Quantum Chess!

"And it's then, with immense clarity of vision, that I see how easy it would be to remove myself from this tedium (of life) if I just had the strength truly to want to do so" - Fernando Pessoa

 The great Portugal thinker further added.... "Those of us - be we geniuses or beggars - who do not know how to want in our shard impotence...."

"Shared impotence"...... impotence..., which is wrongly assumed as 'importance' a phonetic error perhaps, which lead humanity to struggle under delusion!

Every one in this world, assume an identity - a condition which imposes further conditions - based on which humans act at every moment and do whatever they do, assuming a false certainty in a world which is full of chaos and where chaos rules order and..... perhaps, an order lies underneath the chaos!

Frank Wilczek - a nobel laureate quantum physicist - began is wonderful book with these words: "The Universe is not what it used to be, nor what it appears to be". The title of Frank's book on Quantum Physics: "The lightness of being" was inspired by the wonderful novel by Milan Kundera - "Unbearable lightness of being"! Frank wrote, "it (Kundera's book) is one of my favourite books. It is about many things, but perhpas above all the struggle to find pattern and meaning in the seemingly random, strange and sometimes cruel world we live in."

Don't you see that, what is said above on life at large, resonates so well with Chess!? Is not Chess all about trying to find some tactical patterns, strategic motif, gaining space or material, looking for something concrete when all that you have is haze, abstract distribution of material over the space - 64 squares!?

The great Lasker perhaps meant this when he said Chess is primarily about Struggle; and Bronstein gave the title for his book: "Chess Struggle in Practice" for Zurich 1953 Candidates book, which arguably is one of the finest book every written! 

And what is this stuggle!?

Instead of answering this question theoretically, let us observe it through some practical examples!

Position: 1

Carlsen, Magnus - Dominguez, Perez; Wijk aan Zee, 2010

30.....Kh8?

A reflex action! A discovered check is not always to be feared! Yet, a strong Grandmaster is unable to see what to do during the heat of the moment! 

Instead, if Black had taken that dangerous pawn on e5, things would have been in balance and the "struggle" would have continued! For eg., 30.....Be5! 31.Rf1 Qe7 32.Nd8 Kh8 33.Nf7 (33.Nd8 Kh8 34.Nc6 Bh2! leads to perpetual checks) Kg7 33.Ne5 Qe5 34.Rf7 Kh8! and both sides cannot try to push themselves further without compromising their King's safety and therefore a peace treaty would be the ideal thing to do.

31.Ng7! Kg7; 32.e6! Rb7; 33.Qc3 Kg8; 34.Rd6 Re7; 35.Rc6 Qf8; 36.Rc8 Re8; 37.Re8 Qe8; 38.Qf6 Qc8; 39.Kg2! Qc2; 40.Kh3 Qb3; 41.Kh4 Qb4; 42.Qf7 Kh8; 43.e7 Qe1; 44.Kg5 Qe3; 45.Qf4 and Black Resigned as it is going to be mate in a few moves.

Position: 2

Siegbert Tarrasch - Em. Lasker, WC, 1908

The same Lasker the great, who had the audacity to play..... 

15.....Re5?! 

here, in one of the defining games in the history of chess........

.....let us see this game for sometime and continue the discussion!

As Kasparov wrote in MGP, that, this audacious Rook move defies conventional wisdom of chess!

But why bother about conventions!? The art of Chess struggle rests in breaking conventions. Quantum physics defies conventions and at Quantum level chaos rules. 

The theory Quantum Chaos deals with the relationship between classical mechanics with quantum mechanics and try to bridge the gap between the two! 

Chess is also about struggling between laid out principles and operatives of the game of Chess and the  way the human mind perceives - seeking order in something which is for most part probabilistic and remain hazy until one side overextends the limits and give concrete path to the game. The game obeys Schrodinger proposition: all three results (cat) are possible until the scoresheet is signed!

A game of chess is not a constant and the myriad ways human mind perceives it at various times, makes it more complicated and that defines the Struggle in Chess! Craving for concreteness in chess is delusory! One has to learn to thrive amidst chaos. Chess is simple in its complexity and complex in its simplicity.

16.Nd4

The c7 pawn is taboo.

16.....Rc5!?

This move is explicable only in the context of this particular struggle against Tarrasch! Lasker takes Tarrasch away from his intentions and comfort zone by this unprovoked Rook sortie on the fourth Rank. The Rook reaches a stage of point of no return and Lasker leaves it to defend for itself. 

17.Qb3 Nb6; 18.f4!

Seals all the return route for that Rook which has trespassed ....

18.....Qf6; 19.Qf3 Re8; 20.c3 a5!

Trying to create some meaning for that Rook by provoking some weakness on the Queenside

21.b3 a4; 22.b4 Rc4!?

The managed to self imprison itself!

23.g3 Rd8!

Preparing for counterattack with 24.....c5!

24.Re3 c5! 25.Nb5?

White should not have hesitated to play 25.bc5 Rc5 allowing that Rook to get liberated, and restore balance in the position.

But Tarrasch in his quest not to let Lasker go with impunity, gets into serious trouble! 

25.....cb4; 26.Rd6 Rd6; 27.e5

 

27......Rf4!!

Bolt from the blue! As the adage goes.... "Chess is a matter of, but one move"!

Obviously, Lasker had not planned this! The script writes itself and one has to be aware at all moments in Chess - like in life - and grab opportunities that opens up.

Calculation in Chess is only to support this cause of awareness at all moments and most often, the player who loses this awareness pays dearly. Humans are shortsighted and all that they need to be aware is to see something in the near future with great clarity. One should not drop material without any compensation at anypoint and calculations are only to ensure this. The much famed Visualisation, Imagination, Intuition etc in Chess is incidental and the struggle in Chess is to maintain these at all times.... or atleast on most occasions!

We have witnessed through out the history of Chess, where even great players keep missing such moves and there lies the prospect of Chess not to go extinct! Chess is not about calculation as Chess is not concrete

28.gf4 Qg6; 29.Kh1 Qb1; 30.Kg2 Rd2; 31.Re2 Qa2 and Lasker won in 10 more moves.

Tarrasch could have sparred the remaining 10 moves.....

Position: 3

Alexander Alekhine - Em.Lasker, Zurich 1934

The same Lasker who played the previous game with Tarrasch, the way he played, also finds him on the wrong side of struggle! But the quality of Great players is such that, they find themselves on the wrongside of the struggle, less occasionally!

A subsequent game between Euwe - Flohr in 1936 proved that Black is ok here with 17......g6

.....but

17......Qb6? 18.Qd6!

Suddenly Black feels the heat! This simple move perhaps eluded Lasker, or he may have underestimated its force!

Now, White piece advance easily and Black struggles to find playable moves! This is Chess struggle in practice!

18.....Ned7

18......Ng6 19.Nh6 gh6 20.Qf6  leads to a bad position 

.......and I leave the reader to work out 18.....Rae8 for themselves!

19.Rfd1

"Simple methods indeed; withe every move - as is obvious - Alekhine is improving his position, every piece doing its bit" - Euwe

19......Rad8; 20.Qg3!

Such manoeuvres in Chess is always delightful and they bring about considerable distress to the otherside who struggles to find moves! As you can observe, the moves are simple and what they threaten is also simple threats! YET.....!

20......g6; 21.Qg5!

The simple threat is doubling the Rooks on the d-file and picking up one of those two knights

21.....Kh8

It is meaningless to suggest other moves here. Moves like 21.....Qb5; 21.....Re8; 21.....Ne4 etc are there and may be other moves too! But the crux of the matter is that, deep inside his mind, Black must have given up after realising the serious consequences that followed  17.....Qb6?

Lasker succumbs quickly

22.Nd6 Kg7; 23.e4! Ng8; 24.Rd3! f6; 25.Nf5! Kh8; 26.Qg6!!

and Lasker Resigned!

Euwe exclaimed, "White's moves 18.Qd6! to 26.Qg6!! form one magnificent unified conception. Everything unfolds harmoniously, everything goes equally simply...." 

True! But the script is not Alekhine's alone.... Lasker contributed significantly by initiating it! As Tartakover famously said, "Chess woves its existence to mistakes"!

Position: 4

Adham Fawzy - Maghsoodloo, Parham; Abu Dhabi - 2017

16.Nb5!!

I urge the readers to take this game from database and go a few moves early to have a look at the novelty 12.Nc3!?

You will be surprised to note that, that move is very natural and how human mind has not considered playing it in the past!

But, everything begins somewhere and that defines the aspect of "struggle"!

16......ab5; 17.ab5 Qb7; 18.Ra8 Qa8 19.f5!!

Black's pieces, except the Queen, are on that side and he has one piece extra to counter White's threats.....
..... and yet the position is exploded with this little pawn push which ends Black's struggle quickly! 

19.....Ne5

If,
19.....gh5 20.Qh5!
19.....ef5 20.e6!
19.....Be5 20.fe6 followed by Nf7!
     

20.fe6 f6; 21.Be5 fe5; 22.Rf7 Bf8; 23.Nh7! Bc5; 24.Kh1 Ne7; 25.Qf1! Nf5; 26.b6!!

The two pawns on the sixth rank along with the Rook and Knight crushes Black King! The Queen on f1 is merely to remove that defender sitting on f5!!

26.....Qc6; 27.b7 Ba7; 28.Qf5!! gf5; 29.Nf6 Kd8; 30.e7 Black Resigned

An exquiste game by Fawzy!!

Position: 5

Furman, Semen - Kholmov, Ratmir, URS finals in Kiev, 1954

White has some pressure and by conventional methods, Black would have to endure the pressure for long time. Normal Human mind is incapable of sustaining pressure for longer periods, hence humans resorts to some action, which has potential to precipitate the issue. But at the same time, the opportunity also lurks in such 'unsolicited' actions!

20.....h5! 21.Qd2!?

Perhaps, increasing the pressure with 21.e4! sounds better as Black pieces would have to remain defending the d5 pawn!

21.....Ng6! 22.Rdc1 h4!

The chief struggle in chess is for gaining space in appropriate place! Kholmov a player of supreme class conducts the struggle by giving up a pawn on the otherside to gain space and harmonious action on the Kingside!

23.Rc6 Rc6 24.Rc6 h3!!

Kholmov poses a difficult problem! This is another underlining aspect of Struggle in Chess - The Choice!! When one is in trouble, the best recourse could be to provide your opponent with choices, paradoxically! There is every chance that your opponent would oblige!

25.Bf1!

White exercises the "right" choice!

25......d4!? 26.Rc5 Qd6!

Black is atleast getting easy moves in return for the pawn, and he has managed to create disharmony amongst White pieces!

27.Qg5 

27.....Qd7?

The defining moment!

My student Laia found a fantastic concept here starting with 27.....d3!! 28.ed3 Bd7! (with the simple threat of .....Re1 and Qd3) 29.Qd5 Qd5 30.Rd5 Ne5! 31.f4 Nf3 32.Kf2 Be6! 33.Ra5 Nh2 34.f5 (34.Ra7?? would even lose to Ng4 and .....h2!) Ng4 35.Kf3 Nh2 36.Kf3 = as Kg1 would lose to .....Bd7! followed by .....Re1!

28.Nb2!

White's mistake 27.....Qd7? allowed this Knight to enter the game and Black resigned on the 44th move.

Rest of the game is irrelevant to the chosen topic.

Position: 8

Ni Hua - Magnus Carlsen, London - 2009

15.....f6!!

This move, defies the conventions as it exposes the uncastled King! But, the move also underlines the lack of space for White pieces to manoeuvre! The Knight on c3 sits pretty, but lacks mobility and therefore is not useful to conduct an attack. Now, this move restricts the scope of White's dark squared Bishop.

16.Qg6 Ke7! 

A Steinitzian move! You cannot define Carlsen's chess under a particular tradition, though I would prefer to group him amongst Morphy for clarity, Steinitz for unorthodoxy, Capablanca for simplicity, Fischer in his ability to play error free in simple positions and Karpov for extracting ounce by ounce!

Rest of the game does not fall under the purview of this article!

.....and finally...

Position: 7

Magnus Carlsen - Viswanathan Anand, WC, Sochi - 2014

Whatever may be said, analysed, written about this position ..... and this move 26.Kf3..... and its followup

27.Ke4!!?

.....for me, such moves, concepts define the aspect of Struggle in Chess! You may find something significant in the postmortem of the position, but that has no relevance to the Actual Struggle that takes place over the board during the heat of the moment!

In conclusion, I quote Leonard Mlodinow, who wrote (in his fantastic book: "Subliminal - How your unconscious mind rules your behaviour"): "We are not like computers that crunch data in a relatively straightforward manner and calculate results. Instead, our brains are made up of a collection of many modules that work in parallel, with complex interations, most of which operate outside of our consciousness! As a consequence, the real reasons behind our judgments, feelings and behaviour can surprise us."

.... and it has surprised Chess players at all times and will keep surprising now and always and that defines "Chess Struggle in Practice"!

I Remain