Posts Tagged ‘USA chess’
Why Do You/We Play Chess?.- The Big Question.
U.S.A. GM William Lombardy (1937, -)
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Most of us arrived to Chess because our fathers,mothers, or other relatives -even a friend- taught us the moves of the pieces. I suppose we were attracted by the shape of the pieces and their arcane movement in search of mate. Many would give up soon.Others woud play ocassionally, perhaps unable to understand the essence of the game, unable to devote time to study because they found other things to do/other hobbies, etc. But what happened to the portion who decided to devote their lives to the royal game?. Undoubtedly, some of them will have managed even to be professional players. Others remained as amateurs playing in OTB events when they were able to. A part of us, began to play CC.
Some people tend to look for explanations (scientifical, philosophical,psychological,…) questioning what they do. This is not bad (though other people flatly reject this approach to life and avoid any type of self-questioning: both sides are right ,but none of them should try to impose their ideas on the other side. I respect those who never ask for motivations, and so on. But I belong to the group of those who need answers to self-imposed questions).
So, from time time I ponder about that question.
There would be many answers and as many nuances in the answer as chessplayers. Let’s try some possibilities:
– I play because I enjoy myself doing it.
– I play for the intellectual challenge Chess is. Moreover Chess is not a game of chance so everything depends on you.
-I play because of my sporting spririt: you can win in a game with no luck (again) involved.
– I play because I consider Chess as an art in the same way that others paint or compose music.
-I play because I am a fighter and Chess is the perfect game to fight.
-I play because the fight is exciting, you can play in tournaments with professionals even if you are an amateur and you may try to get a title.
-I play because Chess is excellent to try to achieve perfection (what sort of it it is up to oneself)
-I play because Chess has become a sort of philosophy of life (in the same way other people practice yoga,for instance).
-I play because I see Chess as a sort of mystic game and it attracts me a lot.
-I play Chess because I love its richness: all those tactical motiffs, the strategical depth, wonderful sacrifices, artistical endgames, the lives of all the leading chessplayers and World Champions, the history of the game, and so on.
-I play Chess because I was taught the moves, liked it, devoted my life to it and I want to try to win every opponent I meet to show my superiority. Chess is a game of war ,I am a fighter and the challenge to beat my opponents is wonderful. (O.K.: you can also lose…).
-I play Chess because ___________________________________________________________________________
(you can add your own ideas).
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Sometimes I reach a point where I prefer not to reach any answer. I myself play Chess because of some of the possibilities mentioned above and sometimes I cannot understand why they really explain it, falling in a sort of self-contradiction.
Sometimes I think when you win you do not learn anything (because many people believe you can only learn from your defeats), and when I lose it is so painful that it only really shows your own stupidity: as Tartakower said, “errors are always there for the player to make them”. In the same train of thought, “good moves ,instead of the stupid mistake I may make, are also there for me to play”…
We all play Chess no matter our degree of dexterity. In my humble opinion, the key is playing, playing and playing (OTB or CC, it doesn’t matter). Some of my CC colleagues -with the IM title- have told me the secret to improve is what I have just said: you have to play and play. You may say you do it but do not improve. Well, “playing and playing” does not mean what it seems. It implies to prepare your games carefully, selecting the openings you are going to play and studying them, even broading your repertoire and, why not, test new openings accepting the risks. It also means to find the mistakes in your own games -at least, knowing why you lose and trying to avoid the same mistake in future games-. It also means studying GM games, trying to understand the characteristics in your approach to Chess, and so on.
You can take a GM game , play the opening and then try to understand the following positions before playing the moves.You play the first ten or so moves, stop to grasp the position in front of you, try to find the move you would play and then check it against the move actually played, trying to understand it. When you do not inderstand something, try to find a tactical justification and continue with the game.It is a rewarding task.
Some years ago I was writing an article for a Chess bulletin. In it, I was analysing Karpov´s approach to Chess. When I was playing through one of the games I had to stop because I was unable to understand some ideas. Clearly there had to be a tactical explanation and I tried to find it. This may seem a stupid detail, but I remember it was very important to me because I had managed to understand what was going on in the game by myself (the game had no annotations, I had no computer/program and was working like in the good old days: with the game and the board… (The game in question was Karpov-Quinteros, Linares 1981 .The opening moves were: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nf3 cd4 4. Nd4: e6 5. g3 d5 6. Bg2 e5 7. Nf3 d4 8. 0-0 Nc6 9. e3 Bg4 10. h3 Bf3: 11. Bf3: Be7 (Here , at first, I did not understand why Black refrained from playing 11… e4 /to nail down the position with 12… d3/)
The following game is a magnificent struggle:
W.: L. Polugaevsky (1)
B.: L. Psajis (0)
Moscow 1983
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 0-0 5. a3 Bc3: 6. Qc3: b6 7. Nf3 Bb7 8. e3 d6 9. b3 d6 10. Bb2 Ne4 11. Qc2 f5 12. Bd3 Nbd7 13. 0-0 Rf6 14. c5 bc5 15. dc5 Nec5: 16. Bf6: Qf6: (Threatening …Nd3 and …Ba6) 17. Be2 Be4 18. Qd1 Bf3: 19. Bf3: Rb8 20. Bc6! Qb2 21. Bd7: Nd7: 22. b4! ab4 23. Qa4 Nc5 24. Qc6 ba3 25. Qc7: Rd8 26. Qd6: Nb3 27. Qe6: Kh8 28. Rab1 Qb1: 29. Rb1: a2 30. Qb3: a1Q 31. g4! Qe5 32. f4 Qd6 33. gf5 Rf8 34. Rd1 Qc5 35. Rd5 Qc1 36. K2 h6 37. Qd3 Qb2 38. Kg3 Qc1 39. e4 Kh7 40. e5 Qg1 41. Kh3 and Black resigned.
W.: V. Korchnoi (0)
B.: W. Lombardy (1)
Lone Pine (USA), 1979
1. c4 f5 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. f3 d6 5. e4 Bg7 6. e5 de5 7. de5 Qd1: 8. Kd1: Nh5 9. f4 Be6 10. Nf3 Nc6 11. Kc2 0-0-0 12. Be3 h6 13. a3 g5 14. g3 Bf7 15. Be2 e6 16. b4 gf4 17. gf4 Bf8 18. Rhg1 Be7 19. c5 a6 20. Bc4 Rhg8 21. Ne2 Rg4 22. h3 Rg1: 23. Rg1: Rg8 24. Rg8: Bg8: 25 . Nfd4 Nd8 26. c6 b5 27. Bd3 Bf7 28. Nf5: ef5 29. Bf5: Ne6 30. Bg4 Ng7 31. f5 h5 32. fe6 Bg6 33. Kc3 hg4 34. hg4 Ne6 35. Nf4 Nf4: 36. Bf4 Be4 37. Kd4 Bc6: 38. e6 Bf3 39. g5 Bg4 40. Kd5 Bh5 41. Ke4 Bg6 42. Kd5 Kb7 43. Ke5 c5 44. bc5 Kc6 45. Bd2 Bh7 46. Be3 Bd8 47. Bd2 Bg6 48. Be3 a5 49. Bd2 Kc5: 50. e7 Be7: 51. Ke6 Bd6 52. Ba5: Kc6 53. Kf6 Be4 54. g6 Ba3: 55. Kf7 b4 / and Korchnoi resigned.
Questchess.