My Chess Blog

The woods are lovely, dark and deep! But I have promises to keep And miles to go before I sleep  And miles to go before I sleep                                                                                                      - Robert Frost Magnus Carlsen - Nils Grandelius; Norway - 2016 1.e4 c5; 2.Nf3 Nf6!? Dusted out from history.....or is it!? Hypermodern - as they used to call this approach.....attacking the center with a piece as opposed to using the pawns; and provoking the adversary pawns to 'over-advance' his central pawn! ......by the way, does it not obey the classical precepts.... Knights out before the Bishops!? 3.e5 Nd5  Nimzowitsch, the founder of this defensive setup....whose name it...

"I am the interval between what I am and What I am not...." - Fernando Pessoa In order to understand a game of Chess.....even Tennis, Golf, Snooker....or any such game....why even Cricket - if you consider a Batsman or Bowler in isolation.....in order to understand the choices that are being made..... ......you need to indwell in the mind of the player....or even best, talk to him on his choices.... .....even though, they may not well articulate their inner thoughts.....the wordless, shapeless, featureless abyss within...., that is the closest one can get! Everything else, the live commentary, the written commentary.....and this crap....is all approximation....guesswork..... "White's first "merely good" move. "Best" by unanimous consent is 3.N-Qb3" .....wrote David Bronstein in Zurich 1953. To the question, " Is the first move really an advantage ?" Bronstein wrote, " The opening advantage here is consider...

"No two persons ever read the same book" - Edmund Wilson ......and Friedrich Nietzsche said, " there are no facts, only interpretations " Chess players are letting manifest ideas on how they interpret their moves in consonance...correlation with opponents moves! And this interpretation is the result of how they read and understood chess, primarily!  As a book is read and understood differently by different person - why even by the same person at different times - so is chess principles understood and followed by different players and even the same player at different times! ....in short.....we evolve....keep evolving eternally! The only aspect which can put an end to this process of eternal evolution is the thought that one has 'arrived'....'understood'.....which prevents one from exploring and experimenting. Experiment and exploration are the prerequisites for rising higher in terms of perceiving something and keep progressing to the ...

"If we consider the two parties at the onset of a game, we see an exact balance of power, position, territory, and liberty of action. The first player usually threatens a destruction of this balance, while the second constantly seeks to maintain it, neither party gaining an advantage as long as it is conserved. Thus we recognise the 'Law of Equality, or of drawn game. All legitimate play, how long a game may be extended, or however varied, must end in a draw." - William Cluley Came across this quote and his book recently..... William Cluley lived in 1800's and wrote the book " The Philosophy of Chess " in 1857....the year when the rebellion began against the rule of British East India Company.... The contention here is about the ever increasing striving for finiteness in chess by the 21st Century masters....who as it is apparent....wants to equip them till 1/2 - 1/2  - assuming both sides use the same engine and powerful machine and the ability to rem...

"It is usually thought that the prerequisites of chess creativity are logic, accurate calculation of variations, and technique, the latter including theoretical knowledge. There is a fourth component, however, perhaps the most attractive, although it is often forgotten. I have in mind intuition, or, if you like, imagination. Sometimes, position occur that cannot be evaluated on the basis of such general principles as pawn weaknesses, open lines, better development, etc., for these positions are unequal in many areas and cannot be measured precisely. Similarly, a calculation of the variations cannot always be attempted. Suppose that a side has six or seven different continuations and that the opponent has five or six replies to any of them. It is not difficult to understand that even a genius cannot carry his calculations as far as the fourth move. It is then that intuition, imagination, is called into play, which brings to the art of chess its most beautiful combinations and ...

"We have, therefore, come to realise that the main actors in the game of chess are the pawns. Were it not for the pawns, there would be no game. You and I would also have not played chess: without pawns, how can there be any strategy, and creative far-reaching plans, any defensive fortifications or mobile pawn ranks for offensive aims!" - David Bronstein A day when an audacious pawn rushed to the seventh rank - where his counterpart stayed sometime back in the beginning - and stood majestically! With all my naivety, I thought.....maybe not this far......especially when my primitive database stopped at move 15 stating "Mega Database 2014: no games found"! suddenly realised how 'outdated' I am......in the sense of modern day preparations where every crap is accumulated....it is said that, these days, they let the computers indulge in homosexuality..... and we all know what it can produce.... ......and they also have this thing called as "correspo...

Take one game at a time.....don't go too far...speculate....and compare history! Just say that Vishy won his first game....and goddess Caissa wanted him to be a victor, today....for Topalov missed something very 'simple'.... .....did I say simple!? yes....it was so simple and bread and butter for Misha, who always loved his Rook and sought ways to part with two pieces.... along with a pawn or space for his Rook and whatever remaining he had....and....he risked many a times unduly! Vishy Anand - Veselin Topalov, Candidates - 2016 Twitter and FB buzzed when Vishy went for this poisoned pawn.... The general consideration that go against such grabbing is that a side risks putting his most powerful piece - The Queen - for doing a menial job of grabbing a pawn and compromising its mobility! Generally, the side which gives the pawn....loads it with sufficient hidden motifs....'poisoning it' and the chief amongst them is to spot a few points near opponent...