Yes, I know… this post is a little “out of the ordinary” even for me. I love playing chess though, so I’m excusing myself from any finger pointing for quite the geekiest post I have probably ever written on this blog.
The second game of the Chess World Championships is under way in Elista, Russia. It’s a little strange in that this is a “Unification” match. In the early 1990s Gary Kasparov split away from FIDE, the governing body of world Chess to form the “Professional Chessplayers Association”.
The players taking part are Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov. Both are perhaps surprising in that they look normal. As much as I like playing chess, I have to admit that some people who play the game… how do I put this… don’t get out much.
I once went to a Chess Club. Yes. I’ll admit it. I only went the once though. While perhaps 50% of the people there were the kind you might meet walking down the street and not take a second glance at, the rest were the kind of people you never see in daylight. Their palid skin and absence of social skills reflected that lifestyle choice too. I’m not blaming them - no doubt they would have crushed me over the chessboard, but this relates back to a conversation I had with somebody recently.
For me, chess is a game. I play it to “play the game” - not necessarily to win. I have friends who also play, and they sometimes surprise me with their drive - their determination - and the dissappointment they display if they do badly at something.
I was brought up believing that the fun is in the playing of a game - not just the winning, and that losing can teach you volumes about yourself and others if you choose to let it. There is a famous quote, isn’t there - that you cannot claim a great victory until you have experienced a great loss.
Right - back to the ongoing match (which is happening on a laptop screen via live relay from Russia on the desk to my left - isn’t the internet great).
In the first game, Topalov threw the kitchen sink at Kramnik and almost had him, but made a small mistake near the end of the game and lost. (Somewhat) interestingly, Kramnik is regarded as the more boring player of the two - he will take a draw even if the other player sneezes and it sounds like “draw” - whereas Topalov is the risk taker. That pattern is repeating in game 2, they are currently at move 20, and Topalov has thrown a figurative spanner across the chess board at Kramnik to see if he can catch it. Kramnik has had his head in his hands for 20 minutes now. The spanner must have hurt.
If anybody else is interested in watching the games on the internet - or reading about the match, there are a variety of places you can do it…
Chessbase (there is a link to the live moves)
FICS (you will need software though)
Official FIDE Site
So there you go… the World Chess Championship is under way once more. The names of the holders are all historically famous - Kasparov, Karpov, Spassky, Fischer, Steinitz, Botvinnik, Lasker. What chess really needs is another lunatic like Bobby Fischer to come along…