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     Volume 4 Issue 68 | October 21, 2005 |


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Time Out

Triumph of rationality
Intelligence, it's generally believed, plays the most important role in the success of a chess player. There may be truth in it, but what is certainly true is that chess players are somewhat different from average humans. Chess is one game where the player is the sole arbiter of his destiny; there is none that you can blame for your failure.

Life is unpredictable. You never know what will happen ultimately. But chess is different. The player can keep everything under control through making right moves, even when he is in dire time trouble. In time trouble you may have to calculate several moves very accurately. In other words, a lot of work has to be done in a little time. That's unlike the situation that we at times face in real life--we have a lot of time but very little work to do. If you want to have absolute control over what you are doing, play chess!

I don't quite remember who said that chess would never betray you. You can play chess all your life, and still enjoy it. Of course, there are some players who enjoy it as long as they win prizes in tournaments (too materialistic!), but the majority of players love the game so much that they can't quit it even when there is no financial return.

In fact, there are some players in our chess arena who could have built brilliant careers in other fields. But they decided to hang on to the game for very little, or almost no return. Unfortunately, a brilliant student may not always be an equally good chess player. The chess fanatics must have been influenced by Dutch Grandmaster Hans Ree's observation, "Chess is beautiful enough to waste your life for." And thousands of people have actually done it! But then we don't know what they really got out of the game.

A well wisher will always advise you not to get too enmeshed in the game. But if you enjoy it, why not spend a few hours every day on it?

The following game is a simple one, but once White gets the initiative Black's position collapses rather quickly.

White-E Canal
Black-Max Euwc (C49)
Venice 1948
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Bb4 5.00 00 6.d3 d6 7.Ne2 Bg4 8.c3 Bc5 9.Ng3 Nh5 10.Nf5 Bb6 11.d4 exd4 12.cxd4 d5 13.h3 Bxf5 14.exf5 Nf6 15.Bxc6 bxc6 16.Be3 Ne4 17.Rc1 Re8 18.g4 Qf6 19.Qa4 Qe7 20.Rfe1 Rad8 21.Rxc6 Rd6 22.Rxd6 Nxd6 23.Qc6 Rb8 24.Qxd5 Qd7 25.Bf4 h6 26.Ne5 Qa4 27.Nc6 Rf8 28.f6 Re8 29.Re7 10


Position after 21.Rxc6!

-PATZER

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