Chess. Where to start, if not here? With this game much older than most Nations, and still very much alive! True symbol of abstract strategy games, for two to play; mind against mind; without any external factors whatsoever; without any possibility of escape and with an aura of complexity only within reach for a few. That may be somewhat intimidating.
"In chess you can't fool yourself or fool the other: your moves indicate your strength", said Dana Reizniece-Ozola, Chessplayer, Grand Master and, also, current Minister of Finance of Latvia. But the force is something that you learn, train and feel! The force is strong in this one.
It is not difficult to start: the rules are simpler than those of many other games. Try Advanced Squad Leader! The goal is clear: to capture the opponent's King. The terrain of game is small, eight by eight, so you can't wander around. The armies are in symmetrical positions. And with half of the squares occupied from the outset, the confrontation is almost immediate. Six different pieces: Kings and Queens, Bishops, Knights, Rooks and Pawns. Each with moving in different ways and with some specific characteristics: the pawns who walk slowly but without ever retreat, the jumping horses, the bishops making diagonal moves, the rooks moving in straight lights, the Queen’s going straight or diagonally, as Kings do, but in a much slower way and in need of protection.
One must start with the basics, meaning in chess to start at the very end, and take pleasure in the discovery. Learn how to capture the King with different pieces and combinations of pieces. Attack, defense, strengths, weaknesses. Harmonies. And from those foundations you only have to continue developing your understanding of the game.
To me, it is an over four decades long companion. The friendly games. The practice with friends. The first books and how the masters play becomes into game theory. The encoding of games. The problems to solve. The exercise of memory that gives you speed. A journey through Europe and the World with the Scotch Game, the Spanish, English or Italian openings, French or Sicilian defenses, the Indian Games. The names of the masters and champions. Time management. The competition.
64 houses, light and dark. Land on which Kings and Queens, Bishops and Pawns, Knights and Rooks are on the move. For minutes or hours, which can be short or long. Two players, apparently still. Except for their eyes, darting all across the board, running through imagination, devising futures, plausible, probable, inevitable. The opponent disappears. Becomes invisible. Leaving only the army. He's the opponent. Calculations. Unfathomable to many. But which are just a tiny part. There are themes and motifs feeding the score. Development. Speed. Initiative. Pawn structure. Open, half-open or closed columns. The Bishop pair. Good and bad bishops. Sacrifices. Speculation. Pressure. Load and overload. Detour. Diversion. Theory. Practice. Knowledge. Confidence. Surprise. Fear. And beauty, when it all comes together: the strategic principles, the tactical motifs, the blow that disrupts the balance, the variants under control. Victory. Defeat. More than a game.
Much more than a game. Raised even to symbol of supremacy, during cold war. As in the 1972 match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, two players, two people only, but with two opposed worlds behind their backs. United States of America and the Soviet Union. Or in matches between Karpov and Korchnoi, the soviet dissident, in 1978. And, just later on, with the coming of Kasparov, the third "K" on this trilogy, once again the rebel against the system, represented yet again by Anatoly Karpov. Stories within History, with some incredible episodes, featuring parapsychologists, yoghurts delivering messages, and all the fuss about chairs or the audience layout, as well as other behind-the-scenes acts.
2018. November. Day 9. London. The College. A new world title fight begins, between the first two players of the ranking: Magnus Carlsen, of Norway, defending champion, and Fabio Caruana, of the United States. A match scheduled for 12 games. A dozen battles. In black and white. Yesterday, Carlsen was the black, and Caruana the white. A game that had 115 moves, and took 7 hours. Much more than a marathon or five sets of tennis at the highest level. And it all ended in a deadlock. The Kings clinging to their pawns, the rooks blocking other possibilities. Carlsen’s extra pawn couldn't make a difference. A tie was agreed upon. And this was the final position, seen from the side of Caruana, the White. Today there is more to come!
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