kb6  41.Kd4 Kb5  42.Ke5 Resigns

A fine game by Dubov in his inimitable style! His perception of space and time and how his pieces can utilise it, is unique.

Is it not this perception of Space and Time in a unique way, the key to mastering the Art of Chess!?

I remain......!