"The Tournament of Nations" - Mahabalipuram, Chennai: A Curtain raiser
Gens Una Sumus - FIDE motto
The world needs to realise what the above means in spirit and action .... the fights on account of religion, land, power has divided the world enough! Time has come to unite and eradicate hatred in all forms .......else we will perish soon. Let the fightings and killings stop!
What best, other than the sport, which is the greatest unitor and leveler! There is no winner or loser in true sport, no place for hegmony, discrimination and differences, hatred.....
A tamil poet by name Pulamai Pithan wrote.....
காற்றும் நீரும் வானும் நெருப்பும்
பொதுவில் இருக்குது
மனிதன் காலில் பட்ட பூமி மட்டும்
பிரிந்து கிடக்குது
பிரித்து வைத்து பார்ப்பதெல்லாம்
மனிதன் இதயமே
உலகில் பிரிவு மாறி ஒருமை வந்தால்
அமைதி நிலவுமே
The air, water, sky and fire lies common for everyone but the land on which humans have tread, is fractured .....under the garb of nation, religious fanatisicm ..... the greed for power and money .......
Only human beings discriminate things and the day when this discrimination stops, this world will unite and be peaceful!
Chess is all about harmony - harmony amongst pieces, notwithstanding their diverse capabilities and their interdependence cooperation when required. It is also about getting unconditional and the emphasis is on letgo and create more freedom for action! You may think it is combat between two different minds or players sitting across the board and trying to get at their jugular - which is a lame viewpoint!
The artistic way of perceiving chess is to assume your opponent as co-creator and you jointly work towards creating the art on the board - a harmonious game - notwithstanding the result!
The general promotion of Chess in the world owes a great deal to competitions officially known as 'the Tournament of Nations' or the World Team Championship.....or ....
......as we currently know as "The Chess Olympiad"!
Welcome to Mahabalipuram, Chennai, Tamilnadu!
Mahabalipuram is a fascinating sculptor paradise and dates back to 7th and 8th Century! If you have a fine tuned ears, you can still hear the sound of huge boulders being sculpted by the artist belonging to the period of Narasimha Varma Pallavan, the great warrier who was famously known as 'Mamalla' meaning great warrier and hence the place came to be known as Mamallapuram (place of Mamalla) which the time and diction made it as "Mahabalipuram" (a term which incidentally has no meaning!!)
....now let me Welcome you to "Mamallapuram" in a traditional manner!
There are plenty of places with grand sculptures strewn in the land of Mamallapuram and each of those places have books written on them! Such is the grandeur of this place!
Wish you a memorable stay in this historic place!
FIDE was formed in July, 1924 in Paris and after a few attempts at organising this team event for two reasons: travel facility and how to differentiate between a Professional and Amateur! This was resolved in 1927 when FIDE decided that it will not discriminate between professional and amateur, which paved way for the first Olympiad to be held in London!
The first game to end in the Olympiad .....was...
1.d4 Nf6, 2.c4 e6, 3.Nf3 Bb4, 4.Bd2 Ke7??
"Mouse slip" is not new, afterall! Kalabar intended to play 4.Qe7, but instead he picked the King and placed it on e7 and when Palau took ...
5.Bb4
.....Kalabar took his King on e7 and cut the Bishop on b4 to the uproar of those who were witnessing the game. Only then Black realised he had wrongly placed the King, instead of Queen!
Black Resigned
Till the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, no professional players were allowed to participate in the Olympics! Now, what is the criterion for differentiating professional from amateur? A professional means one who earns through doing a particular profession, enginner, doctor, .....Sports person. A professional means a specialist in a field and who earns through his specialisation. In other words, a professional is dependent on his expertise in his profession to earn a living.
In Chess, going by the above definition, a very few in the world can consider themselves as professional. In India, except Vishy (and some of the GMs who neither have job nor earn enough through Chess) nobody else can claim to be a true profession as most of the top GMs in India (except Anand) are employed is some company, and hence are not professionals!
But the term Amateur came to be understood wrongly as weak ..... an "amateur" went on to become a World Champion by beating the great Alekhine....Dr.Max Euwe - one of the finest players in the history of Chess whose games have a very unique flavour! Dr.Euwe was a full time professor in an university and hence bore that term, his earnings through were part time and suplementary as that of Dr.Lasker who was also working sporadically as lecturer in universities, during his time.
The second Olympiad in Hague in August, 1928 was marred by less number of entries as British Federation again protested of allowing professionals playing the event.
The third Olympiad held in Hamburg in July 1930 was the first big event where the world saw the participation of many top players of that time! World Champion Alekhine played for France, the mysterious Indian (as Tartakover quipped) Sultan Khan played the top board for Colonial Britain along with Yates, Rubinstein and Tartakover for Poland, Marshall and Kashdan for USA, Maroczy for Hungary, Flohr for Czeckoslovakia, Eliskases for Austria, Stahlberg and Stolz for Sweden.
It is in this Olympiad, Alekhine played that famous game against Stahlberg which won him the brilliancy prize!
Stahlberg - Alekhine, Olympiad, Hamburg, 1930
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15.....Ne7!?
One of the greatest challenges for any Chess player is to have an absoulte focus of 64 squares at any given moment - holistically, though it is right in front of your eyes! The calculation of variations, the doubts that arise out of conflicting principles and their applicability in a given situation on the board, the relative value of pieces and pawns.....above all the sense of space - squares, diagonals, files and ranks and the obstructions caused by the physical presence of pieces on the board in front of a player....confuses the brain.
For eg, Grand Master Kidambi showed the following position, where presumably many miss a certain move which concludes the combination ....though it is only two moves! I leave it for the reader to figure it out. It is a game between Shirov - Mozetic .....but I could not get this game in CB.
Black to play
Yochanan Afek and Neiman dealt with many such wonderful positions in their fine book "Invisible Chess Moves"
Alekhine played 15......Ne7!? and commented thus, "It certainly looks risky to leave the central dark squares without adequate defence - but I estimated that something had to be done in order to prevent White increasing his pressure in the middle by means of the push c5!"
16.Be2
Intending to pile up pressure on d-file.
16.....Qe8, 17.Rfd1 Rd8, 18.a4?
Alekhine questioned this move and said, "The serious defect of this other-wise strategically justified advance is that, it takes decidedly too much time and thus permitting Black to build a decisive attack. Better was, 18.Qe5! f4! 19.Qc7 Bf3 20.Bf3 fe3 21.fe3 Nf5! and although White will not find time to exploit the weakness of Black's Queen side, he would still have been perfectly able to protect his King - and this was for the moment the most important problem to solve!"
This is a significant comment by one of the most fearsome attacker in Chess. Alekhine said that he was influenced greatly by Lasker and ofcourse the attacking instincts of Chigorin and devised his own 'method' of perceving the game! Kasparov attributed his attacking style to his deep study of Alekhine's games.
The difference in the mastery of chess chiefly rests on this factor: the ability to perceive uniquely the relationship between the pieces and the squares available for manoeuvring. Obviously, the squares will not be given in a platter in master praxis and therefore, one has to weigh significance of squares and how their pieces will exert pressure and stay ahead with initiative, in comparison to what one concedes to their opponents! Chess is a matter of give and take; you give something irrelevant and take something relevant! But....... things are easily said than done!
18.....f4, 19.a5 fe3 20.Qe3 Nf5!
This one tempo is so important in the scheme of things to follow!
21.Qc3 d6!
This move takes care of the threat 22.Ra7 which will be met with 22......Rd7! when the Rook will start squirming on a7 square.
22.ab6 ab6 23.Ne1?!
This move is very timid and breaks the harmony amongst White pieces. The position is roughly equal and White should have played 23.Nd4
Whenever the equilibrium of the position is disurbed, the other side starts getting dangerous initiative. Things quickly change on the board and one has to be supremely aware of little nuances. Anand recently remarked that the reason for Carlsen's great success is that he seldom makes mistakes in simple positions! A profound statement! But the question arises that all the top players....especially the World Champions who came in classical tradition have reached that stage (including Vishy) because they do not make many mistakes! Very few players like Capablanca, Petrosian, Fischer, Karpov, and Carlsen almost make nill mistakes in simple positions, which is what Anand meant perhaps! Tal once wrote, that a two round robin blitz event was organised after the "Match of the century", to determine who was the "World champion in lightning Chess". Amongst others, there were Tal, Korchnoi, Petrosian, Bronstein, Smyslov, Hort, Reshevsky, Uhlman...... Fischer won the event with a margin of 5.5 points. "Fischer plays simple, logical chess without anything spectacular. He makes his moves quickly and practically without errors. Throughout the tournament, I think he did not leave even a single pawn enprise, whereas, all the others managed to lose a whole set of pieces...."
Do not mistake this statement, a game of chess is still viable because of human tendency to commit mistakes! Many masters, writers right from Lasker days have kept on emphasising this truth. Use of computers has succeded only in killing human creativity but did not - and never - will succeed in making them play "accurately" or "correctly". Humans are fallible and it will remain that way.
Let us see, how this move lead to destruction of White pieces harmony further and eventually lead to defeat.
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23.....e5! 24.Ra7!?
Now if 24.....Rd7, 25.c5! and 26.Bb5 to follow!
24.....Nd4!
White pieces are scattered, whilst Alekhine is consolidating his forces in the centre and his pieces already started exerting some serious pressure in White's position .....especially around the King.
25.Qe3
Why not 25.Bf1!? though the text move is not bad. Atleast, White would not be threatened with 27.....Bf3 (after the move ......Rd7 which he plays on the next move)!
25.....Rd7, 26.Ra2
The rushes back to some defence, as it achieved nothing by going to a7.
26......Rdf7 27.f3
"One would suppose that this pawn, besides being protected by its neighbour, and easily supported by 3 to 4 pieces, cannot possibly form a welcome object for Black's attack. And yet, the f3 is the chief weakness and will be captured, almost inevitably. It was certainly the unusualness of Black's winning strategem which induced the judges to award to this game the brilliancy prize." - Alekhine
27......Rf4 28.Bd3?
It is very unusual of a player of the calibre of Stahlberg to play moves which lack any purpose! You can see that most of the preceding moves have just been made and nothing was achieved except allowing Alekhine to keep mounting pressure unabated!
Why not 28.c5! here. After the exchange of pawns on c5, White can play Nd3! attacking the Black Rook on f4 and capture back the c5 pawn and land that Knight on the fine square e4! That could possibly have restored the equilibrium!
This is the beauty of Chess, until one makes a decisive mistake or keep making mistakes, the position has a tendency to drift towards equilibrium.....slowly as it may! One has to remain sensitive to the squares and manoeurability of the pieces and land on important squares and ensure that the harmony is intact.
Alekhine remains silent on this move and it is a well known fact that Alekhine tried to glorify his moves and give long variations which he claimed to have seen well in advance. That left many positions where there were objective defence or even refutations. Botvinnik - whom I have observed as most candid and always sought the truth in chess irrespective of his move or his opponents move - had urged young Kasparov (I read somewhere) to find refutations in the analysis of masters and perhaps would have specifically meant Alekhine's comments and variations, knowing their turbulent relationship.
Do not mistake me, I am an ardent fan of Alekhine games and have all the books written by him and about him and has thoroughly studied his best games of chess during my formative years. I have a framed photo of his hung in my study since 1983! Alekhine is Alekhine, but truth is truth!
28......Qh5 29.Bf1?
What is this?? Yes, the move .....Qh5 threatens 29........e4! But why not move that Rook from hanging unprotected on d1 square!?
29.....Qg5 30.Rf2 h6!!
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A Nimzovitschian move to defend the Queen and threating to win material on account of the unprotected nature of White Queen on e3!
Whatever White does, Black breaks through on f3 square finally! Alekhine gave.... 31.Qd2 Bf3, 32.Nf3 Nf3 33.Rf3 Rf3 34.Qg5 Rf1 35.Rf1 Rf1 36.Kf1 hg5 37.Ke2 Kf7 38.Kf3 Kf6 39.Ke4 b5!! (typical of Alekhine, though 39.....Ke6! also leads to the same road!)
31.Kh1 Rf3! Black Resigned
Oh, my apologies!! I have strayed too much from the subject of this article......drawn by the beauty of Alekhine's game as well as the nature of Chess game!
The subsequent editions of Olympiads were conducted with almost the same list of players playing barring a few additions and deletions.
1931 - Prague
1933 - Folkestone, UK
1935 - Warsaw
1937 - Stockhom
Then came, the Olympiad in 1939 held in Buenos Aires, where, the Cuban great Capablanca and Estonian Keres played for the first time! Also, it was very significant in the lives of many who lived in the European countries where Hitler started invading......especially Miguel Najdorf!
A Ship named 'Piriapolis' carried a large colony of European Chess players and saved them from the horrors that was to follow during Holocaust. But this Olympiad was marred as many countries started withdrawing their players before the conclusion of the tournament as WWII commenced. Countries like French, Poland and Palestine refused to play against Germany. Germany and Poland were to meet in finals which never took place, and the much awaited rivalry between Capablanca and Alekhine did not take place...... Capablanca scored 8.5 out of 11 games and Alekhine scored 7.5 out of 10 games.
Most of the players stayed back and sought asylum. Najdorf reported that he lost all his relatives (he subsequently after many years discovered that his sister was alive and united!) and everything that they had in Poland.....but ultimately became a very prominent citizen of Argentina and lived a great life!
In 1950, after a break of 11 years due to WWII, the Olympiad begun and was held in Dubrovnik, which is now in Serbia). Only 16 teams took part and a fresh list of masters started appearing on the scene as the great names like Capablanca, Alekhine were no longer alive! Apart from Euwe, Tartakover, there were Reshevsky, Najdorf, Gligoric, Unzicker.
What happened to the Soviets.....all these years!? Well, since 1928, Soviet took a stand that it will not participate in Olympics or Olympiad due to World War and had their own events called Spartakiads!
Come 1952 Olympiad in Helsinki, the Soviets entered their team and started Winning Gold medal as a habit till 1972. In Helsinki, the Soviet team comprised of 1.Keres, 2.Smyslov, 3.Bronstein, 4.Geller, 5.Boleslavsky, 6. Kotov.
I shall just give the list of players that the Soviets fielded in the subsequent Olympiads.....and that would give you an idea of their hegamony in Chess, which only broke after the Soviet Union broke ....but still they were winning but, others started winning too!
1954 - Amsterdam: 1.Botvinnik, 2.Smyslov, 3.Bronstein, 4.Keres, 5.Geller, 6.Kotov
1956 - Moscow: 1.Botvinnik, 2.Smyslov, 3.Keres, 4.Bronstein, 5.Taimanov, 6.Geller
Incidentally, India fielded its team for the first time in Olympiad in Moscow! India was represented by R.B.Sapre, Ramdas Gupta, B.Mahishkar, T.Venkatraman
1958 - Munich: 1.Botvinnik, 2.Smyslov, 3.Keres, 4.Bronstein, 5.Tal, 6.Petrosian
1960 - Leipzig: 1.Tal, 2.Botvinnik, 3.Keres, 4.Korchnoi, 5.Smyslov, 6.Petrosian
The Olympiad in Leipzig was held in a grand manner and there were many special attractions like grandiose chess exhibition presenting displays from 70 countries and 150 famous museums from all over the world.
1962 - Varna: 1.Botvinnik, 2.Petrosian 3.Spassky, 4.Keres, 5.Geller, 6.Tal
Varna Olympiad had a few interesting facts! Botvinnik regained his Board-1 and the youngest Ex-Worldchampion (as he himself proclaimed to his mother) Tal got religated to second reserve board, after briefly enjoying the World title for 6 months and top board in the Laipzig Olympiad!!
USA first board became a contentious issue as to who will play the first board and Fischer did play on board one, but Reshevsky and Evans refused to be part of the team! It was here, Botvinnik and Fischer played their only game which ended in a draw. Fischer was not yet Fischer and had lost to Ciocaltea, Donner and Gligoric (though losing to Gligoric is not ignominious - their career score read 6-3 in favour of Bobby not counting the many draws).
1964 - Tel Aviv: 1.Petrosian, 2.Botvinnik, 3.Smyslov, 4.Keres, 5.Stein, 6.Spassky
The Soviets lost their match to West Germany by 1-3 margin: Smyslov lost to Unzicker, and Keres to Schmid. This was Keres's first loss in Olympiad since 1952! Subsequently, Petrosian carried this record and did not lose till 1972 Olympiad in Skopje when he lost his first game in a total of 96 games that he had played in the Olympiad since 1958!
1966 - Havana: 1.Petrosian, 2.Spassky, 3.Tal, 4.Stein, 5.Kortchnoi, 6.Polugaevsky
Havana Olympiad was very significant as the country Premier Fidel Castro himself took charge of the event and came to hotel venue to oversee arrangments and to meet players. He played with players like Petrosian, Fischer and others. A giant electronic demonstration board was built in the Centre of Havana, near the hotel where the games were played and it featured the most interesting game played on each day! Each team had a chauffer driven separate cars. Cuban Govt also paid airfare for all the participating teams!!
This Olympiad also featured that famous incident where the USA forfeited their match to Soviets as the latter did not agree to the pre-tournament condition of Fischer's game not to start on Saturdays until Sunset! It was subsequently resolved and the match took place on a rest day with Soviets winning 2.5 - 1.5. Fischer drew his game with Spassky
1968 - Lugano: 1.Petrosian, 2.Spassky, 3.Kortchnoi, 4.Geller, 5.Polugaevsky, 6.Smyslov
1970 - Siegen: 1.Spassky, 2.Petrosian, 3.Kortchnoi, 4.Polugaevsky, 5.Smyslov, 6.Geller
Korchnoi lost in the preliminaries to Diez del Corral of Spain as he overslept and arrived one hour late to tournament hall! I donno what the team management of Soviet were doing.
British GM Penrose blundered a piece in a good position against Ulvestad of Andorra and fainted on the board on realising it and was taken for medical attention!
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Penrose played....
47.Rd6?? Re5 48.Ra6 Re4 0-1
11 year old Scherman of the Virgin Islands, became the youngest participant in the history of Olympiad! I am not sure if this record still stands!
The most sought after match was between Spassky and Fischer, which Spassky won.
1972 - Skopje: 1.Petrosian, 2.Korchnoi, 3.Tal, 4.Karpov, 5.Smyslov, 6.Savon
The fifth Women Olympiad was held in Skopje in 1972 in the same venue and time as Open section. Needless to say, the number of countries which participated were very few.
India did not field its Women team and the first time India fielded a Women team was in the 1978 Olympiad in Buenos Aires when it was represented by the then famous Khadilkar Sisters: Rohini, Vasanti and Jayashree!
This Olympiad in Mamallapuram, Chennai could be the first one where India can take a big stride forward and let us wish our teams the very best!
I conclude this article with Skopje Olympiad of 1972, as it is also a landmark year for Chess on account of the Fischer - Spassky match which had a lasting impact on Chess world! It also marks the end of an era dominated by the Soviet Giants who slowly started giving way for the young masters but who still ensured their domination......
......well that is not the reason! This is where the great book by Kazic, "International Championship Chess" by Batsford ends its account on Olympiads and the trivias! My Sincere thanks to Kazic and Batsford! I am very lazy to go into my pile of magazines that I have and search for interesting accounts and write about the subsequent editions of Olympiad. Moreover, it also stretches the article too big to hold the interest of the readers....
Hence......I Remain!
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