My Chess Blog

 "A position can never be so bad as not to offer prospects of defence, and therein lies the great truth"  - Lasker/Kere s The Art of Defence in Chess is underplayed, chiefly for two reasons: 1) It is presumed to be dull and devoid of sparks that an attack produces 2) Simply it is very difficult to understand Defence is very difficult to understand because, the choices made cannot be substantiated by objective truth, it is tedious to annotate a defensive game. A game of chess is won because a side commits or overextends the logic inherent in the position or the resources that a position offers and plays inappropriate moves, disturbing the equilibrium badly. Art of successful defence is also about disturbing the equilibrium so as to confuse the side with upper hand or at least put the player with upper hand in discomfort by taking him or her from the path of least resistance! Fischer rightly said, " Chess is a fine art of knowing when to duck and how to punch "! Gary