Foden scores hat-trick as City keep pressure on Liverpool

MIKHAIL TAL was helpless. The 8th world chess champion, who had earned a reputation for being one of the most attacking players ever to sit on a chess board, was unable to figure out an escape plan. There seemed to be no spell the man nicknamed the Magician of Riga could perform and make his problem vanish in thin air. There was a hippo drowning in a swamp, but the Soviet chess legend was out of ideas to rescue the hapless animal.

Fortunately, the distressed animal was only a figment of Tal’s imagination. Unfortunately, the entirely made-up hippo was occupying valuable real estate in Tal’s mind while he was in the middle of a classical chess game against GM Vasiukov during the USSR Chess Championship.

“My son must have been three years old at the time. And he enjoyed me reading out bits from Korney Chukovsky’s (Russian children's poet)books.iwasplayinginsometournament, and for no reason, I thought of the following words from Chukovsky’s works: ‘Oh, what a difficult job it was, to drag the hippopotamus out of the marsh.’ I was carefully looking at the chess board. But all I could picture was the hippo, stuck in the marsh,” Tal recollected in the 2006 documentary called Queen Sacrifice many years later.

Like his fictitious hippo, Tal’s horse was in trouble on the chess board. So Tal hunkered down, evaluating his options to save, not the distressed knight, but the hippo. At some point, he considered and then rejected the idea of using jacks, levers, a rope ladder. Even a helicopter was conjured at one point.

“Although spectators were convinced that I was continuing to study the position, I was trying to work out: just how would you drag a hippopotamus out of the marsh? After a lengthy consideration I admitted defeat as an engineer, and thought spitefully to myself: ‘Well, just let it drown!’ Suddenly the hippopotamus disappeared. Immediately, the position on the chess board got uncomplicated. I realized that the knight sacrifice was necessary. The following day, it was with pleasure that I read in the newspaper how Mikhail Tal, after carefully thinking over the position for 40 minutes, made an accurately calculated piece sacrifice.”

At the ongoing Candidates chess tournament, no matter how high the stakes, players will allow the occasional butterfly of whimsical distraction to fly into the dungeon of their minds.

Not just Tal, many grandmasters have allowed their minds to take a stroll in the middle of a classical game, because it is simply impossible to concentrate on a chess game for five or six straight hours. Some games can stretch even longer: for example, game 6 of the 2021 world chess championship battle between Magnus Carslen and Ian Nepomniachtchi lasted for seven hours and 47 minutes.

Current world no 19 Maxime Vachierlagrave had told The Indian Express last year at the Tata Steel Kolkata event that he sometimes catches himself in the middle of long games chuckling at jokes his friends have said the day before.

Another elite-level grandmaster, Russia’s Alexander Grischuk, had told The Indian Express:“therehavebeensomestrangethings happeninginmymindduringgames.icannot rememberanythingasinterestingastal’shippos. But of course you have random thoughts during classical games. You sing some songs inyourhead.ifyou’replayingblitz,it’spossible to focus on just the game. But it’s impossible to push these thoughts away from the mind in classical games. You cannot be in a state of total concentration for six hours. It’s not even beneficial.”

“Whenever somebody tells me, ‘I don’t know how you concentrate for seven hours,’

I understand that they don’t know how we play chess. Or that they haven’t played chess themselves because we do not concentrate for seven hours. Very few people do it. I would think even the brain simply goes on strike periodically and then comes back. I think that’s how it works,” chess legend Viswanathan Anand had said on the Conversations with Tyler podcast.

When the host Tyler Cowen asked Anand what he thought of at such distracted moments, the five-time world champion said: “During a match, even in very critical moments, I’ll be thinking what I can have for dinner. What I should have done yesterday. ‘Oh, I met that jerk yesterday.’ This kind of stuff. Your brain wanders off. It’s almost like taking your foot off the gas. Your brain wants to wander off for a while. You let it, and then you come back. Or you keep one part focused on what’s happening, but while your opponent is thinking you can wander off.”

Grzegorz Gajewski, who is the trainer of 17-year-old Gukesh, had recounted a funny incident of the teenaged player during an interview with The Indian Express last year.

At the Tata Steel Chess Masters event in Wijk Aan Zee last year, Gukesh was constantly finding himself in time trouble. He even lost a game to Wesley So, despite holding the edge at one stage because his time management forced him to make errors at the end.

“Just before he was going to face Magnus Carlsen, I came up with a unique solution for his time management issues: I offered to do

Illustration: Suvajit Dey

10 push ups for every minute he saved on the clock. I told him he had to have a certain amount of time on the clock (in the game against Carlsen) after move 30 or something. If he wasn't able to do that, he would do 10 push ups,” Gajewski had recounted.

“His time management with Carlsen was perfect! It felt like he was literally trying to punish me! He even told me later that at some point during the game he started counting push-ups I would have to do. He drew the game very comfortably.”

So the next time you watch chess players staring at the board with rock-hard concentration, it might just be them entertaining the thought of punishing their coaches. Or figuring out their dinner plans. Or just wondering how to save fictitious fauna.

PHIL FODEN scored a stunning hat-track as Manchester City crushed Aston Villa 4-1 on Wednesday to keep their hopes of retaining the Premier League title very much alive.

Arsenal climbed above Liverpool to claim top spot on 68 points with a 2-0 victory over Luton Town and City are third, level on 67 points with Liverpool who can move back to the summit with a home win over Sheffield United on Thursday.

"Obviously, I'm just loving my football at the moment," Foden told TNT Sports. "I'm just playing with a smile on my face and trying to help the team because I know I'm capable of scoring goals. And I think today I showed that. So I'm delighted."

City's victory was their first over a topfive team in the league this season.

"Something we've been struggling with this season to face the teams at the top - beating Aston Villa 4-1 is not easy but we did it," Rodri told TNT Sports.

"We're there, we knew we had to do our homework. We did it and now we focus on the next game."

City monopolised possession from kickoff and took the lead in the 11th minute when Rodri poked in Jeremy Doku's cross.

Villa silenced the home crowd, however, when 20-year-old Jhon Duran slotted into the far corner after a neat one-two with Morgan Rogers in the 20th minute.

With City's league-leading scorer Erling Haaland an unused substitute, however, Foden went to work, finding a gap in Villa's wall with a superb free kick just before halftime.

Rodri dribbled through Villa's defence before laying the ball off for Foden to claim his second in the 62nd minute and the 23-yearold completed his hat-trick with a rocket into the top corner from 25 yards.

"This player has grown every single year I've been here," Rodri said. "He can score wherever. I'm so happy for him."

It was Foden's 21st goal this season for City across all competitions and the England international left the field to a standing ovation when he was substituted.

Unai Emery's team remained fourth in the table on 59 points and still in contention for a Champions League place, although they have played one more game than fifthplaced Tottenham Hotspur who are on 57.

Villa beat City 1-0 at Villa Park on in December, but have not won at the Etihad since 2007 and the score could have been more lop-sided as City had 67.4% possession and 11 shots on target to the visitors' three.

"We competed well until the first goal," Emery said.