WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN

‘For some chess is a hobby picked up along the way, while for others it’s a cathedral of truth and beauty. There’s a score of interlocking reasons that people stick to the game. The attractions often relate to the dramas that each game promises, the competitive challenge from pitting one’s skills against another’s, the intricate complexity that comes with any chess position, the rewarding intellectual conversation that takes place between two minds during a game, how focused concentration can take a person into a domain of pure thought removed from the hassles of everyday life, the way chess enables people to know the mind better, the thrill of accomplishing something creative at the board, and the way in which truth and beauty-and perhaps a measure of wisdom-can be found in chess. It’s a swirl of deeply felt intensities that cut through the lives of chess players.’ (‘Counterplay’-An Anthropologist at the Chessboard by Robert Desjarlais)