My Chess Blog

"I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing that to have answers which might be wrong"  - Richard Feynman Carlsen is ok with anything, or so it looks like.....whether dealing with hundred pieces or one piece..... The point is, he has a unique way to converse with his pieces and make them obey his command. Fortunately for him, his opponents too obey his command on most occasions and hence he prevails more often than not. Chess is a very difficult game to understand.....even for the greatest masters. All that they succeed in doing is to cope up with this predicament and they manage to keep their nose up in the water.....as long as it is possible. Tal said, " I began to succeed in decisive games (all game are decisive), perhaps when I realised a very simple truth: not only was I worried, but also my opponent . " There was a great poet in Tamil called Kannadasan ( கண்ணதாசன் ) who ...

"Consciousness is a multi-dimensional affair" - Arthur Koestler   A game of chess is a constant struggle between the apparent and the hidden. There is always something which falls under the visible range, as the game progresses..... move by move.... .....and there is always something hidden! And Chess owes a great deal to this hidden aspect..... for its existence.... There are two types of "mistakes" that happen in a Chess game: overestimation and underestimation not only about the position but of the possibilities too - both one's own and opponents. Rojahn, Ernst  -  Czerniak, Moshe; Olympiad, 1939 White is enjoying a considerable advantage due to unduly risky handling of opening by Black......who incidentally is also a very good player who even held the great Cuban in the same Olympiad! As Alekhine noted in his book "107 great chess battles", 12.c3! followed by Be4 would have consolidated the advantage for White. Rojahn...

....no he is definitely not haughty ....he literally meant what he said! If you take cognisance of what others say.....then you will never become what you can become. After all, that is the definition of being at the top....staying at the top - no place for the other and others viewpoints! It is said that Groucho Marx will say boldly and quickly, what the rest of us might think but are too timid to say !  He once wrote to the President of a Hollywood club....." Please accept my resignation. I don't care to belong to any club that will have me as a member" . What Carlsen said quickly and boldly is what everybody....even a ELO 2000.... would " like to say " when someone says something contrary to what they think! American writer Simone Elkeles wrote...." Opinions are like assholes (no it is not a bad word), everybody has one ...." ......so has Kasparov and Kramnik and million others who voiced in private.....all of us have one. Meanw...

"What lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do" - Aristotle  ......Not much to write about the second game. .....yet it was not a boring draw ........as it happened in the past ...... It had certain moments of interests .......      .......and....hence I shall deal with the REST DAY! Is this a state of rest......? NO! Both the army is in readiness.....erect and ready for action.....a calmness which conceals huge rumble ....beneath....!.....State of inertia.....but..... Possibly the most complex position!! ".....a longing for the articulated and immeasurable, for eternity....To rest in the arms of perfection .....a desire of any man intent upon creating excellence; and is not nothingness a form of perfection?" Thomas Mann asks this question through the mind voice of Aschenbach  - his protagonist in Death in Venice! Let us deal a bit with .....rest....beingness......nothingness..... .....but to understand this...

"The problem is that, on the board, one sees only the outward aspects of the position - the placing of the pieces - and the interconnections between them are concealed from view...."  - David Bronstein It was pleasing to see a fight on the board......after long! .....and possibly most of it happened on the board....! Caruana - Carlsen, WC 2018: Game 1 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bc6 dc6 5.d3 Bg7 6.h3 Nf6 7.Nc3 Nd7 A slight deviation from what he did in Tata Steel 2015 against the same opponent, to avoid what could have happened....then!  Carlsen played  7.....b6  (instead of ......Nd7), then and the game continued....  8.Be3 e5  9.OO .....the last two moves reflects true chess perception in over-the-board-play....whomsoever you may be.... Magnus or his challenger or......perhaps.... even god ! Both the players had overlooked the possibility of..... 9.Ne5! Ne4 10.Qf3!   .....perhaps, they may have seen it....

" He would never give up, even if the victory seemed impossible " - James Allen on Michael Schumacher The above quote fits Magnus Carlsen ....every bit. And if Fabio Caruana lives up to that..... we are in for a great match! " The very top, like the summit of Everest is weird territory, impossible to understand unless you have actually been there ..." said John McEnroe on becoming No.1 in World ranking! YES! ......it is a weird territory .......because the one who reaches the top...is alone! There is no place for anybody other than the No.1 person, on top! That requires some getting.....prerequisites certain qualities..... Greg Norman , the great golfer said, " I tend to believe that I'm right until proven wrong....and I had learnt early about DIN and DIP.....'do-it-now' and 'do-it-proper...no matter what the task on hand was !" What does he mean? .....and what it means to us in Chess!? Well, before getting to that.....