MARK RUBERY CHESS
The following are some views on the ‘Royal game’ from two of the more colourful characters on the chess scene.
It is often supposed that, apart from their “extraordinary powers of memory”, expert players have phenomenal powers of calculation. The beginner believes that experts can calculate dozens of moves ahead and he will lose to them only because he cannot calculate ahead so far. Yet this is utter nonsense. From my own experience I can say that grandmasters do not do an inordinate amount of calculating. Tests (notably de Groot’s experiments) support me in this claim. If anything, grandmasters often consider fewer alternatives. They tend not to look at as many possible moves as weaker players do. And so, perversely, chess skill often seems to reflect the ability to avoid calculations. It is, in truth, not clear that chess is a game of calculation. Of course there are times when intense calculation is called for, and often the master is better at dealing with these situations than the amateur. No wonder, he has had more practice than the amateur, but all the same his innate calculating ability need not be any greater. Most of the time it is something quite different that is required in chess, something more akin to “understanding” or “insight”. – David Norwood (English GM)
It’s a rare GM who, after his magnificent victory, will come out and say, “Yeah, it was a nice game, but I really didn’t have a clue what was going on there for a while. I just made what I thought was the best move at the moment, I’m glad it worked out.” I know for sure that every chess player in the world, GM and patzer both, have thought during a game, “Hmm, I hope I’m winning here.” – Mig Greengard
WHITE TO PLAY AND DRAW
In 1925 Jose Juncosa of Saragossa in Spain (a place immortalised through the opening 1 c3) announced he was going to attempt to play 32 people simultaneously, blindfold. Only three of the invited players arrived at the display. This did not prevent Juncosa from claiming the record: ‘Won 29 (by default), drew one, lost two.