Counterplay: An Anthropologist at the Chessboard

Counterplay

The publisher gratefu lly acknowledges the generous support of the General Endowment Fund of the Un iversity of California Press Foundation

Counterplay An Anthropologist at the Chessboard

Robert Desjarlai s

Q3 U N I V E R SIT Y O F CA L I F O R N IA P R E S S

Berkeley

Los Angeles

London

University of California Press, one of the most distin­ guished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www .ucpress.edu. Maurice Ashley quotation from "THE FIRST BLACK CHESS GRANDMASTER," by Melissa Ewey, July

1999,

Ebony,

reproduced with the permission of Maurice

Ashley. Excerpts from THE DEFENSE by Vladimir Nabokov©

1990 by

Vintage, reproduced by permission

of the publisher and The Wylie Agency (UK) Ltd. Excerpt from THE LUNEBERG VARIATIONS by Paolo Maurensig. Translation copyright© 1997 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Reprinted by per­ mission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Excerpt from NEUROMANCER by William Gibson, copyright ©

1984 by William Gibson. Used by permission of Ace

Books, an imprint of The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Excerpt from KNIGHT'S GAMBIT by William Faulkner©

1949,

Random House, New York. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England ©

201 r by The Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Desjarlais, Robert R. Counterplay: an anthropologist at the chessboard I Robert Desjarlais. p.

em.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN

r.

978-o-520-26739-8

(cloth: alk. paper)

2.

Chess-Philosophy.

Chess players-Psychology.

3· Anthropology-Philosophy. GVI3l4·7·D47 20II 794.r-dc22

I. Title.

20!0026534

Manufactured in the United States of America

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consumer waste, recycled, de-inked fiber. FSC recycled certified and processed chlorine free. It is acid free, Ecologo certified, and manufactured by BioGas energy.

The essence of chess is thinki ng' about the essence of chess. -David Bronstein

Chess is life or death. The pieces a re a live, but what actually happens on the chessboard is about 1 percent of the game.It goes on i n the heads of the opponents, at a l most a psychic level, and that's what m a kes it so absolutely i ntense. -Maurice Ashley

.. . and everything d isappeared save the chess position itself, complex, pu ngent, cha rged with extraordinary possibil ities. -Vladimir Nabokov,

The Defense

C ontents

I.

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I

2 . Notes on a Swindle 3 · Psych - O ut

55

4 · Svesh n i kov Intrigues 5 · Son of Sorrow 6. A mbivalence 7· Cyberchess

Appendix

1.

82

I03 I26

IJZ

8 . 24/7 on the I C C Endgame

26

184

203

Note on Chess A n notation

Appendix 2. " L i fe is touch- move " Notes

225

Glossary

239

Ack nowledgments I ndex

247

24 5

217

213

CHAPTER I

Blitzkrieg Bop You know, comrade Pach m a n , I don't enjoy being a M i n i ster, I would rather play chess l ike you, or make a revolution i n Venezuela. -Che Guevara

Khan's got a bi shop a i med at my ki ngside. He's sta ring at the guts of my position , look ing for weaknesses. He wants to slice my pawns open to get at my king. I watch as his eyes scan the board . He sees how his queen c a n t a k e action . He g r a b s t h a t potent piece , sl ides it three squa res forward , swings h i s a r m t o the side o f the board, a n d hits the chess clock , stopping h i s timer and sta rting my own . It's m y move. There are two m inutes left o n m y clock. I take seconds to decide on a good response. Khan's on the attack . I 've got to get some counterplay going, some active m aneuvering to keep his i n itiative at bay. I d rop my k n ight onto a square i n the m iddle of the board. The move looks good, but I 'm not sure. I hit my clock. It's back to K h a n , his eyes trained on the board . We 're play i ng five - m i nute blitz games on a d a mp su mmer n ight a t a chess club that convenes Monday eve n i ngs on the ground floor of a Presby­ teri an church i n the crowded suburban city of Yonkers, New York. We 're tossing pins and skewers, forks and double attacks . We've been at it a good hour now, each of us w i n n i n g and losing playfu l ly cutthroat ga mes, but I 'm starting to fade. I ' m trying to hold on, but it's not easy playing K h a n . He has a sharp eye for tactics. He's i n fi n itely resou rcefu l and thinks and moves fast. I feel l i ke a middle-aged j ogger trying to keep pace with a track star. The position is fraught with possibil ity, but neither of us has the time to consider it closely. We're down to a few seconds each. A fierce tension heats the board; somethi ng's going to bre a k . Khan snares my king i n a

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deadly mating net. I try some desperado move s , sacri ficing my k n ight for two paw ns; but Khan sees th rough my tricks, and my pieces lie scattered about. No choice but to resign . I stop the clock s . " D a m n ," I say. " I thought I 'd get o u t of that." Khan smiles as he gathers up the pieces. It's late, close to midn ight. O ther club members were here earl ier tonight, play i n g rounds of a tou rna ment, but they 've all gone home. We switch colors and arrange our pieces . Khan resets the digital clock. " Ready ? " he asks. " Yeah." K h a n taps the clock. I make the fi rst move of a new game.

CO G N I T I V E J U N K I E S

I first met Khan in November 2002, at the same chess club, when he was n i netee n . Since then we've played hund reds of blitz ga mes together. When he worked at a restau rant in my tow n , he would d rop by my place during his lunch brea k . We would play for a n hour or more , raci n g pieces a round on a cloth board at my k itchen table, until he had to return to work . The games were a gleeful respite from our d a i ly labors. Once the clocks start, I find myself trying to fol low his imaginative, quick-witted play while plod­ ding th rough my more methodical move s . A bright g u y with a movie-star-ha ndsome face, F u r q a n Ta nwi r-or K h a n, as his friends know hi m-grew up in a work ing-class neighborhood in Yonkers . By his late teens he had severed ties with his parents. Without fa mily support to fa l l back on, he has gotten along in life through his re­ sourcefulness, his smarts, and his good nature. I sometimes wonder if this is reflected i n his approach to chess: he's wi ldly creative at the board ; he ta kes a lot of chances , some of which fai l ; and he plays best, by his own admission, when he's faced with a losing position. " My strength lies i n creativity," Khan once said . "I'll sa lvage someth ing, and I find that when I 'm down, I'll tend to play a lot better, for whatever reason . I think la rgely for me a survival instinct kicks in, and in a sense it becomes al most easier. You don't have the choice to create any more because you're forced to find the right moves, and if that pressure is not on you, it's much more di fficult to find the same moves." Khan enters a lot of tourna ments, where he's out for the big-money prizes. He a lso l i kes to play quick games, day or n ight. He has a n abid i n g love for t h e ga me. Chess gets a hold on some people, l i ke a virus or a drug. Just as the chemical properties of heroin d i rectly and i m medi ately a ffect the central

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nervous system, so chess can lock i nto certain pathways of the mind , and it doesn't easily let go . " Playing chess got to be a problem," w rites C h a rlie McCormick i n one of his poems, publi shed on h i s blog: Because I would play To the exclusion of everything else, I nclud ing eating and sleeping. I quickly d iscovered Chess was my one rea l add iction, That it would get i n the way Of all the other areas of my l i fe I f! let it.1

This has been going on for centuries now: A person's body, thoughts , consciousness become wrapped up i n the ideas of the game. " It hath not done with me when I have done w ith it," l a ments the anonymous author of "A Letter from a M i n ister to H i s Friend Concern ing the G a me of Chess," penned i n England i n r68o. " I t hath followed me i nto my Study, into my Pulpit; when I have been Praying, or Preach ing, I have (in my thoughts) been playing at Chess; then have I had it as were a Chess-board before my eyes; and I have been thinking how I m ight have obtai ned stratagems of my Antagonist, or make such motions to his d i sadva ntage; n ay, I have heard of one who was playing at Chess in h i s thoughts (as appear'd by his words) when he lay a dying." M a rcel D ucha mp, the French artist, was s i m i l a rly sm itten . "My atten­ tion i s so completely absorbed by chess," he w rote i n a letter in r9r9. " I play day and night, a n d noth ing interests m e more than finding the right move . . . . I l i ke pa inting less and less." Duch a mp gave up painting a lto­ gether to concentrate on chess , for he found chess to be a purer, more compel l i n g med ium for a rtistic creativity. The story goes that when he m a rried i n r927 he spent much of his honeymoon i n Nice at a chess club. One week into the marri age he stayed up late study ing chess problems. The next morn ing he awoke to find that his wife had glued the pieces to the board. They divorced weeks later. "Duchamp needed a good game of chess l i ke a baby needs a bottle," his good friend Henri- Pierre Roche w rote in r94 r . He wasn't the only one. Many comm itted chess players a re cogn itive junkies. They need thei r d a i ly fi x of tactics and strategy.

C H E S S O R DEAT H

I felt the same way a while back, the yea r Khan and I fi rst met. I am a n anthropologist b y trade-a sociocultural a nth ropologist, t o be precise. By

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tra i n i ng and incli nation, I am interested in getting a read on the soc i a l , cul­ tura l , and experiential d i mensions of people's lives around the world i n a n effort t o understand better what it m e a n s t o be huma n . M a ny even ings a n d weekends these days, however, I can be found seated before a chessboard , look ing for good moves. I 've got the fever. I returned to playing seriously i n the summer of 2002, a fter a twenty­ yea r break from competitive chess . I had played as a teenager while grow­ ing up in a residential town in western Massachusetts. Chess was one of my m a i n interests i n l i fe . "A l l I want to do, ever, is play chess," Bobby Fischer once said. 2 That idea made perfect sense to me then. I homed in on the game's strategic nua nces and competitive chal lenge s . During my h igh school years I woke up early to study the masterworks of Fischer and A natoly K a rpov, the best players of that era . I snuck a pocket chess set i nto my classes to mull over game position s . I felt at home at the board, less so a nywhere else. Chess formations patterned my thoughts . Some days, after look ing at a board all d ay, my chess-crazed mind would construe game positions-a k n ight here , a rook there-out of the arrangements of people and fu rn iture i n a room. Like other young people captivated by the game , I enterta i ned the notion of devoting my l i fe to it and becoming a professional chess player. But since I wasn't especi ally ta lented , and si nce the m i l l town s and fa rmlands of western Mass. were by no means a hotbed of chess praxis, there was l ittle logic i n doing so, and I ,pl ayed competitive chess only i n frequently in college . When I left for graduate school i n C a l i fornia i n 1985, I sold a l l of my once- cherished chess books at a used bookstore. O ver the next twenty years I played casual games with friends now and then or aga i nst a progra m on a computer. I had other priorities; chess was only a n occasion a l , fleeting diversion. I also knew that even a half­ serious fl i rtation with the game could chew up valuable time. One d ay, while perusing a bookstore in Manhattan in the mid-199os, I came across a collection of the games of G a r ry K a spa rov, then the world cha mpion and w idely rega rded as one of the greatest players of all time. The d i agrams of the chess positions found on every page-pictures of dynamic forces i n tension, the product of richly creative ideas-h it me hard. The i ntense pleasures I had known as a teen but long ago effaced su rged through my nervous system . I thought about buying the book, to work through i n my spare time, but it was dangerous, addictive stuff. I put the three-hund red­ page n a rcotic back on its shelf. On a Saturd ay in June 2002 I found myself walking th rough the streets below Washington Square Pa rk, i n New York. I happened upon one of the

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5

chess shops on T hompson Street, where a nyone c a n play for a dol l a r an hour. I had been there once or twice before. I decided to try a few games and soon rea l i zed how much I enjoyed the act of t h i n k i n g about my next moves and responding to my opponent's ideas . Why can't I take up the

game again? I thought when leaving three hours l ater. I was i n the middle of writing a book on the death and fu neral rites of Nep a l 's Yol mo people, a n eth n i c a l ly Tibetan Budd hist society. This was my second book proj ect i n quick succession , and I was ti red of writi ng, ti red of the anthropological profession , and ti red of thinking about death all the time. A few d ays prior to my visit to M a n hattan I had pulled my car i n to a parking space by my home i n Bronx v i l l e , New York, a fter r u n n i n g some errands. A s I stepped out of the car I 'd fou nd myself t h i n k i ng, That 's a

great parking job. If I could have a death like that, as neat and fluid and comfortable as the way my car slipped into that spot, then that would be a good death. The perversity of this logic struck me, and I stood silent i n the park irig lot, c a r keys i n h a n d . Time to take a break, I thought, from the seductive aesthetics of death. Two days after playing chess in M a nhattan I d rove up north a ways to the national office of the Un ited States Chess Federation, then in New Wi ndsor, New York, and purchased a yea r 's membersh ip, a chess set, and a handfu l of books that would reintroduce me to the game. I quickly found that the game, at the highest levels, d i ffered from what it was when I was i n my teens. It was more dynamic, more aggressive , with a complex revo ­ lution of thought emergent i n its recent h i story. It was rife with energy, imbalances, precision, flush with lines of thought waiting to be glea ned. I was hooked aga i n . " S o you're making a comeback," quipped t h e d i rector of t h e fi rst tour­ n a ment I played in, when I told him that these would be my first rated games in twenty years. " Yeah, right," I replied. Sitting at the board was at fi rst l i ke dusting off old memories. Gradually I got a fi ner feel for m atters . I contin ued to pore over chess after retu rning to teaching i n September. I attended chess clubs three nights a week and competed in tou rnaments . I came home from work each day and i m mersed myself in the rich , bou nded world of chess. My bookshelves were soon l i ned with twenty, then thi rty, then fi fty books on d iverse aspects of the game. Attending professional anth ropology meetings became a chore; I wou ld find ways to sneak back to my hotel room to study Capablanca's rook endgames. Chess had become i n fi n itely more i n teresting than keeping up with the schola rly resea rch i n my field. There was much to lea r n . It was a l l so new, so exciting and intrigu ing.

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I felt as if I were sepa rating from my spouse of fi fteen yea rs, anth ropology, and reigniting a passion for my h igh school sweetheart. I had gone native. Or, to lift a term from the soci a l sciences, there was a keen shift i n the illusio that motivated my efforts i n l i fe . The concept of illusio comes from French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu . 3 A Latin word , illusio i nvolves the interest that a person holds in a particu l a r field in l i fe­ be it scholarly work or religion or footbal l-or in l i fe in genera l . It's the i nvestment people make i n the activities that give meaning to their l ives , their comm itment t o the m . Devoted cliff cli mbers , d o g show attendees, Buddhist monks, religious fundamentalists, novelists-each of these engage with their own illusio, their own " i nterests , expectation s , demands, hopes, and i nvestments."4 Bourdieu draws on the fact that the word illusio relates etymologically to the Latin word ludus, "game," i n spea king of the ways in which people a re i nvested i n a number of social games over the course of their l ives. " I l lusio," he suggests , "is the fact of being caught up i n and by the game, of believing the game is ' worth the candle,' or, more si mply, that playing i s worth the effort." To the outside observer, uni nvolved and u n i nvested i n the social ga me being played , it can appea r arbitrary and i n significant. Bourdieu makes this point i n commenting on the social airs of early n i neteenth-century Pa ris, where the members of court society were engrossed in a culture of status and propriety. " W hen you read , in S a i nt- S i mon, about the qua rrel of hats (who should bow fi rst) , i f you were not born i n a court society, i f you do not possess the habitus of a person of the court, i f the structu res of the · ga me a re not also i n your m i nd, the qua rrel w i l l seem futile and ridiculous to you ." For those caught up i n the spel l of a certa i n illusio, by contrast, the soci a l game they 're playing i s an i mportant one; it can give rich mea ning to thei r l ives-even to the point of becoming "possessed by the ga me." As Bourdieu puts it, " T he game presents itself to someone caught up in it, absorbed i n it, as a tran scendent u n iverse, i mposing its own ends and norms uncondition a l ly." That's how I thought of professional anth ropology for some twenty yea rs. But by 2002 I had become di si l lusioned w ith the academic routines and status rites that came with the profession; I was coming to see it as a shal low ga me of note-taking and hat-tipping. W hen I started to play chess aga i n that sum mer, a new i nterest took shape for me, with a force and i ntensity comparable to a rel igious conversion. Chess emerged as the m a i n illusio i n my l i fe , much as it has for countless chess buffs. I became absorbed in chess, preoccupied by it, and took it seriously-so much so that I was w i l l ing to submit to a soci a l death i n the anthropological profession .

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A N A N T H R O P O L O G Y O F PA S SI O N

Chess rem a i ned a priority for m e over t h e next few yea rs. At t h e same time, what spa rked my interest i n anthropology i n the fi rst place-a desire, chiefly, to understand what people a re up to i n their lives-led me to reflect on the person a l and social di mensions of the game. My efforts in chess came to be motivated by two chief a i m s . I wanted to learn how to play bet­ ter, so I could appreciate the game's depths and compete at a consistently high level of expertise; and I wa nted to ga i n a better sense of the rea l ities of chess i n the ea rly twenty- fi rst centu ry. I also sought an angle on why so many chess pl ayers are so passionate about the game. A few years back I attended the graduation at Sarah Lawrence College, where I 've taught since I994 · A fter the com mencement ceremonies ended, fa m i ly, friends, and facu lty were m i l l i ng about the main ca mpus lawn, congratu lating the new graduates. I ran into a former student of mine as I made my way through the crowd . He had graduated two years before but had retu rned to ca mpus to see a friend receive his diploma. " By the way, I 've kept in touch with Shahnaz since I 've left here," he said, referring to another former teacher. " She tells me that you've been spend ing a lot of time playing chess." " Yes, that's true. I 've been playing seriously for a while now." "Why?" " What's that ? "

"Why?" Ta ken a b a c k b y h i s b l u n t question, I muttered t h a t I found t h e game fa scinati ng, but my answer was vague and unconvincing. The man soon wal ked away, no doubt wondering what had become of his former teacher, who a few years before had been expounding on cultural relativism and non -Western med ical systems. The more I gave thought to the question , the more it intrigued me. Why play chess at all? Why take up a game-if game is the best word for it-that can be so exhausting, so demanding, so madden ingly frustrating? Why spend summer weekends holed up in a n a i rless hotel convention center, shoulder to shoulder with si m i l a rly single- m i nded chess enthu siasts, star­ ing for hours on end at an array of wooden pieces on a stretch of cloi:h ? W hy devote one's energies to a time-i ntensive pursuit that is l ittle valued or understood i n one's own society? How i s it that, i n a world rife with social i nequities, violence, economic upheava l , and fast-paced transforma­ tion, people a re drawn to chess-playing? The anth ropologist i n me got to thinking: W hy not conduct fieldwork at the chessboard and train an

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anth ropological lens on the cu ltures and motives of chess players ? Why not hang out with the locals and learn what they 're up to? " Pa rticipant observation" is the m a i n resea rch method that anthropolo­ gists rely on when trying to learn about a particular way of l i fe th rough ethnographic resea rch . They participate i n the everyday activities of the people whose l ives they a re attempting to understand, while making obser­ vations about thei r rhy me and reason . As a participant observer, I did whai: other chess players do: I frequented chess clubs, pl ayed i n tourna ments and inform a l ly with friends, read chess books, ana lyzed positions with the help of computer progra ms, took lesson s , developed a reperto i re of open i ngs, sacri ficed rooks and blu ndered away queens, lost sleep after tough games, and played countless blitz games with friends and on the I nternet. I pl ayed a lot of chess , but I also gave thought to what it means to focus on the game i n a serious , com mitted way. I also spoke with a nu mber of chess players, at both the a m ateur and the professional level, about their experiences of the game. My guiding idea was that by underta king such inqu i ries, I could put myself i n a position to portray the l i feworlds of some chess players accu­ rately-much the way anthropologists have attempted to understand and convey i n writing why, say, I l longot people of the Ph i l ippines used to go on head-hunting expedition s , or how globa l i zation has shaped the ethnic identities of peoples i n Per u . I ndeed , only through writing this book did I come to appreci ate anew what anth ropology can offer the modern world . Considering chess through an anthropological lens m a kes good sense. A nthropology has been a holistic discipline from its i nception i n the nine­ teenth centu ry, with anthropologists attending to the diverse and inter­ related d i mensions of human ity, from the biophysical and l i nguistic to the m ateri a l and sociocultural. I n study ing the chess-playing world, adopting such a holistic focus helped me to tease out the interconnecting forces­ soc i a l, psychologic a l , tech nologica l-woven i nto contemporary chess prac­ tice. A popu lar conception of chess i s that it's purely a mental activity, conducted in a bodiless, word less domain by solitary thinkers who grapple with each other in a space of pure thought. But the ga me-l ike all human a ffa i rs-has a lways been a product of social, cultural, politic a l , biologi­ cal, and technological a rrangements. A chess player i s not a lone, heroic actor but is, rather, caught up i n complicated webs of mea n i n g and action . Chess is an ever-sh i fting tangle of neural network s , bodies, social rela­ tion s , perception , memory, time, spectators, h istory, na �ratives, comput­ ers, databases. A combinational complexity fixes any hu man chess scene, not u n l i ke the combinational i nterplay of pieces on a chessboard. Giving thought to that complex ity, making a study of it, a n anthropology of chess

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can attend to the thickets of forms and forces i nvolved in contempora ry chess practice-and, more general ly, i n l i fe itself. It makes sense to t h i n k of chess players as participating i n distinct cul­ tures or subcultures-or, more preci sely, i n sets of i ntercon nected chess communities-for the social rea l ities of chess players are defined by cultur­ a l ly specific practices, values , la nguages, and social relations. Backwa rd pawns, wea k color complexes , seizing the i n itiative , en passant, back-rank mates, weak masters : the game i nvolves an arcane set of rules, concepts, and vocabulary that c a n prove i n accessible to the u n i n iti ated . Stuart R achels, a phi losopher and former U . S . chess cha mpion , deems this "the curse of chess"-the fact that "even a rudi menta ry understanding of chess takes time to develop, and until it i s developed , chess seems utterly dull."5 For seasoned players, i n contrast, chess i s l i ke some enchanted palace they have stumbled across, its beauty and aston ishing i ntricacy known only to a few. "It's an amazing game," one player tells me , "but most people don't understand anything about it." Whi l e that may be true, it's possible to convey the complex ities of the game to others. The conceptual stance I 've adopted in portraying the lives of chess players is not very d i fferent from the one I employed a few years back while trying to grasp the cultural logic of shamanic healing practices i n Nepa l , or the felt i m mediacies of l i fe i n a shelter in downtown Boston for people considered homeless and menta lly ill. Through a n intensive engagement with the for m s of l i fe i n question, I 've tried to understand those forms well enough to explain their makeup to others previously u n fa m i l i a r with the m . There is no single c h e s s culture, just as there a re no singu l a rly bounded "cultures" at work i n people's l ives. Any single portrait of a n actual chess player enta i l s a speci fi c time, place, and nexus of people. The temporal setting of this book i s the fi rst decade of the twenty-fi rst centu ry, an age of weekend tou rneys , fad ing neighborhood chess clubs, globa l i zed networks of chess players , and rapid i n novations i n computer and med i a tech nolo­ gies. Global i nterconnectedness has made the a l ready i ntense practice of chess even more fa st-paced, i n formation-rich, and cyborgi a n . The regional setting for this study i s pri marily the Northeast of the Un ited States, where city dwellers and suburbanites find ways to cram i n chess a round the edges of hectic , cell-phoned l ives . The people under consideration are, chiefly, a multinational m i x of a mateur, sem iprofession a l , and professional players, ranging i n age from seven years old to eighty-two, from both the Un ited States and elsewhere , whom I 've come to know th rough my engagements with the ga me. Considering that those engagements are at a decidedly a m ateur level , the rea l m of chess I write about most inti mately i s that of

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people who do not make a living from competitive chess but a re i nten sively i nvolved w ith the game. Accordingly, I do not privi lege professional chess as the most authentic and i n formed rea l m of chess experience (though pro­ fessional chess i s clea rly at a higher level of ma stery than a mateu r chess) , but regard it, rather, as one of several fields of practice i nvolved in a much broader theater of human action and i nterest. Call it a n anthropology of passion-of the ways that people a re enrap­ tured by certain endeavors and activities, and of the vectors of such fervor. O thers h ave written about the passion ate engagements of orchid enthu­ siasts and scrabble players and a m ateur boxers . I want to chronicle the passions and counterpassions of chess players . My aim is to explore the sinews of their i nterests and consider when their a rdor veers i nto addiction or obsession. I also want to probe what happens when the zeal for certa in endeavors runs dry and people grow a mbivalent about thei r i nvestment in them. Chess lays bare key exi stential themes i n the l ives of those touched by its energies. These themes a re not un ique to chess players; they underpin much of modern l i fe . What delights, struggle s , and ambivalences sway people ? How do they man age competing i nterests and passion s ? What a re the rewards and costs of obsessive focus? With passion comes purpose. M a ny competitive chess pl ayers work h a rd on their games . They study the game, sharpen their tactica l vision , analyze past battles, steel themselves for competitive grinds, and try to promote effective modes of thought while play i ng. They engage in "self­ for m i ng" activities and devise certain "technologies of the self," to use the words of French historian M ichel Foucault. 6 A s Foucault deems it, such tech nologies a l low individuals to affect "their own bodies and sou l s , thoughts , conduct, and w a y of b e i n g , so as t o tran sform themselves i n order t o atta i n a certain state o f happiness, purity, wisdom , perfection, or i m mortal ity." Chess pl ayers employ, often w ith zealous discipline , a number of tech nologies of self and subjectiv ity-some physical and soci a l , others cognitive, emotive, mnemon ic. Appropriate t o t h i s current age o f individua l i s m a n d self-fashioning, t h e s e l f becomes an abiding proj ect i n t h e d rive toward m astery. Some a l so d raw o n chess t o i mprove themselves as person s , to become wiser, more ethically refined beings i n the world . Chess offers an education as much moral as i ntel lectu a l , and that adds to their appreciation for the game. These pages bid for a phenomenologically inclined, semi-autoethno­ graph ic approach to thinking and writing about ches s , one that gives pri­ ority to the person a l and social d i mensions of people's i nvolvements with the ga me. What a re the roles of play, ritu a l , thought, feel ing, imagination ,

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memory, empathy, creativ ity, social ity, and technology in the lives of chess pl ayers ? What are the hoes of pleasure, the h istories of p a i n ? How, once the variations a re played out, might the vaga ries of chess add to our hold on what it means to be human ? This book offers a " k n ight's tour" j aunt i nto the experient i a l , soc i a l , cultura l , and technological expanses of the human play form k nown as chess.

A M A TO R Y O B S E S SIO N

So what i ncites the passions of chess players? What do they find in chess , and why do they return to it time and aga i n ? W hile spend ing t i me a mong serious chess players I 've found that, by and large , they love the game . Ta ke Joe Guadagno, a Bronx native and computer software engineer now in his ea rly fifties. I met up with Joe and several chess associates one Su nday afternoon at a weekend tourney held i n Stamford, Con necticut. We got to talking about the trials of tou rna ment chess , how grueling it can be. " You k now, I was just thinking about that when I was in there ," Joe said, gesturing towa rd the playing h a l l . '"Why a m I here ? ' I asked myself. You've got to be a masochist to want to play competitive chess." I spoke with Joe ten days later at the Northern Westchester Chess Club i n Peek s k i l l , New York . I found Joe more rested, and less masochistica l ly inclined, than when I had seen h i m last. Joe sta rted playing in his ea rly teens , right after the " Fischer boom" i n the ea rly 19 70S, using a chess set that he was given when he received his Catholic con fi rmation . No one else i n his Bronx neighborhood knew much about the game, so to play at all he had to hop on a subway head ing south to Man hatta n , where he played at the M a nhattan Chess Club. He developed other i nterests while i n college , b u t then took u p t h e game aga i n i n t h e late 1 9 9 0 s . " I love t h e ga me," he said, w ith a sl ight Bronx accent. " It's a source of endless enjoyment . . . . It's more than just a hobby, it's a passion at a number of levels . " Joe's also awa re of the game's addictive qualities. " I 've had a couple of ti mes i n the past six or seven years where I 've had to say, you know, i f you don't cut a little t i me away from chess, you're j eopard i zing a relationsh ip." The aesthetic qual ities of chess hold Joe's i nterest. " Before I finish," he said, "I want to play at least a few games that a re close enough to m i stake­ free that I can actually present them and say, ' Here's a chess game that's rea l ly worth show ing to other people.' As if it was a m i nor work of art . . . ' Here's a m i nor work of art, but a work of art nevertheless ."' " The cl iche about the beauty of chess i s , to m e , not a cl iche at a l l , " Joe added . " It's an incredibly rich game. Everything that you see w ritten about

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chess by its lovers, about how it's ga me, art, and science, is absolutely true, as fa r as I ' m concerned . I see the a rtistic element . . . . So i n that sense, the game is attractive to me i n so many ways. It's an art form, and it's a chal­ lenging pursuit. It's a whole bunch of d i fferent thi ngs ." O r take GZA, the master lyricist of the rap group Wu-Tang Clan. Born Gary Grice, GZA lea rned to play chess i n 1975, when he was growing up on Staten Island. A lthough he did not play much i n his youth , its strate­ gies now i ntox icate h i m . "I play at home, i n chess shops; I skip meals to play,'� he said in 200 8 . " I n the stud io, I ' l l sit and play for six hours in stea d of fi n ishing a song. At home, a lot of ti mes I ' m playing on Ya hoo! [on the online chess server there] . I pl ay, l i ke, thi rty games every time I go online."7 GZA and h i s cousin R Z A , another member of Wu-Ta ng C l a n , l aunched the Hip- Hop Chess Federation i n 2007, with the idea of getting more young kids to take up the ga me. " You a re l i ke a sponge when you a re you ng," GZA expl a i ned to the New York Times. " K ids a re not being sti mulated. Chess is a game of stimulation . " 8 At t h e e n d of his track "Queen's Gambit,'' GZA rhapsodizes, I be l i k i ng chess Cuz chess i s crazy, right there , that's the ultimate It's l i ke a great hobby right there, playing chess The board, the pieces , the squares, the movement You know, war, capturing, thinking, strategy Planning, music, it's hip-hop, and sports It's life , it 's rea l ity.

Most of those who take up the game a re and always w i l l be a m ateurs at it. But it's i mportant to keep i n mind that the word amateur stems from the Latin amator, "lover, one who loves." For some, chess i s a hobby picked up along the way, while for others it's a cathedral of truth and beauty. There's a score of interlock ing reasons why people stick with the game. The attrac­ tions often relate to the drama that each game promises, the competitive chal lenge in pitting one's skills aga i nst another's, the intricate complexity that comes with any chess position , the rewarding i ntel lectual conversation that takes place between two minds during a game, how focused concentra­ tion can take a person i nto a domain of pure thought removed from the hassles of everyday l i fe , the way chess enables people to know their m i nd better, the pleasures of learning and participating in the conceptual h istory of modern chess, the cam araderie to be found at chess clubs, the thrill of accomplishing something creative at the board, and the way i n which truth and beauty-and perhaps a measure of wisdom-ca n be found i n chess . It's a swirl of deeply felt i ntensities that cut through the l ives of chess players .

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AT P L AY

Play is one of those i ntensities. What are we up to, K h a n and I, while play­ ing chess? We 're playing a ga me, a serious ga me. We're i nvolved i n a certa i n cultural for m , one that c a rries a rule-bound structure a n d a particular pat­ tern of i nteraction. B ra i n s , eyes, arms, hands, fi ngers, chess pieces, board, clock, and speech a re cued i nto a "single visual and cognitive focus . "9 We've brought to the table culturally i n formed understandi ngs of what play i s , what a game is, what competition enta i l s , what it means to win or lose, and how people should relate to their play riva l s . T h e cadences o f p l a y s k i p th rough a v a s t number of situations i n every­ day l i fe. Play motifs crop up i n conversations and legal proce!:d i ngs, in presidenti a l debates and on stock market exchanges. C h i ldren learn about the world th rough pl ay. Play i s evident in moments of d rea m i n g and d ay­ dreaming and fa ntasy, i n acts of fl i rting and foreplay and erotic pl ay, in stretches of recreational d rug use. We hear the jest of play i n riddles, jokes, puns, gossip, wordplay. We find play at work i n beauty contests and white­ water rafting, i n hobbies and gambling, at parties and i n psychotherapy. Play is centra l to musical performances, theater, fi l m , and television shows. It has an i mportant role i n creative and scholarly work , i n fiction and poetry. People busy them selves with pretend play and symbolic pl ay, ritual play and sportive play. It was the ubiquity of play for m s i n human societies that led D utch h istorian Johan Huizinga to title his landmark r938 book

Homo ludens, " Playing M a n . " While we don't have to accept Huizinga's bold thesis that human civili zation itsel f i s fou nded on pl ay, his conten­ tion that play " i s a n i mportant factor i n the world's l i fe and doi ngs " i s convincing. P l a y is as b a s i c to h u m a n fu nction ing as eating or d rea m i ng. I ndeed, rather than think of play as being bound within certain situations on ly, it makes sense to conceive of it as a n elemental feature of people's l ives. " It 's wrong to t h i n k of play as the i nterruption of ord i n a ry l i fe, " says performance theorist R ichard Schechner. " C onsider i n stead playing as the underlying, a lways there , continuum of experience . . . . Ordinary l i fe is netted out of playing. " 1° Chess belongs to a la rger un iverse of play; when two people a re playing chess, they 're up to something that is funda mental to the hu m a n species. Like most other games, a chess game i s c i rcumscribed within l i mits of space and time. Chess i s played on a chessboard, a bounded domain-a "consecrated space "-and there's a clear begi n n i ng and end to a ga me. The outcome i s uncerta i n , however, and that's part of the i ntrigue of playing or watch ing a game. There has to be some degree of i n determinacy, some

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sense of opportun ity and con tingency in the activity at hand, to make it worthy of being cal led a ga me. What will happe n , who is going to w i n , and how? I n competitive chess , something is staked on t h e outcome, b e it t h e players' chances i n a tou rna ment, adj ustments i n t h e i r ratings, a sense of self, or the rega rd of others . Chess play enta i l s na rrative i ntrigue . Undertaking a chess game trips a sense of adventure, of venturing i n to surprises and una nticipated situations. T here's a measure of fa ntasy and make-believe i n games of chess; wh ile the pa rticipants a re p a l m i n g wooden figu res , they 're proceed ing on the sha red assu mption that those figu res stand for much more than their con­ crete m ateri a l ity. I n the cou rse of playing chess a dual consciousness can take for m , i n which a pa rticipa nt is at once m i n d i n g the play of the pieces i n a virtual space and conscious that people a re the operators of those piece s . At any moment either the chess rea l m or the human rea l m can take priority. Those en meshed i n a game can become consu med by it to the point of forgetting their surroundi ngs. What occurs i s a "socialized trance" akin to that found when people a re engrossed i n a conversation , playing sports , or watch ing a theatrical performance. W h i le being absorbed i n this i magi n ative sphere , pl ayers can be transported to a nother rea l m , d i stinct from everyday l i fe . This can enta i l a kind of ecstasy, that of ex-stasis, to use the ancient Greek ter m , wh ich means " to be or stand outside oneself, a remova l to elsewhere . " Nola n Kordsmeier, a friend of m i n e , says one reason he l i kes to play chess is that "the rest of the world disi ntegrates around you while you a re playing chess . . . . There's a la rger a mount of concent ratio n , noth i n g else is i mportant. It's l i ke escaping i nto a whole other world ." As Huizi nga paints it, the primordial qual ity of play lies " i n t h i s i n tensity, t h i s absorptio n , t h i s power of madden ing." 1 1 People play chess. I n l a nguages that speak of chess, from English and Russian to Spa n ish to H i n d i , one "plays chess," as one plays games in genera l . " Playing i s no 'doing' i n the ord i nary sense," says Huizi ngaY Playi n g chess often-but not always-i nvolves an attitude that can rightly be called "playfu l . " It's a n attitude of frol icsomeness , of mischievousness eve n , of hold ing the world " l ightly and creatively," of launch i n g i n to back­ and-forth movements with a nother or with the world in genera l . u Such movements a re central to the phenomenon of pl ay. As German phi losopher H a n s - G eorg G adamer puts it, The movement to-and-fro obviously belongs so essentially to the game that there is an ultimate sense in which you cannot have a game by yourself. I n order for there to be a game, there a lways has to be, not necessarily litera lly another player, but something else with which the player plays and which automatically

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responds t o h i s move with a countermove. Thus t h e c a t at play chooses the ball of wool because it responds to play, and ball games will be with us forever because the ball is freely mobile i n every d i rection , appea ring to do surprising things of its own accord .14

There's a direct back-and-forth movement between two chess players , as they swap moves hand over hand. But there's a lso a sense in which you play with the ca nvas of chess itself. You toy with the different possibilities ava ilable to you, much as a boy can spend hours fieldi ng a tennis ball as it rebounds off the side of a house, or a punster frolics i n the play of words. British poet W. H. Auden suggested that true poets a re those who like "hanging around words l isten ing to what they say."15 Avid chess players enjoy hanging out with chess pieces, minding how they interact. Tending to these i nteractions can occasion a sense of pleasure, of jouissance. "This is why I like to play chess ! " gushed one m a n while analyzing a juicy position with friends one afternoon. Chess can be played i n a mood of levity and a m iabil ity, as when friends get together to play casual games , or it can occur i n a cli mate of grave seriousness , as when two pros tussle over the world cha mpionship. I 've watched budd ies play games with mugs of beer close at hand, with l ittle care for who wins or loses. I 've seen a child th row pieces aga inst a wall after a tough loss , and I 've watched a man pound his fist aga inst a hotel door a fter losing a gam � . I 've overheard pl ayers accuse their rivals of cheat­ ing. I 've observed friendly games turn combative a fter perceived sl ights . Chess is often fa r from "playfu l . " Competitive chess is a "serious game," as anth ropologist Sherry Ortner would put it, a politica l ly cha rged a rena of social relations and cultural formations that people grapple with and l ive th rough " w ith (often i ntense) purpose and intention . " 1 6 One veteran player told me that he thought participating in tou rna ment chess made people less, rather than more , playfu l : " People take it very seriously. There's a lot at sta ke." There a re d i fferent possible modes of engagement i n the game: seriou s , studious, reflective , playfu l , soci a l , solita ry. Chess is primarily a social enterprise. While playing chess you can spend five i ntense hours with someone you h a rd ly know otherwise-and m ight never see aga i n . A sense of comity often comes with playing chess at a neighborhood club or a tournament h a l l , as you're surrounded by others who endorse what you're doing and l i kewise find it to be

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endeavor. Chess is often taken to be a lonesome, semisolitary m atter, i n which a person i s a lone w i t h his thoughts for long stretches o f t i m e . But play i ng chess i s often a deeply social a ffa i r, as opponents , friends, acquain­ tances , and potential on lookers a re often close at hand.

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Chess belongs to a l a rger soci a l game in which we're i nvested, with its social c i rcles , tou rnaments, rating systems, and status hierarch ies. Part of the game of competitive chess is to see how fa r you can climb i n that par­ ticular "sk i l l culture." 1 7 For ma ny, pa rticipating in this scene constitutes one of the m a i n purposes of their l ives , with thei r i nterest and i nvestment i n chess waxing and w a n i ng as the years pass. For some, competitive chess is the foremost focus of their days on earth. Chess Is My Life is the title of two autobiographies of world- class players . People play chess, it's true, but it could also be said that the game plays them. A s Gadamer puts it, "all playing is a being played.'' 1 8 Th at's to say, while playing chess people step i nto a specific form of activity and engage ­ ment, and the formal qual ities of the game shape how they think and act. They get caught up i n the game. A n unwritten script is at hand; chess players k now, i n general terms, what w i l l h appen through the next minutes or hours of their games: they 'll excha nge moves until someone w i n s , or the game is d rawn . While playing chess you can be c a rried a long by the formal flow of the game. Being carried a long i n that way can be comforting or enticing or con fi n i ng. Social l i fe proceeds i n much the same way. There's a ritual quality to chess, as there i s in many games and domains of pl ay. Chess games are governed by rules, they i nvolve patterned routines and standard i zed action s , they enta i l a restricted code of behavior, and they h ave a set of fixed begi n n i ngs and endings . All this speaks to the form a l , ritu a l i stic tone of many chess encounters. R ituals often promote a sense of inclusion and belongi ng. People pa rticipating in ritual acts can feel that they a re part of a community or sha red sensibi lity. Players can come to understand that they are part of a commun ity-be it a network of "chess budd ies," a nationwide clan of chess player s , or a global chess society. The rituals of chess can also convey a sense of the sacred , of otherness and transcendence. Forms of play have a lot i n common with religious rites found around the world, for both play and ritual enta i l a set structure sepa rated , spatia l ly and temporal ly, from the happeni ngs of everyday l i fe . As H u i z i nga s e e s it, " t h e a ren a , t h e card-table, t h e magic c i rcle , t h e temple, the stage , the scree n , the ten nis court, the court of j ustice, etc . , a re all in form and fu nction play-grounds, i . e . , forbidden spots, isol ated , hedged round, h a l lowed, within which special rules obta i n . A l l a re temporary worlds within the ord i n a r y world, dedicated to the performa nce of an act apart." Both play and ritual can offer a sense of transcendence to those who participate i n them. "It is possible to specu l ate ," remarks play theorist Brian Sutton -Smith, "that the primord i a l association of the two, play and

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rel igion , i s d u e t o t h e power of a lterity, of otherness, t h a t they both share. They both take thei r participa nts beyond their present c i rcumstances, one th rough prayer, med itation , song, or rapturous transport, the other through ecstatic play i n the ga me." Play pa rticipants step beyond ordinary existence . " I believe chess can bring me closer to the spiritual part of this world i n a way that si mple material stuff can't," observes I r i n a K rush, a n i nternational master from Ukraine .19 "Absolutely u n m i xed attention is prayer," claims French phi losopher S i mone Wei l . 20 The pai nstaking observances requi red of chess pl ayers can i nvolve a kind of prayer. Some scholars contend that the origi n s of chess lie i n religious rites. As it is, a chessboard physically resembles a n altar upon which sacred rites take place. A board with pieces on it remind s me of H i ndu mandalas that I 've seen in Nepal, or the altars of indigenous healers i n Peru, as each i ncludes a bounded dom a i n that conta i n s symbolic icon s . Rel igious designs l i ke these at o n c e represent a n d s u m m o n t h e forces and energies of the world. Chess does the same, or so it seems at times. While play i ng I sometimes feel I 'm tapping i nto the forces of the u n iverse and thus sensing its primal m atter and physics . " I I: ever was, and i s , and shall be, ever-living F i re," said Heraclitus, " i n measures being k i nd led and i n measures going out ." Chess touches those fires.

"QUICK N O W , H E R E , N O W "

R ight now I 've got K h a n to contend with, in another fa st-paced game. The detritus of our action s , captu red pawns and pieces, lies about the table. I 've got a decent position, someth i ng to work with. My pawns a re solid; my pieces, active . But K h a n has a way of stirring up trouble, setting fi res left and right that I have to snuff out before they burn up the board . He's got a penchant for helter- skelter positions where his i m agination can pay off. H i s energy appears endless. I 'm fi n d i ng good moves and my m i n d is crisp. We 're match ing each other threat for threat, cascad i ng through a succes­ sion of possibilities, until we reach a n endgame i n which I have the edge . K h a n resigns just before h i s clock runs out. The thri l l i ng energy of games l i ke this makes bouts of blitz chess worth the effort. Bl itz is chess at its most playfu l , especi al ly i n i n formal settings-at chess clubs , i n parks or homes, between rounds of tournaments. "I l ike playing blitz because it's fun," Khan tells me. " You can play a lot of chess , and get some games i n , and it becomes more psychologica l , with the time factors i nvolved. It makes it a lot more enterta i n i ng as opposed to a slow game." M a ny love blitz. Some steer clear of it. Bl itz is one of fou r major kinds

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of chess played these days, each defined by the time controls used. With correspondence chess, players send thei r moves by mail or e-mail i n games that can take years to complete. Classical games , the foci of most tou rna­ ment and match contests, can take fou r to six hours. I n rapid chess, each player has from twenty to sixty m i nutes. Then there's blitz chess , wherein "the slowest game i n the world becomes the fastest." 2 1 Each form carries its own tempora l ity, its own mood and flow i n time; each promotes a d i ffer­ ent mode of consciousness and social i nteraction . With blitz you can play five - m i nute or three-minute games , or, i f you 're a true speed freak, revel in one-m i nute frenzies. If your time runs out, you lose the ga me, even if you have a w i n n i ng position. The w i n s usually go to those who play both accu rately and quickly. Many games end i n frenetic flourishes of moves and flung pieces. Blitz, which means " l ightning" i n German, i s the right word for this k i nd of chess. " O u r nature lies in movement; complete calm i s death ," wrote French phi losopher Blaise Pasca l . Blitz is poetry i n perpetual motion . It's Bud Powell o n j azz piano, Charlie Bird on tenor sax. The tempo is fast and fu rious, but also blissfully melod ic. It's NHL hockey w ithout the breaks between plays. It's a pleasure when both sides are playing with precision and i m agin ation . At ti mes while pl ay­ i ng blitz I feel I ' m at one with the world, flowi ng with its flow, in synch with its bebop rhyth ms. At other times, I 've entered a plane of tense energy. Blitz is the antistructural counterpart to serious chess, its wild, D ionysian energies antic i n contrast to the more Apol lonian orders of tou rna ment chess. Psychologist Jerome Bruner cal l s play "that special form of violat­ ing fix ity." By this he means that pl ay, chiefly undertaken by the young, disrupts patterns of action that are a ltogether fi xed with i n a particular ani­ mal species. Blitz chess violates fixity: it can take its pl ayers out of the set structures of everyday life and those of more classical forms of chess. O ften a fter dallying in a stream of blitz chess I find myself to be looser and l ighter i n spi rit, less constrai ned , and more open to creative approaches to the world. R ichard Schechner says that the looseness common to many play moods-looseness in the sense of "pliabil ity, bendi ng, lability, unfocused attention "-encou rages "the discovery of new con figurations and twists of ideas and experiences."22 Blitz promotes creative looseness. Blitz chess can provoke a return to chi ldhood glee. It can inspire

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ludic tone, a playing with play, i n which the players cavort with the play form itself. " It's j ust more fun than tournament chess," G reg Shahade, an A merican international ma ster from Philadelph ia, said one day, during a stretch of years when he'd been opting for blitz chess over rated competitive games. "A l l I want to do, actual ly, is play blitz. I think if chess was a l l blitz,

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that would be my d rea m . It would completely ruin the quality of the game, but it would be fun for me." M i khail Ta l , a Latvian player who became world champion i n 1960, at the age of twenty-three, was fond of blitz. "That's enough for today," he would say at the end of a day's tra i n i ng in preparation for a match in 1967. 21 He would then signal the next activity : " B l itz, blitz." Ta l was happy to play blitz with fel low grandmasters or with a m ateurs who spotted h i m i n hotel foyers. At t h e e n d of a tourna ment i n Zurich i n 1959, he found an avid blitz pa rtner i n a kid from B rook lyn. Ta l had a l ready packed h i s bag to leave when he got a c a l l from Bobby Fischer, the fa med A merican player, then sixteen, who had also competed i n the tou rna ment and was stay ing i n another room i n the hotel. " I 'm flying to New York i n the hour," Bobby said. "But i f you agree to play some blitz I'll give up my ticket." Not everyone is up for such pleasures. When grandm aster and chess author Genna Sosonko i nterviewed Soviet grandmaster M i k h a i l Botvi n n i k i n 198 8 , he asked t h e former world champion, " D o y o u sti l l p l a y for fun sometimes ? " to which the chess patriarch, then seventy-seven years old, responded , " I h ave never played for fu n . " " I suppose that you a re n o t very keen o n blitz ? " " The last time I played blitz was i n 1929, o n a tra i n ," said Botvi n n i k . " We traveled w i t h a tea m from Leni ngrad t o Odessa t o play a champion­ ship match and we had a blitz tournament during the train journey. I came i n first."24 The ludic qualities of blitz often occasion an a m iable soci a l scene, par­ ticularly when "skittles" (casual) games crop up i n clubs or a mong friends. The games a re ma rked by friendly bantering from both players and a ny k ibitzing onlookers . The word kibitzer stems via Yiddish from Kiebitz, the German word for peewit, a bird that makes a high-pitched call that can be heard as "pee-wit," or perhaps "kee-bitz." While kibitzing is taboo during formal games, kibitzers often sound off during i n formal blitz games, bleat­ ing warn i ngs , cooing advice. " Watch out for his rook ! " The players them­ selves also d i spense com ments on their own positions. "My piece seems to be square deficient," remarks one player during the course of a game at a neighborhood club upon di scovering that one of h i s k n ights, attacked by a paw n , had no safe square to land upon . " I can't bel ieve I just did that," says another after locki ng his bishop i nto a corner. O r they riff on their opponent's action s . "That's very mea n , very mea n," wheezes a player whose position is collapsi ng. " He's turning to feathers ! " chortles a m a n , intimat i ng that h i s opponent i s ch icken ing out. " Yes. Yes . N o . N o . Yes . Now we come i n l i ke fl i nt. N o w we're coming i n l i ke fl i nt,"

2.0

I

Blitzk rieg Bop

said a man while playing blitz chess in the sk ittles room at the 2009 World Open tourna ment, held i n a hotel i n downtown Philadelphia over the Fourth of July weekend. Others voiced rambles of their own or excha nged sallies with varied a mounts of attitude as the games , hou rs, and cash bets capered on. " You're going to pay. You w i l l pay." "That don't look kosher. That does not look kosher." " Now, th at's cute . That's cute . That i s cute. That, my friend , is cute." " T h at should have been a draw." " D raw? You couldn't even d raw a picture." My favorite l i ne was heard i n the southwestern corner of Washi ngton Square i n New York C ity, where chess hustlers convene to win some cash from other hustlers or from un suspecting passersby. " You can't dance at two wedd ings," said one seasoned player as his opponent was trying to stop two of his pawns from reaching the eighth rank, where they could be promoted i nto queen s . "No, sir. You can't dance at two weddings . " Remarks by players can have a strong performative force . Provocative speech can serve as effective action on a par with good moves made on the board, add i ng to the tactical and psychological i mpact of the pl ay. T hey can prod, taunt, tilt, destabi l i ze, sweet-talk, or trash-talk an opponent. As anthropologi st Thierry Wend l i ng says of blitz talk in h i s 2002 ethnography of chess pl ayers in France, " Speech i s used l i ke a weapon, a ' verbal joust' that doubles the purely chess confrontation . . . . It's remarkable how much the players h ave a half-intu itive, half- reasoned knowledge of the power of speech . Used i n this way, w ith its psychologic a l , expressive, and performa­ tive powers, speech reinforces and doubles the efficacy of moves played on the chessboard." 25 Words and gestures often converge , with utterances sound i ng in time with the assertive placement of pieces and the pounding of chess clocks. "Thus," Wen d l i ng writes, "the gesture, the blow on the chessboard or on the clock dramatizes the expressivity of speech ; the body serves as a technique of l anguage. " Such ta l k , usually good-natured, is part of the game. My friend Nolan tends to deliver a running commentary on h i s blitz play, painting a stream­ of-consciousness canvas of a chess player's mind. " Why did you do that? Oh, I see. My rook 's attacked . So what can I do about it? . . . It's just a ga me." Players vary i n the velocity of their chess reasoning. To watch expert bl itzers is to revel i n the speed and accuracy of thei r thoughts and actions. Hikaru Nakamura, a young A merican grandmaster and one of the best blitz players i n the world , rifles out h i s moves at exceptional speeds, stu n n i ng his devastated opponents . ( " It's amazing," one youth says of Nakamura . " H i s mind works so quick. Boom-boom-boom ! " ) I find t h a t I can't keep u p with strong blitz players; I can't see as much as they do i n split- second interval s .

Bl itzk rieg Bop

I

21

Moving a t l ightn ing speed , they appear t o possess a more advanced percep­ tual consciousness . " How can they see so much, so quickly and so accu­ rately ? " I ask mysel f. One answer lies i n the fact that strong players have a vast storehouse of chess patterns from which they draw. This gives them a rich and habituated practica l feel for the game; they can size up a game position at a gla nce and hit on viable ways to proceed a fter t h i n k i ng about the situation for only a few seconds. Even so, m i stakes happen often i n blitz chess, especially i n comparison to the precise artistry of grandmaster chess. Bl itz's fast pace means that one has little time to ca lculate systemati­ c a l ly. The t h i n k i ng is quick, abrupt, and la rgely intu itive because the sec­ onds a re ticking. I magine playing a game of Scrabble i n which each side has five m inutes for the enti re contest, or consider writing a poem with a five­ m i nute dead l i n e . That gives some sense of the brea kneck t h i n k i ng i nvolved in blitz chess. You h ave to be a "spontaneous strategist," much l i ke boxers in the ring, whose tra i n i ng enables them to act and react reflexively. 26 This helps to exp l a i n why, as compared to players who rely on stra ight-out cal­ culation, so-cal led " i ntu itive players" tend to fa re wel l i n blitz and other rapid time-controlled games: thei r feel for chess positions helps them to make snap judgments. Bl itz games often enta i l a rapid succession of moves , fol lowed by quiet i nterludes when a pl ayer devotes twenty seconds to t h i n k i ng about h i s option s , and then another flurry of move s , l i ke a boxer's combin ation o f punches. To do wel l y o u h ave t o think quickly and keen ly. I f pl ayers a re d istracted while playing blitz, even at a subconscious level , they can lose their playing edge , and miss things left and right. The same goes for when they 're tired. B l itz ca rries tones of pure i m med i acy. When playing blitz you're i n the moment of that moment, with little time to think of anything else. It's a world of spontaneity and presence, of the "quick now, here , now, a lways ," to use a poet's word s . 27 Blitz games a re often ephemera l . A game i s played and fi n i shed; then the pieces a re pri med for another round. Blitz i s l i ke un recorded j a zz i n a n ightclub: you a re attend i ng to the beautiful sequences , the lush chord s , a l l t h e w h i l e knowing they 'll be l o s t t o any permanent record . One of m y field notes entries speaks t o this: " O c tober, 2 0 0 6 . A b l i t z g a m e aga inst D a l e S h a r p , at t h e Friday n ight club. A Cata l a n , where I sacri ficed m y rook to open up l i nes of attack aga i nst h i s k i ng. A complete onslaught, memorable , breathtak i ng. We swept the pieces up a few second later, to start a new game. No trace of it a fterwa rd s . Not sure i f everything was correct, or how the game would play out with exact play on both sides. A thrill and mela n -

22

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Bl itzk rieg Bop

choly to this." Usually there is no record of a blitz game, no lasting trace of it, except i n the minds of the participants-a kind of pha ntom chess. M a n h attan hosts several public places where blitz players congregate . A long with the chess shops on Thompson Street there a re severa l parks. Battery Park i s one of them , but folks say it ha sn't been the same si nce 9/n . Some players who worked in the twin towers never retu rned . The south­ western corner of Washi ngton Square Park fields a sem icircle of conc rete chess tables where homed and homeless gather. Grandmasters were known to play there regula rly i n the 1970s and 198os, but that golden age is long past; now the corner is i n habited mostly by "hustlers, drug dealers, and crazy people," as a refugee from the place puts it. Bryant Pa rk, next to the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, has a cleaner feel to it, as suits its central location. M a ny blitzers go there for their speed fixes . Money i s wagered , discreetly, i n these places: from $5 t o $ro a g a m e , b u t I 've heard some gamblers have th rown down $ ro,ooo or $2o,ooo stakes. Many park players rely on offbeat schemes that work best on short notice but a re scoffed at by tou rnament players . " He's a street pl ayer," one man says of another. " T h at stuff m ight work i n the parks, but not i n tou r n a ments." Blitz evokes strong sentiments a mong chess players. A few take delight i n blitz and consider it to be chess in its purest for m . Others a rgue that the quick pace can lead to super ficial thought and a relia nce on cheap tricks, which can be detrimental to a person's ga me. " Blitz and rapid chess involve a lot of smoke a nd m i rrors, while stand a rd chess is a quest for truth," remarks one pl ayer. The sentiment dates back at least to the eighteenth centu ry, when French chess sage A n d re Phil idor averred that "skittles a re the social glasses of chess-indu lged in too freely they lead to i nebriation , and weaken the consi stent effort necessary to build up a strong ga me." More modern language gets at similar idea s . " It 's sad to rea l ize that there a re people who think that chess is only a 5 - m inute game and miss the beauty, creativity, logic, and depth of slow games," says chess w riter Kelly Atk i n s . " B l itz is fine for those who enjoy it, and it has its place, but it's the fa st food version of our game-McChess i n my book ." 28 If you dally in too much blitz, goes the convention a l wisdom, you can slide into bad habits. You can develop a penchant for playing obvious moves quick ly, without giving serious thought to the nuances of the position . " Bl itz kills ideas," said Bobby Fi scher. A person's play can get sloppy, pedestrian. I 've seen this i n my own efforts: if I muck around too much with blitz, when I sit down at the board to play a slower game I act hasti ly, fl inging a kn ight there, slapping a pawn here, in a scattershot of knee-j erk responses. " It's da ngerous to play too much blitz," says Sam Shankland, a young

Blitzk rieg Bop

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23

i nternational master from C a l i forn i a . " I t builds bad habits. I used to move notoriously quick ly, which i s very bad for one's practical chances. It's dan­ gerous to play too much ." Sti l l , Sam executes thi rty to eighty blitz games a month . " I t keeps my game in for m , rem i nds me of my open i ngs, and keeps my tactics sharp." O thers as well try to modulate between the con fl icting pulls of passion and reason , between wanting to bask i n the pleasures of blitz and knowing it's best to go about chess i n more purposefu l ways. Most players find that blitz, l i ke a lot of other da ngerous substa nces, can be i m bibed i n moderation. You don't want to get hooked on it at the expense of more classical modes of pl ay. But you don't have to avoid it l i ke the plague, either. " Use fast games to practice open i ngs, or to relax once i n a while, n o t as a steady d iet," D a n Heisma n , a chess instructor, advises h i s students . 29 Many find t h a t it's a good w a y t o l e a r n n e w open i ngs , as o n e can get i n a l o t of g a m e s on s h o r t notice, and t h a t playing b o u t after bout helps one to develop a richer feel for the game. Robert Cousi n s , an expert­ level player, spoke of this one day as we talked about the game. " Yes, I enjoy playing blitz," he said. " T here's also a d i fferent feel to it. It's l i ke rap music as opposed to opera ." Robert received con fi rmation of the value of playing blitz when he sta rted to take lessons a couple of years back from Adnan Kobas , a F I D E master from Bosnia who teaches chess in New York and Connecticut. " When I fi rst started studying with Adnan," he told me, " he looked at my games and said, 'Okay, you and I a re goi ng to play a lot of blitz, because it improves your tactical vision , it helps you with practicing your openings, it exposes you to new ideas. And it helps with playing i n time pressure ."' Robert plays blitz with friends and on the I nternet, a handful of games each week. These encounters are bala nced by tough, over-the-boa rd competitions. Then there are those pl ayers, less a mbitious, who thi n k they've seen better days at the board, who end up playing blitz more than anything else, who love its fleeting joys and m iseries, who sit down for a few games and a re still playing hours later.

I look at my watch. It's after midn ight now. "A couple more ? " K h a n asks. " Sure." We 've lost track of the number of games we've pl ayed ton ight. There's a world sleeping around us, we've got thi ngs to do in the morni ng, but we're thi rsty for a few more combinations. This is chess as friendship. We set up the pieces. Khan reaches out and starts my clock.

24

I

"It's pretty much the only time I ever feel anything " " It's the only thing that doesn't get boring a fter a while," says Elizabeth Vica ry, an ebu l l ient woman i n her ea rly thi rties who has devoted much of her l i fe to play i ng and teach ing chess. " I 'm obsessed w ith it." E l i zabeth took on a series of unorthodox jobs after graduating from Columbia Un iversity. She worked as a personal assistant for a Jordanian pri ncess , wrote encycloped ia a rticles , and then worked for Chess i n the School s , a nonprofit orga n i zation based in New York that provides chess i nstruction to i n ner-city kids. That post led to her current job, which i s to teach chess at IS 3 1 8 , a j u n ior high school in Brooklyn . It's a "dream job" for her, for a long with being able to teach chess she gets a lot of support from the school's administration. She teaches what she wants to, and she has the funds she needs to buy digital chess clocks or sponsor her students' trips to the scholastic nationals tourna ment each year. She has been playing and absorbing the ga me along the way. It's the game's potenti a l for mea n i ng-making more than its competitive side that propels El izabeth. " G a mes a re very beautiful in the na rratives them­ selves . . . . I don't have any other activity that I do that I feel l i ke it's mean­ i ngfu l . Every thing else I do I feel l i ke I should be doing something else . . . . You go to a party, and you talk to some people on a roof i n Brook lyn, and you feel l i ke, Why am I talking to this drunk jerk? R ight? And you feel you a re i mproving as a person , or you're m a k i ng progress toward something, or there's some i n herent meaning i n it." Chess assures her l i fe of a moral education and a durable fabric of meaning. E l i zabeth has kept a blog si nce August 2007, where she posts candid musi ngs on chess-related topics. When I fi rst met her, she had just w rit­ ten an entry, "I H ate Myself," in which she screa med out her frustration with herself for losing a tou rnament game that weekend. I n the game, she miscalculated the outcome of a n overly opti m istic rook sacri fice. "A nd you know what occurred to me last n ight that I was going to tel l you about ? " s h e a s k s h e r readers. " I rea l i zed t h a t I play chess because it's pretty much the only t i me I ever feel anything. The rest of the time, with just a couple exception s , I a m a l most completely numb. S omewhere a long the way I tu rned i nto a zombie." I ask her to say more about this. " Yeah," she says. " I j ust don't feel that much. I don't feel that invested in anyth i ng else, and I guess as a n adult your rel ationships sort of settle down a little bit, so there's no big drama i n my l i fe emotion a l ly. And so every-

I

25

thing else I can do on autopilot, and chess is the only time that I actually h ave to be there , where I have to work h a rd i ntellectually. . . . Chess is the only ti me that I rea lly h ave to work , that I really have to try, and I 'm rea l ly on the l i ne in any kind of way. And so, yea h , it's the only ti me-it sounds bad-the only time I feel extremes of emotion ."

C H A PT E R 2

Notes on

a

Swindle

Nothing binds t w o people like a serious chal lenge on a chess­ board, making them counterposed poles of a j ointly produced mental creation i n which one i s a n n i h ilated to the other's advantage . There is no ha rsher or more implacable defeat. The players bear l i felong scars, neither body nor soul ever recovering fully. -Paolo Maurensig,

The Liineburg Variations

J u ly 19, 200 3 . You're not sure how much English you r opponent knows, so when you meet him at the board you nod and smile on ly, and he does the same. At least he's not the gruff, unfriendly type. Vlad i m i r Grech i k h i n is his name. He's wea ring a blue d ress shirt unbuttoned at the collar, looks to be i n his ea rly sixties, and has the sturdy build of someone who has done manual labor during his l i fe . He's rated 2200, which i s the baseline for a master's rating. You suspect he has seen better days at the chessboard, that he's not playing at the level he was once capable of. You wonder where he's fro m , when he came to the States, what kind of work he does, and how long he has been playing chess. But there's no time for that kind of talk. You're at the Marshall Chess Club i n M a nhatta n , a few blocks north of Washi ngton Square Pa rk, waiting for the fi rst round of a weekend tourna­ ment to begi n . From the outside, the red brick building at 23 West roth Street doesn't stand out i n any way. The only feature that distinguishes it from the other townhouses l i n i ng this stately residential st reet is a s m a l l plaque by t h e front d o o r t h a t announces t h e club's name. B u t step i n side the place on any weekend and you'll happen upon a cra mped but vital domain of chess pra x i s .

Notes on

a

Swindle

I

27

W E E K E N D WA R R I O R S

You entered that domain today, a few minutes before noon. You climbed the creaky wood sta irs to the second floor and encou ntered a mix of folks waiting for the tou rna ment to begi n . Kids were seated at tables too big for them, pedd l i ng blitz games with friends they hadn't seen since the weekend before. The father of one of these prodigies had set up his laptop on a corner table to get a head on some work while his son competed. Older players were stand i ng about, talking, checking to see who else had shown up that d ay. Two middle-aged men were hunched over a board, rehashing a game they had played several even i ngs before. "I should have exchanged rooks when I had the chance," one of them said. The second nodded . Other players-a g i rl accompanied by her mother, col lege students, masters from Russia and Eastern Europe, club regulars, gangling teenagers from Brooklyn-trickled i n to the building and cli mbed the stairs to the second floor, where they l i ned up outside the club's office and registered for the day's event. Founded i n 1 9 1 5 by Frank ] . M a rsha l l , the strongest American player of his time, the club is one of the most renowned i n the world. Occupying the fi rst two floors of a brow nstone, it has served as a competitive a rena for generations of chess players , i nclud i ng Bobby Fischer i n h i s ea rly, less reclusive days. It's a mecca for serious players i n the New York a rea. " I f you want to play the best players , th at's where you go," said a friend . Some find the place " intense" and "unfriendly" and play elsewhere, but for others the brusque i ntensity comes with the territory. The club runs a number of tou rna ments month ly, i ncluding weekend Swisses , where people compete for cash prizes and rating points over a two-day stretch. You've been playing i n tou rna ments here off and on since the previous J u ly-when you lost your fi rst game to a n eleven-year-old gunning for bigger scalps. O n most occasions you 've played in t he Under 2000 section, which comprises players rated 1999 and lower, but this weekend you're playing i n the Open section with the hope of getting i n some h igh-quality games against strong, master-level competition . Your current rating of 1 876 puts you i n the top 6 percent of a l l tournament players . I n the lofty heights of the M a rsh a l l , though, it places you at the bottom of the pool of contend­ ers i n the Open section . The top of each pyramid i s a pyra mid i n itself; you're at the base of that smaller pyra m i d . Your goa l i s not to w i n a l l your games, but to play well and learn someth i ng i n the process. A fter doling out the thi rty-five-dol l a r entrance fee for nonmembers you walked about, noting the fra med photographs of fa mous pl ayers adorn­ ing the walls. I n one, greats l i ke A lekhine, Capabl anca, N i m zowitsch ,

28

I

Notes on

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and M a rshall stand unsmi l i ng a round a chessboa rd . I n another, Fischer sta res i ntently at a position. I n the hal lways, computer printouts posted on bul letin boards an nounce the results of recently completed tourna ments . Toward the front stands Capablanca's table , where the great Cuban player was fond of playing. At

r 2 : 45

the tou rnament di rector posted a sheet of paper that l i sted the

pairings for the first rou nd, and pl ayers c rowded a round it l i ke h igh school athletes chec k i ng to see whether they made the tea m . You were p a i red aga inst Mr. G rech i k h i n , a ma ster-level Russian em igre and regu l a r of the club. You played h i m once before, back i n June, at another M a rshall week­ ender. A fter a long, muddled game, you stepped into t i me trouble , messed up a tense position , and lost. " T he endga me," you said after resign i ng, while look ing at the remain ing pieces on the board . You meant to say something l i ke , " I was doing wel l enough until the endgame, when , short of time, I made some bad moves." But given his l i m ited Engl ish, you uttered only the shorthand version . " Yes. The endga me," Grechikhin replied. Later, you wondered if he took you r comment to mean that you can't play the endgame wel l . A mericans have a reputation for that.

O P E N I N G S A N D E N DI N G S

The endga me is the t h i rd and last stage of a game i n its prototypical for m . Chess players t h ink o f t h e game as being composed of three phases: open­ i ng, midd lega me, and endga me. The opening consists of the initial moves, i n which pl ayers try to develop thei r pieces i n effective ways, create a safe h aven for their k i ng, and prepare their forces for the battles to come. The midd lega me proceeds from the opening, with the pawn and piece con figurations established i n the open ing stage setting the terms of the contest. I f t h e g a m e i s n o t decided earlier on, then it w i l l c o m e down t o an endga me, which i s , by definition , when there are only a few pieces left on the board; the other pieces have been exchanged . Si nce the d i m i n i shed material m a kes a d i rect mating attack less feasible, the play i n endgames often revolves a round attempts to advance a pawn to the eighth rank, where it can be promoted to a queen or a nother piece. That additiona l piece can then help the side possessing it force a win th rough checkmate. The three stages of the game requ i re d i fferent k i nds of know-how. The open ing requi res a k nowledge of effective ways to deploy one's pieces. Success i n the midd legame usually rests on the resou rcefu l employment of one's experience and understa nding of strategic and tactica l ideas. Most

·

Notes on

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Swindle

I

29

endgame positions requ i re a tech nician's k nowledge , geared toward con­ verting a n edge i n to a w i n n i ng advantage. Or, as Viennese grandmaster Rudolf Spiel mann put it severa l decades ago, " Play the open ing l i ke a book, the m iddlegame l i ke a m agic i a n , and the endga me l i ke a mach i n e . " S i nce hard work is a prerequi site for acqu i r i ng any degree of expertise i n any of these areas, players vary in the i r strengths and wea knesses in each phase of the ga me. Pl ayers i n d i fferent chess societies tend to focus on d i fferent aspects of the game when lea rning it. I n Russia and eastern Europe, schoolch ildren learn chess by study i ng the endgame fi rst and foremost , then go on to enha nce their understanding of the other phases of the game. The focus on the endga me, the i r teachers understa n d , gives them a refined feel for the possibilities of each piece and, ultimately, a n i n formed sense of how to steer spec i fic ope n i ng or m idd lega me formations towa rd adva ntageous endi ngs . I once asked Predrag Traj kovic, a gra ndmaster from Serbi a , for h i s opinion on the best way to learn to play chess wel l . " To sta rt from endga mes, while creating a small open i ng repertoire," he a n swered . "If you don't know end­ games, you don't know the goa l . It's like when you d rive somewhere, l i ke th rough New York C ity, and you're not sure which is the best way to go. T h i s is like a chess game. For many players, a chess game is l i ke m a k i ng a trip without a goa l , just driving." K nowi ng endga mes well gives a player a clear sense of the desi red desti nation and a road map for getting there . M a ny A merica n s , i n contrast-espec i a l ly those who learn the game on thei r own-a re known to devote much of thei r i n itial stud ies of the game to a deta i led i nculcation in various open i ng systems. They do so i n part because studying "openi ngs" is easier and more exciting than endga me study, and in part because the returns on such a n education can be i m me­ d i ately appreciated, si nce one is able to establish a decent position after the fi rst five or ten moves of a game. The downside is that the same A merica n s , or s o t h e mythology goes, often neglect t o u ndertake a serious study o f the endga me, even later in their chess careers .

" O U T O F B O OK "

M r. G rech i k h i n m ight h ave come to assume that you a re a typical Ameri­ c a n pl ayer after your fi rst game together. He's sitting across from you now. You're soon to embark on that wei rdly i n t i mate s o c i a l encounter known a s a tou r n a m e n t chess ga m e . S i nce G rech i k h i n did not overwhelm you i n your last ga me, you feel you have a decent shot aga i nst h i m .

30

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Notes on

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Swindle

You're positioned elbow-to - elbow a longside other players in the room , which i s the size of a small classroom a n d sepa rated from the adj o i n i ng h a l lway by a red curta i n . This ritual space holds severa l rows of tables , two or three chessboards to a table, with a nu mbered piece of paper taped next to each one. The h ighest-rated player i s at the fi rst board, playing the highest-rated player from the second tier. You r opponent i s the fi fth-h ighest rated , so you're seated at Board

5·

I lye Figler, a well-k nown master and chess coach, sits a few feet away. He's facing off aga inst Katharine Pel letier, a girl in her high school years. Next to him i s Jay Bonin, a n i nternation a l m aster who plays more tourna­ ment ga mes each year than a nyone else-a whopping

509

in

2002.

A short,

stocky man who often looks l i ke he's one relaxed breath away from dozing off, Bonin works days in the rri a i l room of a Manhattan law fi r m , sorting letters , m a k i ng deliveries. He can be found most even i ngs and weekends at the M a rshall or at the Nassau Chess Club, on Long Island. When friends used to ask him why he played so much, he wou ld a n swer, "I wouldn't know what else to do." 1 Today he's wea ring a shirt with a logo on the back that reads , " S low S moked Memph i s Style." He's p a i red up against a n expert- level player w h o looks a b i t nervous. Bodies and voices settle dow n i n the room. A round you, other games a re begi n n i ng; you shake hands with G rech i k h i n , and then start his clock. He's been assigned the Wh ite pieces. You h ave Black . You each have n i nety m i n utes to make your fi rst thi rty moves. A fter that there's a n addition a l "sudden death" h o u r u n t i l someone w i n s , someone's t i m e expires, or a draw is agreed upon . The player w ith Wh ite a lways moves fi rst, so G rech i k h i n makes h i s fi rst move. You w rite down the move on your ga me score sheet. With your own fi rst move you try to steer the game toward a combative , double- edged defense k nown as the Sicilian D efense. It's c a l led a Sicilian because an ea rly seventeenth-century advocate of it was from Sici ly. In chess, recogn ized sequences of open ing moves a re known as openings if they a re undertaken by W hite ( " Bishop's Opening") and as defenses i f undertaken b y Black ( "Alekhine Defense " ) . Chess is l i ke A merican football i n that there is an assortment of n a med formations that players can wield i n setting up offen sively or defensively : while in football we find the West Coast offense and a

3-4

defense, in chess we have the Spanish Game, the

French Defense, the Queen's G a mbit Declined. One d i fference is that i n chess, the combatants don't l i n e u p a l l at once, as play proceeds on a turn­ by-turn basis: Wh ite posts a pawn here, Black answers w ith a k n ight there , as the game builds on a vibrant excha nge of motives and ma neuvers.

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You'd l i ke to lead the game toward the Accelerated D ragon , a variation of the Sici l i a n you've been playing l ately. Grech i k h i n wants nothi ng to do with that. He steers the game i nto a n offbeat anti-Sici l i a n vari ation known as the Wing G a mbit, where he proposes the sacri ficial gambit of a pawn to ga i n good control of the center squares and scamper h i s pieces i nto pl ay. He wants to m i x thi ngs up and outplay you in a complicated melee. H i s g a m e strategy th rows y o u o ff ; y o u were hoping for a more measu red ga me, i n waters you k now better. You flinch. You don't want to play aga i n st this. You've seen this position on chessboards before , and have fought against it i n blitz games. You understand that the chess theorists out there consider the gambit dubious , but you don't rightly know what to do aga inst it, so you'll have to play by feel. You're a l ready "out of book," as they say. You feel your heart pulsing in your chest. You're look i ng to survive the open­ i ng. You're remi nded of a boxer who steps i n for the fi rst rou nd only to be p u m meled out of the r i ng. Grech i k h i n 's cava lier approach makes you wonder i f he doesn't think mu ch of h i s opponent's chess s k i l l s . He probably wou ldn't wield the ga mbit aga i nst a stronger player. Perh aps he's a i m i ng for a quick win against what he takes to be a patzer, an i nexperi � nced player. You give your next moves a lot of thought, as your clock ticks off pre­ cious minutes . T here's no way you want to get your k i ng caught i n a lot of crossfire before it has time to find cover behind a row of pawns. You decide to play cautiously, a i ming for a solid defensive setup, and decline G rech i k h i n's pawn offer. You figure there's probably not much established theory covering the positions that w i l l result from your move , so you're both i n uncharted waters . I f your game were a theatrical play, it would be a n experimental off- off-Broadway production . G rech i k h i n makes a move. You think about how you want to pa r ry, and make a move of you r ow n . He does the same after a few m i nutes, as the two of you become embroi led i n the syncopated , back- a nd-forth d i alogue that makes up a tou rnament game. At one point, you see what you take to be a way that G rechi k h i n can launch an attack. You start to worry about h i m opening up the center before you can h ide your king on the kingside. But he doesn't fol low that course , either because he doesn't notice it h i mself or because he decides that it's not worth pursuing. The game proceeds along a less violent path. A sequence of c a refu l ly selected moves leads to a position where you're not badly off. With your eleventh move , you nudge your queen from its starting posi-

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tion to a square that looks prom ising for it, and then sit back to take stock. You've survived the fi rst onslaught. You've managed to develop your pieces and get your k i ng castled safely behind a row of paw n s , w ithout giving up too much grou nd. You r heart beats less frantical ly. You step out of the room to get some water, and return to the board. You take a look at the game to your right. A man i n his fi fties ( Russi a n , apparently) i s playing a gritty game aga inst a hormon a l k i d pushing sixteen at best. The Marshall fields a spectrum of chess players. Eager schoolkids, many with persona l tra i ners, are looking to earn rating points. H igh school and col lege players are out for blood. Casual players show up every so often, while grandmasters swing by to earn a bit of cash. Middle-aged regu lars play every weekend, because that's what they do. A mong them a re some Russian players who know their way a round a chessboard. The multicultural mix of the place attests to chess being a med ium that transcends languages, genera­ tions, cultural sensibilities. The l anguage-free geometries of the game permit people to relate i n ways that otherwise would be tough going. It's G rech i k h i n's turn to move . He's look i ng for a way to get a w i n n i ng edge in the position . He has a wealth of knowledge to draw on: games he has played i n his l i fe , or what he remembers of them , as wel l as ideas he has picked up from studying the games of the great masters ; all the tactical motifs he has soaked up over the years; the endga me stratagems he has acqu i red. Much of this is ava ilable to him more th rough i ntuition than th rough overt, conscious cogn ition . He has a fa i r sense of chess psychol­ ogy, of when to stir up compl ications and when to sit back and wait for h i s opponent to make the fi rst big mistake. He has a l i fetime of experi­ ence with which to work . "In A frica, when an old m a n dies, it's a library burning," says Malian writer A m adou H a mpate B a . Veteran chess players embody a s i m i l a r store of perishable k nowledge. But your opponent is also getting older, and knows perhaps better than anyone that his mind is not as sharp as it once was. It's not only what a person knows that helps h i m a long in a chess ga me. It's what he does with what he knows-how he performs at the board that d ay or hour. You're both draw i ng from the cogn itive and physical resources ava i lable to you in trying to vanquish the other.

'A G O NI A'

Chess pits one player aga inst another. If we fol low French thinker Roger C a i l lois's classi fication of games undertaken by human bei ngs-ga mes of

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competition (agon; footb a l l , b i l l iards) , of chance and fortune (alea; playing dice, lotteries) , of simulation and role-playing (mimicry; playing pi rate or house) , and of d isorientation and vertigo (ilinx; spi n n i ng a round until one gets d i zzy)-then it's clear that chess i s a game of agon, of i nterpersonal contest. 2 The word agon comes to us from ancient Greece, where it referred both to the conflict between the protagonist and a ntagonist in a work of lit­ erature and to contests, as in athletics and music, in which pri zes were awarded . Related to that term a re such modern words as antagon ist, from the G reek antagonistas, "competitor, opponent, rival," and agony, from the G reek agonia, "a (mental) struggle for victory " and "the feeli ngs of exhaustion, or p a i n , after the event." As C a i l lois says of games of agon, " T he point of the game is for each player to have h i s superiority i n a given a rea recogn ized. That i s why the practice of agon presupposes sustai ned attention, appropriate tra i n i ng, assiduous application, and the desire to w i n . It i mpl ies d i scipline and perseverance." Much the same could be said of chess and chess players. "I l i ke that i n chess , un l i ke i n cards or other games , there's no such thing as luck," says K i m Qvi storff, an a m ateur player from Denmark. "There's you and your opponent. It's a me-and-you k i nd of thing." Each k i nd of game, it i s said, has its own proper spi rit-its own mood, metaphysics, and ethics. What is the proper spirit of chess ? I f chess were a universe onto itself, it would be a cosmos founded on the agon istic play between two sets of warring, i mpersona l forces, what Nietzsche once cal led "the strife of opposites." l It would be a world cha racteri zed by i nterlocki ng dualities. Chess is relentless a ntagon ism, a d i a lectics of W h ite and Bl ack pieces, l ight and d a rk squares, self and other, w i n n i ng and losing, play and competition . T here's ten se play between opposing forces and a struggle between two embod ied consciousnesses. You're trying to get someth i ng done with each move-place a kn ight on a good square, create wea knesses i n the enemy's ca mp-wh i le your opponent i s trying to accompl ish some­ thing of his own or to contest what you're trying to do. It's l i ke striving to compose a poem while standing next to a naysaying obstructionist. For me, this cou nterpresence i s most at hand when I 'm facing strong players . It's as though I ' m fighti ng against a force field of some sort; aga inst something hard , unyielding. This spi rit of confl ict makes the creative efforts i n chess more l i ke those found i n a high-stakes tenn i s game than those evident i n individual a rts l i ke painting or in colla borative arts l i ke dance or jazz ensembles . The

agonia of chess is such that a player i s a lways trying to create within a field

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of resistance, and any attempt to proceed creatively, to sculpt something effective or beautifu l , i s i n tension with the opponent's own efforts. I n the wistfu l words of A lexander Alekhine, the fourth world cha mpion , which he w rote in the preface to a r929 book by a composer of chess puzzles, " I wou ld l i ke t o b e able t o create alone, without the necessity, as i n games , of adj usting my plans to those of the opponent, in order to create some­ thing that will rem a i n . Oh! This opponent, this collaborator aga i nst h i s w i l l , whose notion o f Beauty a lways d i ffers from yours and whose means (strengt h , i magination , techn ique) a re often too l i m ited to help you effec­ tively ! What torment, to have your thinking and your fa ntasy tied down by another person ! "4 I magine a m aster painter whose every brushstroke i s countered , stroke b y stroke, b y t h e h a n d o f a nother. Chess games a re tugs- of-wa r of w i l l and effort. I ntentions butt heads with counterintention s . " T he opponent i s a lways very a n noy i ng! " said Bent L a rsen, a Danish grandmaster and one of the world's best players i n the l ate r96os. It's enough to m a ke one detest an opponent's presence , to wish his for m out of existence . Chess is at once playful and cutthroat. There's a persistent tension between the competitive thrust of the game and the fact that friendly ties can crop up a mong chess players. Chess encounters can also bring hea lthy exposure to otherness and d i f­ ference. They offer a way of extend ing and enriching oneself through the fra n k rega rd o f others. Chess teachers say as much when discussing how play i ng the game makes clear to children and adolescents that there a re other persons in the world, with thei r own yea r n i ngs and active demands. As Leonid Yud a si n, a Russian-Jewish grandma ster and trainer from St. Petersbu rg, tel ls it, "The m a i n problem for kids i s to understand that the other exists . ' I want! ' That's a l l they do i n l i fe . . . . With chess , you have to t h i nk about what this other person doe s . It doesn't help to say, ' No, I don't l i ke this ! ' And it's pai nfu l ; kids need to w i n . In chess, if you make a wrong move , you're lost. It's a very good way to show that it's i mportant to work seriously, and to understand that this other guy exists." Chess readily provokes a "traumatism of the other," as phi losopher E m m a nuel Levinas m ight put it. A tough contest can take you out of the bubble of your thoughts and force you to con front the demands of a nother. You r opponent's w i l l fu l d i fferentness disrupts t h e self-sa meness of y o u r own being.1 Speak i ng for myself, I 've come to value the useful traumatism that comes with playing aga i nst a tough opponent or with a friend. It would be a m istake, however, to say that it i s a l l otherness, or con flict and tension on ly. Chess players pa rticipate i n a sha red activity and can become engaged i n a " mutual tuni ng-in relationship." Austrian A merican

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social phi losopher A l fred Schutz uses that phrase i n considering the under­ pinnings of face-to-face commun ications i n his well-known essay, " M a k i ng Music Together: A Study i n Social Relationship," origi nally published i n 1 9 5 1 . Ta k i ng t h e performance o f music as his example, S chutz contends

that all commun ication i s founded on a rel ationship of mutual attunement, "by which the 'I' and the ' Thou' are experienced by both participants as a ' We' i n vivid presence." S chutz says of d i fferent k i nds of relationships between a musical performer and audience, "In all these c i rcu mstances , performer and l istener a re 'tuned-in' to one another, are living together th rough the same flux, a re growi ng older together while the musical pro­ cess lasts . "6 Much the same happens when two people a re i m mersed in a conver­ sation: there's a sense of collaborative flow, of s w i m ming i n a common stream of consciousnes s . Chess players often come to be tuned i n to each other. Living together th rough the same flux, they can experience them­ selves as a " We" i n a vivid co-presence . T hey a re "co-performing subjec­ tivities" engaged w ith one a nother. 7 O ften , wh ile one is playing a game, there's a pa lpable sense that one i s giving thought to the same chess pat­ terns as one's opponent. In my fieldnotes I w rote , " S ept. 2 8 , 200 8 . Playing casual games with K i m , at h i s house, on a Sunday afternoon . I 'm struck by the fact that, wh i le we 're trying to beat each other, there a re so many points i n the games where our opposing actions work i n coord i nation with one another, i n sets of synchronized sequences of force and counter-force." Chess is a crux of con flict and connection .

D OUB L E TIM E

W h i le Grech i k h i n is sorting out moves, you're giving thought to the posi­ tion as wel l . The d igital chess clock stands to your right, with one ti mer counting down the m i nutes and the other hovering i n a temporary state of quietus. The clock i mplies a "double temporal ity," as Thierry Wen d l i ng puts i t . 8 Each pl ayer's a l lotment of time proceeds hand in hand with h i s opponent's. T h i s u n ique b i n a r y temporal a rrangement d o e s n o t fa ze veteran chess players, as they h ave long gotten used to its methods and rhyth ms. M i k h a i l Botv i n n i k , world cha mpion i n the 1950s and 196os and the patri a rch of the Soviet school of chess, advised that a player should engage in concrete calcul ations when it is h i s move , and more general strategic considerations of the game when the opponent's clock i s ticking. You heed that advice now and consider the game i n position a l terms. You have to

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play defen sively, it's clear, as your opponent has more space and you're respond i ng to his threats more than he is to yours. But you have a decent hold over key center squa res with your pawns and pieces, and you're not losing by any means. T h i ngs could be worse, you conclude upon assessing · your respective prospects i n the complex p osition at hand, as you progress from the open i ng to the m idd lega me.

E XQUISIT E V I O L E N C E

T h e a r rows i n figu re

r

denote moves on Black's p a r t worth considering, o r

anticipati ng, i n t h e current position. T h e l i nes o f force ind icated suggest somet h i ng of the strategic and tactical features of the position. Chess play­ ers tend to think of any game as consisting of a complex weave of strategy and tactics. W h i l e strategy consists of setting and achieving long-term goa ls during the game, such as establ ishing a favorable pawn formation, tactics i nvolve short-term ma neuvers, often of a forcing nature. It's much l i ke m i l itary campaign s . While the strategic a i m of a ca mpaign m ight be to ga i n control of an i mportant h i l ltop, the tactical procedures that help a batta lion achieve that a i m consist of specific, and often bloody, sequences of actions: seizing control of a bridge, dest roy ing the enemy 's air support, adva ncing up the h i l l . While some contests a re highly strategic i n form and others i nvolve sharp, tactical battles, i n most games a combi nation of strategic and tactical motifs ripples th rough the stages of play. That's the case in the present position. The main st rategic feud is over key squa res in the center, with the Wh ite player trying to establ ish control over those squa res so that he can launch a successful attack, and his riva l trying to undermine any such control, by tactical means if need be. The task before you then i s to figu re out the best way to proceed , consider­ ing the nuances of the position and the i nterlocking sequences possible with one move or another. All this makes true chess s k ill-what some call the abil ity to play "real chess "-a di fficult state to achieve . That m i stakes occur i n the games of even the best players , who have years of battle-tested experience under their belts and a century-plus of championship chess to d raw from , attests to the depths and complications of chess. It awes and humbles people, and they a re thrilled when they manage to pi lot a good ga me. The i ntricate folds of a rose, the distributed work i ngs of the human bra i n , New York 's Grand Central Station during rush hou r : chess offers s i m i l a rly lush i nvolution s . The combinational i nterplay appeals to many chess players , even i f they haven't thought about it as such. Commentators

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2

3

4

5

6

7

8 h FIGuRE I.

g

e

d

c

b

a

A middlegame position against Vladimir Grechikhin; the

arrows indicate moves on B l ack's part worth considering , or anticipating, in the current position

on the game have pointed out that the exponent i a l , fruct i fy i ng nature of chess moves leads to a vast number of possible positions in a short stretch of time. The total number of distinct board positions after Black's second move i s reportedly 7 1 , 8 5 2 . 9 A fter fou r moves each it is more than 3 1 5 bil­ lion. The c a lculus continues with each new move , leading m athematicians to conclude that the estimated total number of unique chess games i s about I

0120

,

which is more than the total number of electrons in the u n iverse .

Yet that mathematical feature is not what holds the i nterest of chess play­ ers wh ile playing, perhaps because most of those hypothetical moves a re pointless, but also because any possible arrangement of words i n a con­ versation between people , or the various ways that musical notes can be strung together, would i nvolve s i m i l a rly astronomical numbers, w ith most of the sequences being nonsensical. What sei:?:es the imagination, rather, is the labyrinth of meaningful possibi lities, of i nterconnecting forms, found i n any position. The intricate arrangements that readily arise from these possib i l ities a re

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due , i n l a rge part, to the d i fferent pieces' diverse forms of allowed move ­ ment: rooks cannonball down files, bishops shoot a long d i agon a l s , kn ights prance over squares and pieces. U n l i ke a game of checkers, in which all the pieces move the same way, chess enta ils a heterogeneous mix of d i fferent potent i a l ities. What a rises out of this variety i s not mere chaos , a hodge­ podge of movement and for m , but a formally patterned complexity. To some, the aesthetic form that comes closest to it i s found i n certain works of music. Many of Bach's compositions, such as his cello suites or The Art

of the Fugue, with their plural ity of motifs interweaving th rough time, cor­ relate with the harmonics to be found at the chessboard. I f a rch itecture is frozen music, then chess i s a n ever-shifting construct of polyphon ic forms. That ordered complexity can be downright pleasing, fascinating. " Well, at some level I don't feel I h ave a choice whether or not I play chess," said my friend Nol a n , when asked why he l i kes to play. Nolan grew up in Little Rock, A rkansas, and moved to New York to attend college . When I fi rst met h i m , in 2 0 0 2 , Nolan was a senior with long, c u rly h a i r and a straggly re d beard . His h a i r i s now cropped close to his scalp and he's clean-shaven . W h a t hasn't cha nged is h i s passion for chess. A fter graduating from col­ lege , Nolan worked for a year as a u n ion orga n i zer in Detroit, M ichiga n , and S p o k a n e , Wa s h i ngton . He found t h a t h i s bosses were them selves exploitative, so he quit and returned to New York, where he la nded a job teaching chess. All a long he has been working on his game. He has been at my home on m a ny occasion s , where we've worked together analyzing game position s . "At a certain level," he said, "chess becomes a l most l i ke an addiction . Ever si nce I was in h igh school I was obsessed with playing ches s , learn ing more about chess, and going to chess clubs and compet­ i ng . . . . If you're serious about chess , and you get the bug, it seems l i ke there's a l most noth i ng else that you want to be doing." Nolan prefers chess to other board games, such as Parcheesi or checkers. " It's i n fi n itely more complicated than any other game. I think it's the sheer complication , the complexity-the multiplicity of choices-and the dynamic factors." What's less clear i s why such patterned complexity appeals to humans, whether it be i n chess or music or l iteratu re. Has the human bra i n has evolved i n a manner that has led it to delight i n the " beautiful problems" effected by it?10 O r i s complexity, as such , a high- modern obsession ? That complex ity enta ils a principle of i nterrelated ness. Just one m i nor change , such as moving a Black pawn from one square to another, can a ffect the " fields of force" at hand, much as the i ntroduction of a new species of weed or the demise of a particular kind of i nsect can a lter the ecology of an entire region , often to devastating effect; "every move played

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d i sturbs the balance of time, force, and space . " 1 1 Chess can promote aware­ ness of systemic rel ations, and of the pri nciples of i nterrel atedness, propor­ tion , and balance that regu l a rly accompany such rel ations. I s there wisdom to be had i n such awareness? Perhaps so. Anthropolo­ gist G regory Bateson was a brilliant thinker and one of the chief engineers of systems theory, i n which resea rchers study the cha racteristics of com­ plex systems i n nature and society, i ncluding the many cybernetic feedback loops of i n formation processing that characterize such systems. Bateson l i ked to t h i nk of wisdom as "a word for recognition of and guida nce by a k nowledge of the total systemic structure." By this he meant that if we can come to appreci ate the systemic relations, the "dance of interfaces ," b u i lt i nto so many l i fe forms, be it a si ngle orga n ism or the ecology of the planet at l a rge , then we 're stepping i nto a kind of knowledge that can be c a l led wisdom. Bateson found that humans tend to act and think i n purpose­ fu l , goal-d riven way s . These tendencies lead them to neglect the systemic nature of l i fe , the ecosystems they l ive i n , or their own minds, often w ith destructive consequences. Many fa rmers faced with corn-eating insects will th row i n secticides on their crops without thinking of the l a rger effects of that poison on the soi l , while suburban ites burn ca rbon fuels to rush to work on time while ignoring the effects of their automobile emissions on the atmosphere. At the same time, Bateson argued, certai n domains of human experience, such as art, rel igion, and d rea m s , can serve a "correc­ tive function . " They do so by helping people to appreciate the fact that l i fe depends upon " i nterlocking circuits of conti ngency."12 Chess c a n serve a corrective function . It can help us counter a too­ pu rposive and l i near view of l i fe , and make our outlooks more holistic and more ethically sound. It can help us to wise up. It's tempting to believe that a measure of wisdom can arise out of an awa reness of the systemic relations found i n ches s , especially when such d i scernment i s cruc i a l ly needed i n an age of global warming, greedy fi n a nciers , and feud ing nation- states. Chess instructors say that learn i ng the game's procedures can help chi ldren enhance their understa nding of the relations a mong d i fferent forces i n l i fe and add to their rega rd for the methods of j udgment, i nterdependence, logic, i n itiative, and patience. This is not a lways the case a mong adult pl ayers , however, as any appre­ ciation of the system ic relations found i n chess does not always transl ate i nto an appreciation of relations outside the game. For one thing, many of those who h ave devoted their l ives to play i ng chess often act i n their everyday l ives i n ways-aggressive, self-interested , short-sighted, a rrogant, vai nglorious-that a re anything but wise. Many become qua rrelsome

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and antagon istic, and develop a n antipathy for human i nconsi stencies or contrad ictions. The more occasiona l players of the game, i n contrast, a re the ones who appear to be the better "adj usted." At the same time, to become truly great players, people have to devote themselves to the game i n such single - minded, si ngle-purposed ways that they can come to neglect more balanced, i nterrel ation a l ways of acting i n l i fe. "The longer you play chess , the more self-centered you become," said A leksander Woj tk iewicz, a recently deceased Pol ish A merican grandm aster. " It's necessary i n chess to put yourself fi rst," Woj tkiewicz told author Paul Hoffm a n . " It's easy to forget that a nyone else exists. That attitude doesn't work i n the rest of l i fe . That's why few of us chess players can hold marriages . " L l A nother complicating factor i s t h e idea that coinciding with t h e themes of balance, h a rmony, and i nterrelatedness i n chess a re the equ a l ly i mpor­ tant motifs of aggressiveness and assertiveness. Violence occurs i n a h igh­ quality ga me-central pawn formations a re demol ished, the shelters of k i ngs assaulted. Even i f that violence i s beautifu l at times, it is violence nonetheless. As M a rcel Duchamp put it, " C hess i s a sport. A violent sport. This detracts from its most a rtistic connections . " 14 Some young players learn that the hard way, when they seek i n their games to create ha rmonious a rra ngements of their pieces , with each piece and pawn i n "neat," mutu­ ally protective correspondence with its neighbors. But i n their desire to establish a n i ntricate a rch itectu re of form, these pl ayers often neglect their opponents' position s , and stronger players h a m mer their artfu l tableaux mercilessly. The h a rd lesson learned from such drubbings i s that h a rmony and balance i n themselves do not win chess games . S k i l led aggression does. T h i n k of a spider and its web, or a cheetah on the prowl . Chess i nvolves a tense i nterplay between relatedness and forcefu l vio­ lence. And since biologica l l i fe itsel f appears to proceed a long s i m i l a r lines, from the civili zations of humans to the simplest organisms, perhaps any true wisdom to be cultivated through chess relates to the rea l i zation of the fact that a l l l i fe-forms have a combination of harmony and aggressive i ntent built into them. Life enta i l s a combination of beauty and violence­ an exqu isite violence-or so the physics of chess would suggest.

T H I N K , M O V E , C L O CK , W R IT E

A couple of other games have ended , in either bloody assaults or expedi­ ent d raws. I lye Figler has a pressing edge i n h i s game aga i nst Kath a r i ne Pelletier, while Jay Bonin is beating up on h i s outcl assed opponent. J ay sets up a n ice mating attack, and then goes in for the k i l l as his opponent

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broods a t the board, red-faced i n defeat. Upon w i n n ing, Jay gets u p and walks off with a cana ry-swal lowing smile, score sheet i n hand. The room is quiet. The loudest sounds a re the tick i ng of chess clocks and the hum of the a i r-conditioner. People have settled i nto the muted rhy thm of tourna ment ga mes: t h i n k , m a ke a move, press the clock, write down the move made. T h i n k , move , clock, write. T h i n k . You and you r opponent a re doing t h e s a m e . G rechikhin is pressing against your position , while you're trying to hit on moves that give good counterchances. With his sixteenth move Grechikhin makes a decision that surprises you: he moves his queen one square forward , where it's operating a long the same diagona l as you r own queen , which stands a few i nches away. One s ma ll step by the l ady, and the ecology of the game shifts. By post­ ing his queen on a square that is in d i rect com munication with your own queen , G rech i k h i n i s offering to excha nge quee n s . Once these m ighty pieces a re off the board , the ga me can boil down to a n endga me. _ What 's going on here? you ask yourself. Reuben Fine, a n A merican grand master and psychoa na lyst, once contended that a leading chess pl ayer preferred opening variations that i nvolve an e a rly exchange of queens because he unconsciously desired to get "rid of women" i n order to deny or regul ate his sexual i mpulses. 1 5 You k now l ittle about your opponent's psychody n a m ics, but your guess is that he wants to eliminate the queens not because of any psychosexu a l issues but because he thinks he can out­ play you i n an ending, espec i a l ly since you collapsed at the end of your previous ga me. ( " Yes. The endga me . " ) But i n letting you exchange queen s , and so getting h i s most powerful piece off t h e battlefield, he a l lows y o u to relieve some of the pressure aga inst your position . You do just that. Your pieces breathe easier. Excha nges fol low. The position i s si mpl i fying into a n ending i n which you'll each have a couple pieces and a cluster of pawns. You're not sure who will be better off. You play on. You're both trying to position your pieces on better squares, to try to ga i n some k i nd of advantage . A s you concentrate , the world fades a round you. You're unaware of a nyone or anything else i n the roo m . No sound. No movement. No opponent. You're conscious only of the possibi l i ­ t i e s on t h e board. T h i n k , move , clock, w rite. T h i n k aga i n . At t i m e s you can't shake the feel i ng that a grandmaster or computer would make more precise moves, but that's a feeling you seldom succeed i n shaking. It's an even ga me until he lets you grab one of his pawns on the queen­ side. To do so, you h ave to let you r k n ight get boxed i nto a corner, where it risks getting trapped . You take time to calcu l ate the " va r i ations," the possible sequences of moves, and see that the kn ight is safe after a l l , and

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can come back i nto play if you play the right combination of moves. You take the paw n , press your clock, take a breat h . Moves a re m a d e a long t h e l i nes envisioned . You hear a fa int g a s p from your opponent. You take this to be h i s sudden awa reness that your kn ight i s safe a fter a l l , and he's down a pawn for nothing. The fact that you cal­ culated a l l this better than your master- strength opponent injects a dose of con fidence into your syste m . I'm seeing things well today, you tell yourself.

CO G N I T I V E M A G IC

Chess c a n provide a modest sense of mastery in the world , even if it's only for moments at a time. O nce players get to a decent skill level , any game they play can field a number of maneuvers-forging a devious bishop pin, setting up a ki ngside attack-that spa rk feeli ngs of satisfaction and accom­ plish ment. The senti ment here i s much the same as the one that comes with hitting a fastball solid ly, crafting a n effective sentence, or identifying words i n a crossword puzzle. These minor masteries a re important for people's enjoyment of chess. What's more, the better people are at chess , the more mastery they can c l a i m . C h e s s players can find they a r e acting in the world, i n itiating l i nes o f thought and action, rather than si mply respond i ng t o whatever l i fe th rows at the m . E ach turn of a game requ i res thought and action ; with each move , the player acts creatively and i magi natively in the world . " There is no one game," said seventeenth-century British w riter R ichard Brathwaite, "which m ay seeme to represent the state of mans l i fe to the fu l l so well as t h e chesse." M a n y have found keen and lasting paral lels between l i fe and chess. " Chess i s l i fe," said Bobby Fischer. " L i fe i m itates chess," said Garry Kasparov. I n playing chess, a n i magi native process is often at work whereby one finds oneself contending with a reduced and s i mpli fied ver­ sion of l i fe . Such m icrocosms are common to human beings; people around the world work with materials and activities-pai nti ngs , altars, d rawings, rituals, games, performances-that function as symbolic representations of the world at l a rge . I n some societies, the a rchitectural design of houses stands as a m icrocosm of the un iverse, as do the sacred a ltars presided over by religious speci a l ists. Many theatrical performances also explicitly model the world . As religious schol a r Catherine Bell relates it, performances "do not attempt to reflect the real world accu rately but to reduce and simplify it so as to create more or less coherent systems of categories that can then be projected onto the fu l l spectrum of human experience."16 Why do people so often i nvoke , and seek out, such models? Levi- Strauss

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suggests an answer i n his book La pensee sauvage, in commenting on the proclivity for humans to reduce thi ngs to small-scale models i n play and art. With works of art i n m i n d , U:vi-Strauss asks, " What i s the vi rtue of reduction either of scale or in the number of propertie s ? " As he sees it, by reducing an aspect of l i fe to a si mpler, more manageable size, people feel better able to comprehend its nature : "Being smal ler, the object as a whole seems less formidable. By being quantitatively d i m i n i shed, it seems to us qual itatively s i mpl i fied. More exactly, this quantitative transposi­ tion extends and diversifies our power over a homologue of the thing, and by means of it the l atter can be grasped, assessed and apprehended at a glance ." 17 That tendency, Levi- Strauss holds, is evident in a l l art and i n a l l m a g i c . It's at work i n ritual and hea l i ng practices a r o u n d t h e world, i n w h i c h hea lers make effigies t h a t represent t h e ghosts, demons , and w itches a ffl icting the l iv i ng. By crafting small-scale representations and acting on them i n magica l ly potent term s , people give concrete for m to the forces of the world and attend to them in effective ways. A similar process i s at work i n chess , as the ga me-a tangible m icro­ world-can promise a safe rea l m , one that a person can develop some mastery over, or turn to i n t i mes of a n xiety or bewilderment. Life can seem less for midable and confusing when you're dealing with the dynamics of action within the frame of a chessboard. Many find in chess a world that i s simpler, purer, and more condensed and c i rcu mscribed than the world at large . Reducing l i fe to the dom a i n of chess i s an act of cogn itive magic i n the sense that people, th rough acts of simulation and model i ng, remake a chal lenging world on thei r own term s .18 By a ltering focus, hom i ng in on the task at hand, and ga i n i ng a fresh perspective-d ayd rea m i ng, think­ ing outside preset fra mes , stepping i nto a rea l m of play-a l i feworld can be a ltered. Th rough these sleights of consciousness, people rework the experiential grounds of their l ives so that their world becomes d i fferent, at least for a spel l . " O n e reason that I 'm playing so much chess these days is that it takes my mind off all my worries," one man told me a fter his girlfriend broke up with h i m . " W h i l e playing, I think only about the game. That's so n ice." Chess enables people to thi nk themselves out of a ha rsh world. This capac­ ity reminds me of the ways i n which residents of a shelter for the homeless mentally ill i n Boston (where I conducted fieldwork i n the ea rly 1990s) would resort to routi nes of pacing, read i ng, sm all talk , being alone, sleep, drugs , or psychiatric medications i n order to " zone out" for a while and keep their suffering at bay. Some trust i n chess to do the same. Forms of play help people to assume control of their lives. A nth ropologist

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M ichael Jackson calls such efforts "mastery play "-pl ay, i n other word s , t h a t "helps people rega i n a s e n s e of control i n situations t h a t overwhe l m , confuse, and d i m i n ish them ." 1 9 I n u s i n g this term, Jackson is d rawing from severa l psychologists-Freud , Piaget, W i n n icott-who have shown how children use play as a way to ga i n control over the c i rcu mstances of thei r live s . Adults also engage in such mastery pl ay. In the days after my father died i n

1992,

my mother, deeply grief-st ricken, took comfort i n a rocking

cha i r that she set up by her kitchen table; she found the rhythmic, repeti ­ tive motion soothing. This w a s a kind of mastery pl ay. Ritualization i s a term that anthropologists use in speaking of the repetitive activities people engage i n over the course of thei r everyday l ives . R ituali zation is often mundane, unspectacu l a r, and not reflected upon . People who go for walks a long the same route each day a re involved i n acts of ritua l i zation, as a re people who play sol ita i re on their computers. R i t u a l i zed actions offer a way for people to acqu i re a sense of order and control over thei r l ives. As Jackson sees it, " i n ner turmoil or disorder may be man aged by 'ritu­ ally' reorga n i zi ng one's mundane environ ment-clea n i ng or redecorating a house, rea rranging fu rn iture, weed ing a ga rden, buyi ng new clothes . . . cha nges i n one's experience a re ' i n duced' by work ing on an aspect of one's l i feworld that is a menable to m a n ipulation . " Such a n action, Jackson sug­ gests, "offers respite, assists focus and i n duces a sense of being in control of one's c i rcu mstance s . " 20 T h rough such ritual efforts, people often attend to a doma i n ( prayer, garden i ng, v ideo games) that carries less a n x iety or uncerta i nty than another doma i n , such as the world at l a rge . Chess c a n promote just this sort of rituali zation . Often when I play a n eveni ng's worth of games at a l o c a l c l u b or spend a few afternoon hours a n a lyzing position s, I find that the ritual istic process at work during those hours helps me to ga i n a measure of focus and composu re i n my l i fe . Words I would apply to this process a re containment, ordering, making things right. The game fra mes and sha rpens my stance vis-a-vis l i fe . At times, chess offers a domain that is trouble-free and c a l mer than l i fe i n genera l . " I f I feel a n xious o r u ncomfortable," observed top Soviet grandmaster Efim G el ler, "I sit down at the chess boa rd for some five or six hours and gradu a l ly come to ." When a fa mily member d ied a few years back, I trav­ eled to Boston to attend the fu nera l . The morning of the fu neral I had a few spare m i nutes before we set off to the church. I took out a chess set and worked th rough some position s . The cognitive magic, t h e active p l a y with i n a microcosm, and t h e ritual­ i zation that come with skil led chess play can make for the k i nd of "creative l i v i ng" that the British psychoa n a lyst D. W. W i n n icott, for one , considered

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crucial to a psychologically hea lthy l i fe . Wi nnicott found that such creative livi ng-what he calls "creative apperception"-is fi rst manifested in the play activities of a child. " It is creative apperception itsel f more than any­ thing else that makes the i ndividual feel that l i fe i s worth living . . . . I n a tanta l i z i ng way many i ndividuals have experienced j ust enough of creative living to recognize that for most of thei r times they a re living uncreatively, as if caught up in the creativity of someone else, or of a mach ine." 2 1 Such thoughts rem ind me of what E l i zabeth Vicary sa id-that chess i s the most "mea n i ngfu l " activity in her l i fe , participating i n the game m a kes her feel that she i s i mproving as a person , and it's the only ti me she's "on the line in any k i nd of way." Chess enables her to engage creatively with her l i fe and fa sh ion a moral sensibil ity for herself. The danger is that chess play can become the net sum of a person's l i fe , and a substitute for acting and relating more general ly, t o t h e extent that the person ends up retreating from l i fe . The elements of contraction can be gleaned from a

2009

posting by a chess pl ayer on h i s blog, subm itted after

a wom an he was dating broke up with h i m . " Well now that is all over with and to be honest I think I a m actually happy," this young man reported i n an entry called " Back to What's I mportant." " W h i le I was with her," he continued, "I ra rely got to play chess and I should have rea l i zed right away that it was not goi ng to work because of that. A s h appy as she made me, chess m ade me happier and I felt bad about wa l k i ng away from it for two months . . . . I really m i ssed chess . The next ti me I decide to get i nto a rel ationship I w i l l be sure to make it clear that chess is my priority and i f she can't handle the fact that chess will sometimes come before other things , then adios senorita . . . . Yea chess is the only thing i n my l i fe that I a m sure about, the only thing that won't stop l i k i ng me or caring about me . . . . Though it may sound sad , chess i s the only thing i n my l i fe I can count on to a lways be there. It i s my escape, my desi re, and my passion . " Count on t h e ga me, fa ncy it a rel iable passion . Yet when t h e sacraments of chess trump human relationships, l i fe can lose depth and richness . The game eclipses a person's real l i fe and relationships, and the pieces on a board become more sign i ficant than relationships with fa m i ly and friend s . S o m e c h e s s zealots find it d i fficult t o manage wel l i n everyday l i fe , or to i ntegrate the world of chess with the world at l a rge .

"S O M E P E O P L E FA L L D O W N IN T HIS WO R L D "

Grandmaster Leonid Yudasin spoke of this problem one day. Chess is "a very rich rea lity," he said. "But on the other side, it's a very small real ity.

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Because it's such a n i ntense, small real ity, you can't get to the big reality from i n side. It's one of the problems i n chess, to relate the small reality to the big real ity." "A nd how to do wel l in both ? " I asked. " Ye s , and find balance." "A nd some people don't do that wel l ? " " N o , n o t real ly. It's o n e of the d i fficult experiences i n chess, t o d o that. It's one of the very d i fficult experiences." Leon i d , a thin, l i nguistically playful m a n who sports a thick beard , dark clothes, a n d a ya rmulka i n accord with the pri nciples o f the Torah, offered these thoughts while talking with me and a student of mine i n the otherwise unoccupied tournament room of the M a rshall Chess Club one wintry December a fternoon . The student, M ichal S a l m a n , the d aughter of Russian i m m igrants who grew up in I srael before coming to the States a few years back, was helping us to com mun icate across a gulf of languages and cultures. As we spoke , I tried to keep track of Leon id's rapid combina­ tions of words while two custodians worked outside the room , cleaning the club's sta i rwel ls and h a l lways. For Leon id, " balance" is centra l to the structural dyn a m ics and expe­ riential requ i rements of chess and l i fe more general ly. Leonid was born i n 1959 i n St. Petersbu rg, "one of the greatest chess cities i n h i story." He learned to play chess when he was five years old, when his father, a strong a m ateu r checkers and chess player, i ntroduced h i m to the game. He received a rigorous chess education i n schools and Young Pioneers associations from s k i l led instructors who had devised "professional meth­ odologies" for teaching chess. "I was a very strange young gentleman. I didn't h ave very good conversationa l relations w ith some of the other kids because I l i ked to be i n this world," Leonid explai ned , gestu ring toward his head and the rea l m above it. "A nd chess i s a very good place for that. I wasn't so cra zy. I wasn't crazy enough to be a world cha mpion , but I was crazy enough to be a world champion candidate. I was a bit d i fferent from normal-but not very much ! " Leonid w a s one o f the best p layers i n the world i n the e a rly 1990s . He won numerous i nternational tou rnaments, a n d was joint w i nner of the USSR Cha mpionship i n 1990. In 2004 , he oversaw the publ ication of a book to which he devoted six years of resea rch and writi ng. The six­ hundred-page tome, penned in Russian and carrying a title that translates into English as The Millennium Myth in Chess, offers Leon id's phi losoph i­ cal and psychological musi ngs on the gameY " It's generally about the essence of chess . "

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He competed twice in the candidate m atches for the world champion­ ship. O n both occasions, c i rcu mstances led h i m to play i n less than opti m a l ways , and he did n o t reach h i s goal of becom i ng world champion. I n

I 99 I ,

S oviet grand master Vassily lvanchuk defeated h i m i n a taxing m atch . I n r994,

Leonid played Vlad i m i r K ra m n i k , the futu re world champion , who

was then j u st eighteen years old, in a quarter - fi n a l m atch held in Wijk aan Zee. He lost i n seven games, by the score of

2 .5-4 · 5 ·

" I played two

candid ate m atches," Leonid related , "and with both, I couldn't completely belong to chess. I m m igration, fa m i ly, everythi ng-! had no t i me to pre­ pare. D u r i ng my m atch with Kramn i k , for instance, a close relative of m i ne was sick, and I was mostly in the clinic. I wasn't prepared at a l l . " Leonid offered s o m e thoughts on this period i n h i s l i fe i n a

2004

inter­

view publ ished i n Chess Life: "There was a time when I wanted to be world champion . When I was the co-w i n ner of the Soviet zon a l tou rna­ ment, I was very serious about chess. But because of some fa m i ly priorities, some mystical things, some l i fe things, I fel l down at chess and it became a small part of my l i fe for a time. Someth i ng i n side was a l ittle broken. For whatever reason, God decided I wasn't ready. It took a few years for me to come back to normal <;onditions and play chess aga i n , and w i n some tourna ments aga i n . " 23 Du ring one of h i s ga mes aga i nst K r a m n i k , a "completely crazy" strug­ gle, Leonid found h i mself contesting an endga me in which he had good w i n n i ng chances, thanks to a successful strategy suggested by his trai ner. "I was calcu lati ng," he told us, wh ile d i splaying the ga me position on a chessboard . " I h a d h a l f a n h o u r left [on m y clock] . He h a d two m i nutes, t o make a few moves. I calcu lated that after this move, Black should resign . And here in time pressure, I looked at it very seriously, and here now you can see in chess the Big Hand [the hand of God] . . . . I sat for something l i ke fi fteen minutes , and someth i ng blocked my m i n d . I remember it was an easy w i n , b u t I couldn't find it. I m a d e s o m e vari ation i n m y m i n d , and I s a w h o w to w i n , in my mind. But when I came to the position I saw that I had ca lcu­ lated two moves i n a row for myself. The game was a d raw, even though I had two extra paw n s . " " D o y o u think fatigue played a role ? " I asked. " D id y o u g e t ti red when you were playing ? " " I don't t h i n k s o . Someth i ng blocked out, i n m y mind . This happens i n chess g a m e s . Because a chess g a m e i s stress. I n chess , y o u concentrate your m i nd much more than i n normal l i fe . It forces you to do the maximum you can with your m i n d , for hours stra ight. And there a re a lot of surprises, a

48

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lot of unexpected move s , somet i mes good , sometimes bad, but every time there's something new." "So how do you deal with the stress?" " You h ave to tra i n . One of the i mportant parts of professional chess trai n i ng i s to be a strong person ality. You need experience with some spe­ cial, small psychological tricks . You need to know how to make your mind work under the best conditions. Some use the same pen, some use the same clothes, some use a kind of chocolate . I n many cases , these a re placebos. Or, for example, i n many cases I try to rela x between moves. I make a move , and walk a round. I learn something from my neighbors [ by look i ng at their ongoing games] , or chat briefly with friends. The most i mportant t h i ng i s that I just relax my m i n d . Some people need the opposite-to forget about l i fe . " These d ays , chess enables Leonid t o d e a l w i t h stress i n a constructive and peaceful way. " Now, today, mostly for me," he said, "chess i s the pos­ sibil ity to use my stress, my problems, i n a more peaceable construction­ here , not i n real l i fe . And chess gives me some d i rection i n the real world ." Leonid's phi losophy of l i fe i ntersects w ith the teachi ngs of the Torah. Chess has a secure place within the mora l and instructional teachi ngs of the Torah, i n part because Jewish authorities have understood that the game sharpens and enriches the m i n d . Leonid told us: There's a Jewish parable that says that chess was presented to Moses as part of the Oral Torah. And because of that, chess has a lot to offer i n term s of skills for human improvement. Related to this is the fact that harmony is the general idea of the Torah. It means you can't be too greedy, but you can't be crazy and give everything away either. The idea of balance, moderation, i s essentia l . Chess is the same way. You need the sense of "I want! I want! I a m i nvolve d , I need to be here ! " But if a person wants too much, then he's not objective. Typical ly, a grandmaster loses against a weaker player because he tries to win an equal posi­ tion. He's pushi ng, pushing, pushing, and then finally he has pushed himself [ i nto losing] ! I 've done that a nu mber of times myself. This is a typical example of how a chess player needs to find balance here.

"If you play a lot of chess," I asked , "and you get a sense of balance and h a rmony, can that make you a wiser person i n l i fe ? " " Ye s , yes . B u t you h ave t o have everything bala nced around chess a s wel l . Most strong chess pl ayers u s e thei r wisdom inside chess , a n d l ive within it. The chess l i fe is very i ntense, and sometimes, after a big tourna­ ment or match , when you go outside, you see someth ing l i ke a d a rk color: drab, gray." " It's not as lively ? "

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" R ight. And some people fa l l down i n this world . It's l i ke the title of one of the chapters in my book, ' Chess Is Like a D rug.' It's l i ke the rush of sky-j umping . . . . I f you 're outside the world of chess, it's more d i fficult to get this drug. There's not enough of it. But i f you come i nto it, it's a d i fferent world." " S o you need to maintain a balance between the two world s," I sug­ gested . "That 's where the wisdom ties i nto i t ? " " Well, wisdom i s balance," Leon id said w i t h a smile. " O n e of i t s ele­ ments i s balance." Leon id's words nick at the strains of competitive chess. The i ntense demands of match and tou rna ment pl ay, of concentrating for hours on end and heed i ng the surprises and unexpected turns of a sharp struggle , can be taxing. Nervous and cognitive meltdowns happen . Disappoi nting losses take a tol l . Players need to h a m mer out a strong-willed chess "person a l ity." They need to develop small psychological tricks, certa i n technologies of self, to perform opti m a l ly. Chess can give d i rection and pu rpose to a ner­ vous l i fe . To play at the highest level , a person needs to " belong completely to chess," to quote Leon id. At the same time, chess can provide a culturally sanctioned removal from everyday l i fe , whereby those left of normal can fu nction effectively i n the more etherea l rea lms of chess. Chess can offer a l i feworld one step removed from ord i n a ry l iving. The concept of l i feworld fi rst took form i n the thought and writi ngs of Edmund Husserl, a German phi losopher who died i n 1 9 3 8 and who is now considered the founder of phenomenology. For Husserl, the l i feworld , or

Lebenswelt i n German, was the world as l ived prior to systematic reflec­ tion or analysis. Students of Husserl , expand i ng on his ideas, explored the ways i n which humans col lectively create and i n habit a sha red world of constituted mea n i ng or experience. Sociologists and anthropologists have since come to use the term lifeworld i n reference to "the world of sha red social mea n i ngs in which actors l ive and i nteract," a s one sociol­ ogy text puts it. 24 A n i mportant idea here is that people engage i n d i ffer­ ent "cultural l i feworlds," i n distinct worlds of mea ning and experience. I ndeed , it can be a rgued that, as we go about our days , we step from one "small l i feworld" to another, be it the l i feworlds of home and fa m i ly, stock ma rket trading, religious devotion, or the v i rtual rea lities of cyber­ space. 25 These worlds can be collective or individual i n nature. Recent research i n a nth ropology, for example, has been concerned with the l i fe­ worlds of schi zoph renics, street chi ldren , the blind, ch ronically ill persons , undocu mented m igrant workers, a d y i n g person , scient i fi c researchers, and a nth ropologists themselves.

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Leonid's depiction of "the world of chess" i s i n accord with how anthro­ pologists and others think of the d i fferent l i feworlds i n which humans operate . People can become i m mersed i n the world of chess to the point that it's the m a i n subun iverse i n which they operate. The spel lbinding qual­ ities of this play form help to make it so. As Leonid notes, this i m mersion can carry both benefits and problems. For some, chess offers a secure and mea n i ngfu l l i feworld . They can experience that world as a more intense and i mpassioned rea l m than l i fe i n general. Its excitements can be addic­ tive; when chess players leave the playing h a l l , the l i feworld of ord i n a ry, mundane existence can strike them as "drab" and l i feless. M a ny profes­ sional players find it chal lenging to strike a bala nce between the m icrocosm of thei r chess l ives and the macrocosm of l i fe i n genera l . Some stumble and " fa l l down" when trying to l ive beyond the chessboard . I n chess , there's a pa radoxical tension between the l i fe of the game and the game of l i fe . Art, ritua l , g a m e s , and sports a re a l l ways i n w h i c h we l e a r n to c o m e to terms with the complex ities and chaos of l i fe a n d at the same time they a re escapes, diversion s , evasions that can lead us away from the world rather than i nto a more fu l fi l l i ng engagement with it. 26 "A grandmaster," w rites Yudasin, "can be blind and helpless everywhere but on the chessboard ."

S WI N D L E R ' S T E R RI T O R Y

You now have five pawns t o your opponent's four. I n question i s whether you w i l l be able to make something of this m aterial advantage . H aving a one-pawn edge can lead to a w i n n i ng game, as a player can nurture that edge i nto a pawn that reaches the eighth ra n k , where it can be promoted to a queen. You'll try to do j ust that, while your opponent will try to generate enough counterplay to level the game aga i n . The convention a l symbol for "counterplay " in current chess annotation reads as

Two forces counterpose each other. You both reach the thi rty- move time control and add an hour to each of your clocks. T h i n k , move , clock , write. G o to the bath room. Get some more water on the way back. Think some more. Soon it's l ate a fternoon, some four-plus hours a fter you sta rted out, with both of you having thought th rough countless variations that coincide

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with the sixty-th ree actual moves made. O n ly one other game is sti l l under way. The game to your right ended some time ago , when the fi fty-year- old Russian missed a crucial tactic , which ensnared his rook i n a deadly p i n . He moaned when he s a w h i s fate . Faced w i t h a l o s t position, he q u i t the game by standing up, fl icking his hand i n d i sgust at the board, and wa l k i ng away, leaving the sixteen-ye a r-old to reset the boa rd and record the resu lt. No handshake there . A l most everyone else has clea red out of the roo m . Some have gone up­ stairs to analyze their games. Others h ave stepped outside to get lunch or coffee. One man i s asleep i n a c h a i r i n the shaded courtyard at the back of the build i ng. A nother is reading a Russian newspaper. The lonesome hum of the a i r - conditioner can be heard. Someone wa lks over to check out your ga me. You have four m i n utes left on you r clock, your opponent five . You've been swapping off pawns and pieces. He now has only a k i ng, a k n ight, and a bishop left. You h ave a k i ng, a k n ight, and a bishop as wel l , but you also have the one precious pawn. You r only hope for a w i n lies i n advancing that pawn to the last rank and promoting it to a quee n . That will give you su fficient forces to m ate the Wh ite k i ng. But i f you r opponent captures this pawn, even sacrificing a piece for it, then there's no chance for you to w i n either, as there's no w a y for y o u t o g a i n a queen . The g a m e w i l l e n d i n a d raw, with best play from both sides. While pondering this, you see a way to set up a trap. I f Grechi k h i n fa lls for it, you'll w i n the game. With h i s last move , he transferred h i s k n ight to a square where it's attacking your bishop, which i s standing a loof on the fa r side of the board, apart from the action . You can offer that bi shop up as bait. If his k n ight captures it, you can use your k i ng and k n ight to set up a shield and hurry your pawn to the fi n i sh l ine . It's l i ke using a slab of meat to lure a guard dog away from its watch so that you can sneak a lamb past its chops. A couple of people are stand i ng by the table, watching. You're aware of this as you consider your options. I f you don't set this trap, the game will end i n a d raw. You reach out, grab your k i ng, and with a shaky hand move it to a new square. That puts the bait out: a fat, j u icy ca rdi n a l , ready to be gobbled up. I f G rech i k h i n takes the bishop, he'll lose after a tricky string of moves. I f he doesn't, it's a d raw. He picks up his k n ight, reaches out, snaps up the bi shop, and puts h i s k n ight on t h e square where t h e bishop just stood . K n ight takes bishop. T h e gesture surprises you , s i n c e b y y o u r calcu lations t h e move i s bad. Maybe you've missed someth i ng. There's no goi ng back now. You move quick ly,

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fol lowing th rough with you r plan. Severa l bodies peer over the boa rd to chart out moves. G rech i k h i n is caught in the trap. It's si mple but effective. Every thing works together just right, l i ke a precisely crafted poem. Exquisite violence. Your opponent j erks his head back two moves later. He's up a piece, but there's no way now to keep your pawn from queen ing, and once you have the queen, you will be able to mate him easi ly. " T he endgame i s rea l swi ndler's territory," someone o n c e noted . 2 7 One clever r u s e can tip the scales d ra matically. The older man sits disenchanted, looking at the last few pieces on the board, hoping for a way out, but there i s none. A queen i s a queen. His t i me runs out soon a fter you promote your pawn to a queen. " Your clock is down," you say, pointi ng. H i s eyes move from your fi n ­ gers t o t h e board t o t h e clock, and then b a c k t o t h e b o a r d . You hold out your hand. He shakes it softly, looks dow n . He h a s lost b y t i m e forfeit, b u t h e w a s beaten . T h e on lookers w a l k away. Playing a serious game of chess is l i ke wa l k i ng for hours a long a nar­ row footpath ca �ved i nto a c l i ff side. O n e fa lse step and you plummet to your death . " T hat's one of the t h i ngs that's very upsetting about a game of chess," Nolan once said. " You can be doing fi ne the entire game and then with one little m i stake you lose the ga me. It seems a l ittle absurd , a little cruel . " G rech i k h i n gets up from the table as a friend of his tel ls h i m , i n Russi a n , h o w h e should have played. They move t o the back corner o f t h e room and huddle over a board to retrace the game's last moves. You walk over to them to see what they 're considering, but it's clear that this is a private wake. Exhausted , you go upstairs and tel l the di rector that you've had enough for one day and would l i ke a half-point bye i n the second rou nd. You leave for home. On the

9 : 20

train you sink into you r chair and take sips from a

bottled water. You feel l i ke a warrior ret u r n i ng from a long, h a rd battle.

" Things are not getting resolved " " C hess is much more profound than people give it credit for bei ng," says John Watso n , an i nternation a l ma ster from Nebraska. "It's much deeper and more complex than they t h i n k . " John, b o r n i n

195 1 ,

is a renowned author, trai ner, and chess theorist

who has written landmark books on chess strategy. A long the way he went to graduate school at the U n iversity of C a l i fornia, San Diego; worked as a n electrical engineer; and ran a small business sel l i ng chess books, giving lessons, and r u n n i ng tournaments. John has susta i ned a profound i nterest in the ga me th roughout his i ntellectually peripatetic l i fe . He enjoys think­ i ng and talking about chess, and he has a lot of energy for exploring the nuances of modern play. John adm its to having had a blunt, know-it- a l l attitude about the game when he was younger, while playing chess i n the fa rmlands of the M idwest. "It was interesting that I was so arroga nt as a kid," he says . I don't think I was personally a rroga nt, nobody ever accused me of that; I was reasonably modest. But inside I was a rrogant. I even thought about someone like Fischer: " We l l , I can play him and I can beat h i m . " I wasn't rea l ly aware of d i fferences between playing strengths at that time . . . . So I didn't understand the depths of chess, that's what I 'm saying. I had no idea how compl icated it really was. I just did n't understand it. And i n fact, l i ke a lot of kids, at least at that time, I grew t i red of it. And part of the reason I grew tired of it was that I had seen every thing. I thought that chess was very l i m ited , that you started seeing the same thing again and aga i n . But of course not only was that not true, but I think that's also the key to why later on I became completely fascinated with the game, to a n extent that I don't find even i n other players . . . . I would say that, i n my own l i fe , that's been a huge change , from actually getting bored with the game to being overwhelmed by it.

John's inqu isitiveness would get him into trouble at the board . His com­ petitive side "faded away, earlier than most people," i n part because the intrigues of chess bew itched him more than w i n n ing i n itself. "That's even been a problem for me," he says. "I was so interested in theory, I would get way too absorbed i n position s , for someone who was supposed to be a decent player. Real ly, I would spend a l most an hour on a move-a move either that I was going to make a nyway, or it did n't matter-j ust because I 'd get so absorbed i n a position." I n recent years, John has moved away from tournament chess to focus

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on w riting. The enigmas of the game keep h i m at it. " None of it is getting redundant," he says. " That's the other t h i ng, that thi ngs a re not getting resolved! Noth i ng ever seems to get solved , there a re always new things. S o a fter a wh ile y o u just h ave t o have more and more materi a l t o work w i t h . B u t things never s e e m t o c o m e to an end ."

C H A PTER 3

Psych- O ut Could we look i nto the head of a chess player, we should see there a whole world of feelings, i m ages, ideas, emotion and passion. -Alfred Binet

July

2 0 , 2 00 3 .

It's the day after your struggle with V l ad i m i r Grech i k h i n .

You're ma ki ng y o u r way back t o t h e M a r s h a l l t o play y o u r t h i rd-round ga me. You 're driving i nto M a n h attan today, because it's easier to find parking on a Sunday morn ing. A s you pass by Yan kee Stad ium and East H a rlem and then cruise south alongside the East R iver, your hands a re flushed with excitement. You r body is a l ready tense, pri med to anticipate the narrative structure of the game ahead : the dramatic buildup, tension , release, and a ftermath .

"A D E F E A T G O E S T O Y O U R S O U L "

Dramatic is the word for it, for players i nvest toi l and sweat in the struggle and remember the thrills and agon ies of a n i ntensely fought game for years afterwa rd , i n precise, storyl i ke terms. Recollections of individual chess games can be thought of as what psychologists wou ld term "persona l event memories." A s psychologist David Pil lemer expl a i n s it, such personally situated, experienti ally detailed memories i nvolve "a c i rcumscribed, one­ moment- i n - t i me event rather than an extended time period or series of repeated experiences." T hey also tend to reta i n "a vivid, l i fe -like quality th rough the yea rs." 1 Weddings, national tragedies, sign i ficant conversa­ tion s , and c li mactic sporting events are the kinds of happeni ngs that make for persona l event memories . Chess games as welL The passions that course th rough a game help to render the memories

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lasting. At the same time, the tempora l , ritu a l i stic structure of chess lends itself to the narrative rec a l l of what happened during a ga me. Chess games have clear beg i n n i ngs and endings , clear-cut tempora l structures, and a tangible, segmental a rchitecture. This bui lt- i n na rrative design makes it easy for people to develop na rrative accounts of what h appens during a game. That in fact is what they often do, either by themselves or in the company of others: "I got off to a good start, but then I l anded in trouble in the m idd legame . . . . " For ma ny, the losses l i nger most, often in vivid, hea rt-wrenching terms. Friedrich Nietzsche once posited that the m a i n clause of the "oldest psy­ chology on earth" is, " I f someth ing is to stay i n the memory it must be burned i n : Only that which never ceases to hurt stays in the memory. " 2 Chess pl ayers know t h i s psychological truth wel l . Pa inful losses-and most losses a re painfu l-sear themselves i nto a person . It's often the case that after tough losses players toi l over the course of the game, sometimes pas­ sionately or obsessively, l i ke a wounded psyche rev isiting a traumatic event, to figure out what went wrong or how they could h ave played d i fferently. It may be that the insistent rehashing of such events inscribes the memory of the loss within the fissures of the self. Abram Khasin, a Soviet i nternational master born in 192 3 , has spo­ ken of how he would be "devastated a fter a loss" time and aga i n . Khasin played a n important tou rna ment game i n the ea rly 1950s aga inst Vlad i m i r A l atortsev, a grandmaster from Leni ngrad. At a cruci a l p o i n t i n t h e game he saw that he could sacrifice a bi shop to attain a position that would a l low a decisive attack. He decided not to go that route, however, and played someth i ng safer. When it was his turn to move aga i n , he no longer had a chance to su rrender the bishop in an effective way. " I was so upset that I gradua l ly lost the ga me," he told Genna Sosonko. He was still bothered by that m issed opportunity decades later: Recently, there have been times when I 've lain for hours at night without sleep, think ing. About what? About everything, about l i fe , wel l , and about chess, of course. I a n a lyze i n my head, especially i f I played a game at the club the evening before. How I could have played better, I try this and that. And that u n lucky move i n the game with A latortsev keeps resurfacing, it won't get out of my head , but what can you do? Sixty years have passed since then , can you bel ieve it, the position i s still right i n front of my eye s . I f I 'd sacri ficed the bishop then, perhaps my whole chess career and my l i fe , too, would have tp rned out d i fferently. 3

Khasin lost h i s father to i mprisonment and execution in 193 2 , lost both of his legs to a German aerial bomb outside Stalingrad in 194 2 , and lost fu l l

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use of his hands to frostbite suffered during the war. Sti l l , he rues a chess game lost fi fty years before. Every chess player knows that aching p a i n . "A defeat goes to your sou l , " Yugoslav grandm aster Petar Tri funovic o n c e declared. "It's n o t t h e loss that's da ngerous, it's the depression that fol lows it," said A n atoly Karpov, a Soviet world champion. Yet the storied contests have a way of m a k i ng one feel richly a l ive, heroic even . I n spurring extremes of emotion, the experi­ ences might help some to counter the numbi ng " w a n i ng of a ffect" that, as cultural theorist Frederick Ja meson suggests, shadows much of l i fe i n these late-modern times. 4

T H E C H E S S G L A DI A T O R

You ponder such themes while driving. The roads a re relatively clear, and you make it to Ioth Street by noon . You find a parking space outside the club, lock the car, walk to the door, press the buzzer. " Yes ? " a sc ratchy voice sounds th rough the speaker. " I 'm here for the tou rnament." "What 's your n a me ? " The door opens seconds later. You walk i nside a n d look at the p a i r i ngs sheet. As you scored one point from you r fi rst round win and received a h a l f-point for the bye you took in the second round, you have one and a half points out of a possible two, and so w i l l be p a i red aga inst someone with a s i m i l a r score. This happens to be Asa Hoffm a n n , a sixty-yea r-old regu l a r of the club and FIDE master who can be found at the M a rshall several n ights a week , as wel l as most weekends. "Spa rring partner of cha mpions," as h i s busi ness card notes, Asa is a wel l-known competitor who has played in some sixteen hundred tou rnament games over the past fifteen years. His presence even led him to be portrayed in Searching for Bobby Fischer, though that fi l m crudely bra nded h i m as a pitiable obsess ive a n d warning incarnate t o any­ one considering a l i fe spent i n chess clubs . Undau nted , Hoffm a n n plays o n . He's i n it for t h e money, he says. He'll s k i p tou rna ments i f he doesn't have a good chance of taking home decent cash for h i s efforts. Asa grew up on Pa rk Avenue, amid a fa m i ly of lawyers. He learned to play chess at the age of th ree and showed talent for the game. H i s father, who " k new the evils of playing too much chess, i f you want to put it that way," Asa says, sent him for piano lessons i n stead. He understood from experience that the game could be incredi bly addictive, and he d idn't want h i s son to get the fever. " I didn't get psychological support from my fa m i ly

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[to play chess] ," Asa said once. " T hey didn't want me to be a chess player." As he sees it, he could have become a grandmaster if the course of his l i fe had been d i fferent. " I t takes everything combined , of course, to become a grandmaster-besides talent. Study, practice, strong psychology, good health, fi n a ncial stabil ity. And I 've been lacking let's say some parts of that, or one or the other, th rough my whole l i fe . " A s a attended a "fancy prep school" i n M a n hatta n , and entered Colum­ bia Un iversity. He became a "chess fanatic" while an undergraduate there: " There were people at Columbia who were better than me, and I was deter­ mined to beat them." Switching from academics to chess, he studied h a rd for a couple of years. By 1964, at the age of twenty-one, he was ra n ked twenty-second in the country; " but you h ave to. remember, there were no Russians then ." He got "a bit lazy" after he achieved his master's title, and did not study the game much. Drafted i nto the army, he served from 1965 to 1967, which set his chess ca reer back a couple of years. He fel l on hard ti mes after getting out of the a r my. He played little serious chess from 1967 to 1977 ; there wasn't much money to be gai ned from it, and he got i nvolved with other games , such as backga m mon, bridge, Scrabble, and betting on thoroughbred racehorses . He sta rted playing competitively aga i n i n the late 1970s , and he has stuck with it since. For Asa, chess is "the most creative game, with the greatest h i story." He also l i kes the game because there's no luck i nvolved : " It's just you-it's you r own creation . When you win in back­ ga mmon, you can't feel that you're particularly brill iant. You rolled wel l . " Asa is an exc:el lent blitz player, w i t h a bl itz career spa n n ing five decade s . " I have a fa i rly q u i c k sight of t h e b o a r d , " he s a y s w h e n asked a b o u t h i s successes i n q u i c k g a m e s . He's a " money player" when it comes to blitz; he usually plays on ly when there's cash at stake. He's not a hustler by any mea n s , he'll tell you, because a hustler tries to deceive his opponents about his true strength , while Asa i s up-front about his capabilities. He prefers playing tough opponents , and concedes to batt l i ng weak players only when he needs the money. " Even now, when people ask, ' C a n I get a free ga m e ? ' I tel l them, ' O n ly little kids and good-look i ng g i rl s get free games, and even they don't get too m a ny."' Asa's ga mbling ways spill over i nto h i s tourna ment chess. "I h ave a gambling style: sacri ficing, not playing for a d raw," he says. That's how money i s to be won i n the open tourna ments. He gets by using gumption , a quick eye, and unorthodox chess ideas . " My greatest successes were based on combinations of unusual motifs," he says. " Usually I just saw it over the boa rd-the I m maculate Conception ! " Of the d i fferent types of chess pl ayers-k i l lers, fighters , sportsme n , scientists, players , a rtists-he sees

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h i mself as belonging to the l atter. 5 "The a rtist," he says, "is looking for the unusual conception, and for the brilliancy . . . . If I see a queen sacri fice that I see w i n s , I 'm liable to do that even i f there was a si mpler and more mundane way." Asa has played most of the top players in the country over the years, from Fine to Fischer. " I 've never won a major tou r n a ment, because I 'm i nconsistent," he says. " But I 've beaten some fi fty grandmasters. And I mostly got them not by you r everyday pattern, but by something just a little bit d i fferent." That's the m a rk of Asa's l i fe : not your everyday pattern, someth ing a bit d i fferent. He's a fragile, l i kably q u i rky tangle of insights, opi n ions, regrets, and pride. A few years back Asa authored an annotated collection of his ga mes , in a book titled Chess Gladiator. 6 The text conveys h i s approach to chess. "A chess M a ster i s a gladiator, fighting for surviva l ," he expl a i n s . " H i s opponents a re a rmed w i t h nets t o entrap h i m , a n d sharp tridents t o impale him. The gladi ator must k now a l l the techn iques of h i s profession, for even one slip can be fata l . " Asa is cu rrently rated 23 4 1 , s o m e fou r hundred points h igher t h a n you. Statistically spea k i ng, you don't have much of a chance aga inst him. H i s rating designates h i m as a master, a n d a strong o n e at that, while yours m a rks you as a Class A player.

" W H AT ' S Y OU R R ATIN G ? "

The labels come from the rating system used by the Un ited States Chess Federation , a system that i mplies a class hierarchy fou nded on a laddered a rray of ran ked "titles" and "classes (see "ratings" i n the glossary for a comprehen sive list) . The average adult rating is about 1 500, while begin ­ n i ng scholastic pl ayers have rati ngs between 1 0 0 and 9 0 0 . A bright begi n­ ner w i l l soon earn a m a rk of 1 200, whereas decent competitive players a re rated from 1 700 up. A person who achieves a rating of 2200 or h igher i s awarded t h e t i t l e of ma ster, and a rating of 2 4 0 0 bri ngs t h e t i t l e of senior master. At the i nternational level, players a re ran ked accord i ng to the rat­ ing system of F I D E , the International Chess Federation, w ith that scale producing player rati ngs that a re genera lly about one hundred points lower than the i r U S C F equivalent. Grandmasters h ave F I D E ratings from 2500 and up, with the world 's elite toppi ng 28oo. 7 Players a re situated a long a continuum of value w ith respect to how they a re rega rded in terms of thei r s k i l l s , knowledge, and seriousness of intent. The continuum looks something l i ke this, i n descend i ng order of i mpor-

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tance: world champion s , world cha mpion contenders, el ite grandmasters , grand masters (GMs) , i nternational ma sters ( I Ms), senior ma sters, masters, experts, class pl ayers (A through E ; also known often as "club players " ) , park a n d casual players , scholastic players , a n d beginners. T h e playing h a l l s of a la rge chess tournament give spatial form to this soci a l h ierarchy, as the turf of the top players is set up fa rthest from the door, away from foot traffic, with the next-highest section " below " thei r area, and so on dow n , until you reach the sections of lowest-ranked players ( "down a mong the peasants " ) , which a re often sequestered in other rooms altogether. Ratings a re the pri mary determinant i n this fluid caste syste m . Players ga i n or lose rating points based on their performa nce in rated games, with the strength of their competition taken i nto account. Those who play a lot of rated games can see their ratings fluctuate l i ke a politici an's approva l rati ngs. The compa rative d i mension of it a l l leads many to fret over their cu rrent nu mber, "protect" it by avoiding situations i n which they could hazard a loss, or anticipate a bounty of add itional rati ng points. "Nothing is dearer to a chess pl ayer's heart than h i s rating," observes Lev Alburt, a Russian grandmaster who has made his home i n the Un ited States. " Wel l , of course everyone k nows he's u nde rrated , but h i s rating, i t s ups a n d dow n s , however m i nuscule, a r e h i s ego's stock-market report." R ati ngs a re an i ntegra l part of the social game of chess-accumulating rating points , titles , and championships, being "stronger" or "weaker" than others . It's tel l i n g that, in the words of A merican m aster J en n i fer Shahade, " m a ny women chess pl ayers find the prospect of dating a player weaker than they unpal atable . " 8 The chess community is l i ke m o s t other societies i n t h a t its members situ ate themselves along a shifting grad ient of social i mportance. " W hen chess players leave a room," one say ing goes, " they do so i n order of thei r ratings." It's often the case that i n the rea l m of a chess club or a tourna­ ment site, those with h igher rati ngs carry more clout, and a re l istened to more i ntently, than any patzers hanging a rou nd. People develop a kind of dual consciousness of other chess players , in wh ich both the broader social identity and the "arith metic reputation" of a pl ayer are taken i n to accou nt: a twelve-year-old expert; a 1 6oo poet; a n ex-champion of Romania who plays blitz games i n Washi ngton Square Park . 9 T h e characterizations tend t o l i mit the para meters o f how players th i n k of o n e another. A chess world often resembles a stuffy class-based society in which a person's pedigree defines who he is or should associate with . As E l i zabeth Vicary put it i n her blog, a "particu l a r snobbery is endemic to the chess world-j ust because we can i n stantly and accu rately slot people i nto

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a rating hierarchy, w e d o . I f you've ever b e e n accosted by a stra nger at a tournament who demands to know-even before you 're introduced-what you r rating is, then you u nderstand what I 'm talking about." 10 A person's rating c a n appear to i ndex , at times, h i s or her self-worth . Some with lower rati ngs fee l , at times, that they don't measure up to thei r peers, and they w i l l strive to augment thei r number or give up playing competitively a lto ­ gether. Others don't worry much about ratings and play with l ittle regard to such ra n k i ngs . As m ight be expected , the sellers of chess books and videos have tapped into the collective consciousness of rating i n feriority i n advertising their wares. "A re you a club player

<

1 9 50 ? " reads the sub­

j ect head ing of one such advertisement, which appears i n e-mail i n -boxes a longside other stuck pitches-but for d i fferent products altogether-as " last cha nce to supercha rge your perform a nce" and "don't be the l ittle guy i n the club." The social hierarchies shape ideas about who c a n speak authoritatively about chess principles. While a mateur pl ayers have authored non fiction books about the chess scene at large , none has written books that focus d i rectly on chess thought and strategy. I f they did, their books would not be espec i a lly valued by other chess players , si nce the going assu mption i s t h a t a mateurs don't know enough about the g a m e t o write i n sightfu l ly about it. 1 1 Vica ry, aga i n : " I f you're not at least a M a ster . . . then your expe­ rience is i nauthentic and doesn't · really count." Grandmasters , i n turn, a re l i ke ritual specialists i n some setti ngs, or medical experts in others , in that they a re collectively recognize d as having access to h a rd-earned, coveted knowledge that laypersons do not. One m ight think that once a player snags the title of grandmaster, he dwel ls contentedly on some Mount Olympus of chessdom, looking down at the morta ls below. But the chess food c h a i n gnashes stra ight to the top, with professional pl ayers keenly aware of how they m atch up aga i n st thei r peers. " I think it doesn't really stop," says Jonathan Rowson , a Scottish grand­ m a ster and three-time British cha mpion who has pen ned two popu l a r b o o k s t h a t address t h e cognit ive and emotion a l d i mensions of playing competitive chess. " I t h i n k people don't stop that process of compa rison . T here is a sense i n which people assume that, once you're a grandmaster, you've sort of made it. But I t h i n k our experience i s much more one of lack, of not qu ite living up to standards we hoped we m ight achieve ." " Basica lly, u n less you're world champion , you feel l i ke a n idiot," says G reg S h a h a d e , a n i nternatio n a l ma ster from P h i l adelp h i a . "A l l chess pl ayers feel that they 're horrible, unless they 're a mong the top ten i n the

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world . . . . The better you are, the more you rea l i ze how many m istakes you make." Chess is painfully, deliciously hard . No one makes the correct decisions move after move . Total mastery i s a lways deferred , out of reach.

W A I TI N G F O R A S A

To most people at the M a rshall you're a relatively u n k nown Class A player who shows up every once in a while. You played Asa once before, i n January of this year. You lost feebly to h i m in twenty moves, after a complicated open ing negotiation. Si nce you've been play i n g and studying a lot over the past few months , you should be able to give him a better ga me. T here's n o reason for him to remember you wel l , considering how many games he plays each year and your i n frequent attendance at the club. When he looks at the p a i r i ngs, your name means less to him than the rating beside it. As you're walking away, you hear h i m s a y t o a n acquai ntance, " I 've got a nother weak player." The com ment doesn't offend you, as the term "weak player" is a relative one. T h i s is the M a rsha l l , after a l l , where strong players refer to players with ratings in the low 22oos as " weak ma sters," mere fl ies to be swatted away. But you wonder i f he m ight take you for gra nted and t h i n k that he'll h ave a n easy ga me against another "fish," or underestimate your playing strength on a good d ay. You walk into the play i n g room and position yoursel f in front of the W h ite pieces at the board where you're playing. You r opponent is nowhere to be seen . O thers begin thei r games. You make you r fi rst move and start A sa's clock. You sit back and wait. You notice flecks of dirt fastened on the ridges of some of the piece s , and you begin to i n spect the m . When you get bored w ith that, you step outside the playing room i nto the h a l lway. You see you r opponent down the h a l l , sta nding by the pairing l ists, a sandwich i n his hand. You walk over to h i m . " We 're actually playing each other," you say. " I 'm your opponent. I did n't know if you were here or not, so I 've made my fi rst move , and sta rted your clock ." A sa turns; makes eye contact, and say s , "Good. That's what you should do." He turns to the pairing sheet, bites into his sandwich. Back you go to the play i n g room, l i ke a student retu r n i n g to a class­ room. You watch the clock count dow n . Asa walks i nto the room a few ticks l ater, half- eaten sandwich i n hand. You expect h i m to come straight over to you r table. I n stead , he checks out some of the matches being played,

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stepping from boa rd to boa rd as he takes bites from the sandwich. Black glasses, gray i n g d a rk h a i r, tall, hunched over. As you watch him, you can't but wonder i f he's doing this to d i sturb your thoughts or i f he's taking h i s time because he thinks he'll be able to d i spense with you quick ly. You consider the fact that you're think ing about such m atters , which is a d i s ­ traction i n itself. You t e l l yourself t o focus on t h e b o a r d . But t h e human observer i n you can't help but watch your opponent as he a mbles about. He walks out of the roo m , retu rns with a cup of water, steps over to the board , a n d sits dow n .

A P S YC H O L O GIC A L G A M E

" H e was trying to psych you out," someone says later. "Asa k nows a l l the tricks in the book, and he uses them." To psych someone out i s to do something that undermines that per­ son's confidence and makes him think twice about h i s ability to perfo r m . These psychological "tricks" are taken by many to be within t h e orbit of fa i r play-u n l i ke , say, distracting a n opponent with hu m m i ng or fi n ger­ tapping, or talking u n necess a r i ly during a game. Psychology courses through a chess game like nerves through flesh. Arty game i nvolves more than the cold-blooded calculation of variations. Con­ sidering the powerful psychological undercurrents of competitive chess , one of the pleasures of the game is that two human consciousnesses-with their respective expectation s , desi res , a m bitio n s , fea r s , creative spirits, and modes of thought-engage with each other i n a d i rect and cha rged way. That's one reason why many players a re not fond of playing against computers: w ith those "sil icon monsters" there's no thinking, feel i n g con­ sciousness, no a l l-too -human mind, pitted against one's own . " Chess i s actua l ly a clash o f psyches ," observes Jonathan Rowson . A s he sees it, psychology touches on all aspects of chess play and training: It's not just your intellect, your capacity to work t hings out. Nor is it just your past experience , or your skill leve l . You r whole nervous system i s also being tested , i n terms of how it responds under pressu re . And psychology comes i n on almost every level. I t comes i n as soon as you see who you're playing: you have a kind of natural response of fear, or perhaps one of premature relief. And you have to guard against that, because your mind can play tricks on you . You can suddenly say this game i s a l ready won, or that it's lost. And you have to stop the na rrative from r u n n i ng, really.

Rowson's interest in psychology grew out of his engagements at the chessboard. Born i n Aberdeen, Scotland, in

1 9 77,

he learned to play at

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the age of five and was soon succeedi n g i n scholastic events. He was com­ m itted from a n ea rly age to m a k i ng something of h i s l i fe . " For various reasons," he related i n

2001 ,

" i ncluding developing d i abetes at the age of

six, I became quite self- aware and self- d iscipli ned at a young age and saw my l i fe as some sort of proj ect, perhaps even a work of art, with myself as the a rtist." 1 2 Rowson's chess s k i l l s improved stead ily through h i s teenage years, and i n

1999

he became Scotland's t h i rd grandmaster. The same year

he also completed a degree i n philosophy, politics, and education at Oxford Un iversity. With his school ing fi n ished for the time being, he devoted h i s efforts t o playing c h e s s . T h a t l e d t o serious reflections on w h a t goes i nto playing chess wel l , and that, in turn, led to h i s writing The Seven Deadly Chess Sins, a book that chronicles the psychological pitfa l l s-th i n king, b l i n k i ng, wanting, materi a l i s m , egoi s m , perfection i s m , looseness-that plague the efforts of chess pl ayers . u I n tracing out what he wanted to say i n t h e book , Rowson read resea rch on t h e work i ngs of t h e bra i n , on cognitive psychology, and on chess expertise. This inquiry deepened his i nterest in the human m i n d , i n how people think and learn . A chess-playing psychologist-or a psychologically minded chess player­ was thus born . Rowson followed up the Deadly Sins book w ith one c a l led

Chess for Zebras: Thinking Differently about Black and White, i n which he further examines the thought patterns that chess players employ. 1 4 He also completed a m aster's degree i n H a rvard Un iversity's Progra m on Mind, Bra i n , and Education , and then went on to atta in h i s doctorate i n psychology and education at Bri stol Un iversity. " Wisdom" i s t h e subject o f h i s d issertation. Rowson i s a resou rcefu l , a n a lytically precise thi nker who has a fi nely tuned feel for the assu mptio n s , fears, identities, defense mechanisms, and expl a n atory models that vex the m i nds of chess players. He speaks of "psycho-logics" and " fabulations," of " k now-how versus knowing that," and of " folk psychologies" and "chess n a rratives." Honor i s a word that means something to h i m . He says, It has t o do w i t h taking responsibil ity for y o u r mi s take s , and the feeling that comes up inside w h e n , at fi rst, you're slightly d i sgusted wi th yourself wi th mak­ ing the m i stake, and then you can easily push it to one side, and say it did n't happen or deny it or expl a i n it away too easi ly. But if you act u a l ly take it on board, it forces you to see yourself more deeply. And that's a lovely feeling, I find. I t 's a learning experience , one of personal growth, where you really have to look yourself in the eye and say, " Look, I can easily spin a na rrative web here , explaining why I did what I did, a nd why, if only I had done this, I would have won the game."

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Rowson's experiences i n playing and teach i n g chess have taught h i m that self-deception is a funda mental h u m a n trait. T h i s is how t h e prospect of wisdom comes i nto the picture, for when people reflect on the ways of the m i n d , they can become more self-aware and perhaps wiser about l i fe . " Being w i s e often t o some extent req u i res a degree of what y o u might c a l l a sense of i n t r apersonal intelligence, or i ntrapersonal insight-of knowing your own mind and knowing its own machi nation s , and how it can deceive you, and how easy it can [ be to] tell yourself stories. At that level , if you a l low chess to do that, it can be a great teacher." Chess can inspire an education at once moral and i ntel lectu a l . "So i n that sense chess i s good ," Rowson say s , b u t adds a caveat: "As with a ny­ thing else, I think it's a question of how good the learner i s . If you're a good learner, one who is open to experience and wants to make sense of things, then you'll ge � a lot from it. I f you're less i ntrospective , and more interested in action and success, with more external motivations, then you may not get much out of it, i n that way." As A ldous H u x ley put it back i n

1932,

" Experience i s n o t w h a t happens t o a m a n ; it is what a man does w i t h what h appens to h i m . " 1 5

T ACTIC A L M O D I F IC A T I O N S O F C O N SCI O US N E S S

Chess players mind their minds i n developing practica l , workaday psychol­ ogies, which they rely on when competing agai nst others . They devise tech­ niques that serve to shape and reshape how they t h i n k , fee l , and perceive . Some pl ayers undertake little rituals before their ga mes begi n , to get their m i n d s focused on playing wel l . Some meditate or go for strolls before they sit down at the board . Some place thei r heads i n thei r hands while playing, or wear ea rplugs to screen out noises. Some l isten to music through ea rphones; some adjust what they 're hearing to suit the game situ­ ation. M a ny go for brief walks during their games , to clear their heads or to take a break from t h i n k i ng. Some give themselves pep talks when m i red i n a tough battle: " Don't blow it! " Some stand behind thei r opponents, either to see thi ngs from their va ntage point or to get a fresh take on the game. Some engage i n meditative breath ing during a ga me. Some smoke ciga rettes or drink coffee, tea , or Red B u l l . One man eats candy during a game to "rearrange" h i s tra i n of thought. Some get themselves i nto t i me trouble to j olt a rush of adrenaline. Through these tactical modi fications of consciousness , players try to prompt speci fic mood s , thoughts, or perceptions in order to proceed i n

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more opti m a l ways. Many try as wel l to upset the composure of their oppo­ nents. Since acts of overt d istraction (leg shaking, un necessary coughi ng) a re considered to be unsporting, most rely on psychological tactics within the terrain of the game itself. One man says he i ntention a l ly gets h i mself i nto t i me trouble i f he's faced w ith grim prospects, i n the hope of d iscom­ posing his opponent i nto m a k i ng bad moves. O thers say that i f they find themselves with a rotten position , they will try to compl icate the game, with the idea that their opponents will play hurriedly and lose their way. Others slam pieces down on the board at ti mely moments , or resort to demonstrative posturing. S k i l led players try to make chess moves that, i n their logic and dark energy, h ave a psychologically di sruptive force . "As i n ten n i s , " advises Sergey Maka r ichev, a Moscow-born grandmaster, "you must return the ball to the opponent's court i n the way that i s the most i nconven ient for h i m . You must force the oppo n ent to m a ke m istakes, by setting h i m such problems that he is unable to cope with them." 1 6

A G O N IC E M PA T H Y

Chess pl ayers talk about the d i fference between "playing the opponent" a nd "playing the board"-between , on the one hand, taking i nto account an opponent's potential psychological habits and l i kes and dislikes while deciding on what moves to make, and, on the other, trying to make the objectively best moves at all times, rega rdless of whom one is playing. A few profess to stick with the latter approach. Svetozar G l igoric, a top-level Yugoslav grandmaster, titled a collection of h i s best games I Play against

Pieces. "The unusual title," he expl a i n s , refers " to chess as an art and a clean struggle of ideas, thereby trying to ignore the less digni fied i n fl uence of psychology and personal conflicts." He plays the board, not the m a n . Bobby Fischer l i kewise o n c e proc l a i med, " I don't believe i n psychology. I believe in good moves" (even though many of h i s action s , especi ally during the remarkable m atches that led h i m to become world cha mpion i n

1972,

suggest he was an astute psychologist) . 1 7 Most people I 've spoken with say that for them, it's necessary to combine both approaches. A player has to hit upon the best continuations while also trying to take an opponent out of his apparent comfort zone. A prime example of the l atter idea was the "psychological duel" that took place between Bobby Fischer and M i k h a i l Ta l , both future world champions, at the C a ndid ates Tou rna ment i n Bled i n

1959.

As Ta l recounts

it, at a crucial stage i n thei r game Fi scher wrote down the move that he was

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considering playing next, and then "not very deftly pushed" the score sheet toward his opponent. Seeing that the move i ntended was without doubt the strongest, Ta l gave thought as to how to respond: " H e 's asking for a n endorsement," I thought to myself, but how was I to react? To frown was impossible, if I smiled he would suspect "trickery," and so I did the natural t h i ng. I got up and began to c a l m ly walk up and down the stage. I met Petrosian [another strong Soviet grandmaster] , made some j oke to h i m , and he replied. T h e 1 5 -year-old Fischer, w h o w a s essentia l ly o n l y a la rge child, sat with a confused expression on h i s face, looking first at the front row of the spectators where his second [ h i s tournament assistant] was sitting, and then at me. 1 8

Fischer w rote down a nother move , pl ayed it, a n d soon faced a losing posi­ tion . When Ta l later asked Bobby why he hadn't played the move he i n i ­ t i a lly wrote down, he repl ied, " Well, y o u laughed when I w rote it dow n ! " What m a kes the idea of "playing the opponent" possible is the notion that cert a i n a l most cha racterological patterns recu r i n how players ap­ proach the game. The folk psychology of the game holds that each player tends to d i splay certa i n inclinations while playing-a "chess persona lity," as it were. That's how many players t h i n k of themselves and other chess players; whether it's actually the case i s a compl icated question . At any rate , i f you l i sten to chess players talk about their games, you can pick up on these cha racteri zations . Some a re k nown to play best while attack i ng, a n d a b h o r defending tough positions. " I can see thi ngs quite well when I 'm attack ing," says one man, " but when I 'm defendi ng, I freeze up, and I can't fi n d the right continuations . " Some "shut down " once they achieve a w i n n i ng position , only to see their chances fade. " W i n n i n g a won game," says another m a n , " i s t h e m o s t d i fficult t h i n g i n chess, or so they say. At l e a s t t h a t w a s the case for me i n this tou r n a ment. I took it for gra nted that I was goi n g to win, but then I fel l apart." Some despa i r as soon as they get stuck with an i n ferior position, while others play best when faced with i m m i nent d i s a s ­ t e r : " I only play well w h e n there's something on the line , w h e n my back i s aga i n s t the wa l l . " Some thrive i n sharp, " w i l d " position s : "I l i ke fu nky position s , where t h i ngs a re chaotic and messy. Then I get really i n to it." Some play best aga i nst strong opposition, but then underperform when facing lower-rated opponents: " He's got to stop playing against 16oos. It's r u i n i n g h i s game. He plays to the level of h i s competition ." Some fa l l apart i f others watch them play: "I can't play well i f others a re watching me." O thers thrive on it. " H e l i kes perform i n g onstage . " Some are a ffected by previous losses: "I lost my fi rst two games, and pl ayed poorly a fter that. I

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couldn't see clea rly. I t h i n k once you're a ffected emotional ly, it's d i fficult to t h i n k wel l . " M a ny d i s l i ke playing chi ld ren : " I h ate play i n g kids i n tour­ n a ments. It's terrible, because i f you lose, it's obviously h u m i l i ating. But i f you beat them, you feel kind of bad : you've crushed this eight-yea r-old kid." M a n y a re intim id ated b y exceptionally strong players : " But, t o be hon­ est, if I had had to play aga i nst Fi scher, I would no doubt have felt intimi­ dated," w rote Soviet grandm aster A lexander Kotov i n the 1970s. " T h at long, fanatical face, perpetually i mpending over the boa rd , the burning eyes, the remoteness from the outside world . Those long fingers, removing your pawns and pieces from the boa rd . . . . That is how Fischer's oppo­ nents lose control of themselves . " 1 9 M a ny pl ayers d raw o n thei r sense o f a n opponent's predi lections i n try­ ing to shape the tenor of the game. J u l i a n Hodgson, a top British player known for his explosive attack ing style, often strives to create compl icated , chaotic positions on the board, especi al ly if he thinks they w i l l u n nerve h i s opponents. " Basically," he said i n

2 oo r ,

" i f I 'm playing people that I

pe rceive won't be comfortable with chaos , I try to create chaos. I 'm a great believer in playing to my opponent's weaknesses . " 20 Nola n , i n turn, has hit on a n effective way to compete aga i nst children . " I discovered recently how to beat children , after teach ing them and playing a lot with them," he expl a i n s . "The best way to beat children is to get i nto a rea l ly boring position , and they 're going to go to sleep. Children excel i n very exciting tactical struggles , because then they get excited and they get interested and then they can calculate probably better than adults can because their brains a re younger and fresher. But i f it's a very boring position , a very quiet position , they 'll lose i nterest." Others find that such efforts a re di stracting. They strive si mply to make good move s . "I play the board," E l i zabeth Vicary tel l s me. "I don't look at the opponent. That's a way to protect myself psychologica l ly." Ideas of empathy a re central to these negoti ation s . Chess psychology holds that other m i nds are la rgely opaque-it's often d i fficult to know what an opponent is truly thinking or feeli ng-a nd this mental opacity sets l i m its on i nterpersonal empathy. In trying to counter this problem, m a ny chess players strive to drum up acts of agonic empathy : they try to know thei r opponents better, through a variety of mea n s , i n order to triu mph over the m . W h i le playing, they try to observe their opponent's eyes , faci a l expressions , gestures, body posture, and breathing, a l l i n a n attempt to gauge what their opponent is thinking and feel ing at any moment in a

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game. World cha mpion Viswanathan Anand notes that he li stens to a n opponent's breath i n g while engaged in battle with h i m : " I f t h e breathing i s deep or shal low, fa st or slow, that reveals a lot about the degree of h i s agitation . " 2 1 S o m e a l so stand behind thei r opponents at ti mes t o perceive better what they a re seeing on the chessboard . Before matches , many professional players study thei r opponents' games to ga in a sense of thei r rivals' chess incl i n ati ons-what conti nuations they tend to pl ay, what kinds of positions they tend to avoid and where they feel most at home, how they think chesswise. When Bobby Fischer was prepar­ ing for his world cha mpionship match against Boris Spassky i n

1972,

he

spent months study ing Spassky's prev ious games , compiled i n a "big red book" that he carried around with h i m , to ga i n i n sight i nto Spassky's pre­ d i lections at the chessboard . Spassky, in turn, received support from the Soviet government, which secretly e n l i sted the country's lead i n g pl ayers to eva luate Fischer's style , play, and personal ity. These days, players often adopt "cou nterempathy" measures by m i x­ i n g up t h e i r open i n g strategies and chess-play i n g styles so that thei r prospective rivals c a n not p i n down thei r i n c l i nation s . Some pl ayers a re concerned ·about thei r opponents "read i n g their m i nds" w h i l e playing, a n d they try not to let on too much about what they 're t h i n k i ng. O n e grandmaster from R u s s i a told me he advises h i s students that i f they d i s cover a n e ffective sequence of move s , they shou ldn't t h i n k too h a rd or long on i t , a s thei r opponents might be able to i n t u i t that sequence them­ selve s . These concer n s a re i n l i ne with what anth ropologists h ave gath­ ered through thei r cross - cul tural stud i e s : i n stead of empat h i c a l ignment a l ways being a welcome phenomenon i n h u m a n societies, it's often the case that " too accu rate a n understa n d i n g of the i n ne r states of another may actually be experi enced a s a n i mp i n gement o r violation ," as anthro­ pologist Kev i n G r o a rk puts i t . 22 Empathic i n sight c a n be a d a ngerous weapon . The counterempathy guards tend to come down once a game is over. O pponents often meet up after a contest and go over the game just com­ pleted, i n a collaborative fashion. They do so i n part to ga i n a better sense of what their counterparts were thinking during the game, as wel l as to share their own thoughts , prompting moments of mutual u nderstand ing. While these efforts at agonic and mutual empathy a re an integral part of chess culture, it's also understood that i f a pl ayer has too much caring con­ cern for an opponent, to the point of feel ing sorry for him i f he loses , that feeling can get in the way of being a strong player. " You can not play chess

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i f you are k i ndhearted," runs a French proverb. Some players take exquisite pleasure i n exacting psychological violence upon others . When Fischer was on the Dick Cavett Show i n

197 1 ,

Cavett asked him what was his greatest

pleasure when playing chess . " W hen you break his ego," Fischer said with a nervous laugh . " H e sees it's coming, and breaks all up inside." I n a l l , d i fferent currents of mental opacity, agonic empathy, counter­ empathy, and mutual understa nding swirl about during a serious chess game. I want to know what you're thinking, and I'll try to figure that out, regardless of whether you like it. I don't want you to know what I'm thinking, at least not until the game is over. Don't expect me to feel sorry for you if you lose. As a Hoffmann plays his opponent as much as the board . A long career of competitive and street chess has made h i m a keen psychologist. "I guess I ' m a fa n of La sker and others , w h o believe i n playing t h e person , let's say, and not the board," he once said. He was referring to Emanuel Lasker, the great German player and second world champion, who is said to have advocated a psychological approach to the game, and who wou ld �ometimes play less than opti m a l moves in order to lure a n opponent i nto a fu l l - blooded chess struggle. " I t 's very i mportant to study the opponent's ga mes , for i nstance," Asa added. " I 'm just talking about observing the style of the opponent, and you try to get the feel ing that, i f he l i kes open positions, you go for closed . If he l i kes closed position s , you go for open positions. In other word s , you have to be a complete player. And you don't want to stubbornly just play what you a lways play." So what was with A sa's tardiness at the begi nning of the ga me? You ask him about this months later. " You came to the game a bit l ate . Would you do that to get inside the person's head a bit-or a re you just coming late to a game ? " " Well, i n a slow game," h e says, " I play s o fast, even i n a serious game ten , fifteen m inutes means noth ing to me. But I actually do believe that you get a psychological advantage by coming late, because your opponent m ight get nervous , waiting for you to a rrive, wondering, looking at the clock, to see i f he can build up a big time advantage, and he doesn't know i f you rea l ly a re delayed somewhere, l i ke i n tra ffi c , and you m ight be very late. I mean, very often I 'm off eating pizza. You know, I could have been hu ngry." "Actual ly, you were eating a sa ndwich . " " Yea h , I w a s probably hungry," h e says w i t h a laugh. " N ot everything I do is so deep." A person can psych h i mself out.

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A N A G G I N G I N I T I A TI V E

Once Asa makes h i s fi rst move , the next few come qu ick ly_ You soon reach the sta rting position of an open ing system known as the C zech Benoni Defense, i n which the pl ayer with the Black pieces tries to secure a cra mped but solid defensive structure i n preparation for attacking a long the fl anks once he i s sufficiently developed. Here position a l understa n d i n g-the understa nding of how to achieve a nd take advantage of strategically i mpor­ tant positions-is more important than the ability to calcu l ate through a maze of tactical complication s . T h e defense i s seldom seen at t h e h ighest levels of p l a y ; it has a reputa­ tion for being slightly passive. Asa has been playing it for years. " Wel l , that's another o d d thing that I 've studied," he says when asked about i t later. " There's n o t too much book [ i n formation) on i t . " I n h i s game collec­ tion , he devotes an enti re chapter to his best games with the defense. " T he Czech Benon i," he explains, "has become a popular choice of those masters who prefer to play position a l ly. . . . Black's task is often a defensive one, but potential breaks on both sides of the board give him reasonable chances." Asa opts for offbeat chess open ings. "I keep getting good ga mes with them. Somehow grand masters a re not as prepared for that as other, m a i n ­ stream thi ngs." Asa a i m s for strategically complex positions where h i s experience and j udgment c o m e i n handy. W h e n younger, he played i n a "swashbuckling style," sac r i ficing pieces left and right, going for outright attacks . These days , he aims to get a strategic edge that builds to a w i n n i n g advantage . " Now I l i ke t o g e t a nagging i n itiative i n t h e opening, which carries over to the m idd lega me, so I try to w i n mostly in the m iddlega me." To "seize the i n itiative" i s to establish a board position from which you can make moves that your opponent has to respond to before he can gener­ ate effective threats of his own . In modern chess, having a persi stent i n itia­ tive i s h ighly va lued, and professional players will often sacri fice a pawn or two to ga i n it. The i n itiative is as much a psychological phenomenon as it i s purely a chess one, as the player lacking the i n itiative has to grapple with his opponent's threats, move after move , which can req u i re a lot of taxing mental and emotional work . In your game, A sa has wh ipped. up an initiative that's nagging at your position, at your very self. You're making what you take to be logica l , sensible moves , getting y o u r pieces o u t while covering key squares i n the center. He's countering with moves that, i n hi ndsight, appe a r more sensible and more dynamic. Soon the coord i n ation a mong your pieces is getting disjoi nted. You r center is starting to creak under the stra i n of this pressure.

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A sa's look ing for the tactical shot that w i l l break thi ngs open. He's playing fast, fl inging moves at blitz speed , confident it w i l l be a short ga me. Asa says on a nother occasion that he's " restless" and "und iscipl i ned" at the board. "I h ave a tendency to give my opponent time odds [more time than me] when I 'm playing slow chess. I won't sit there and use my time. I ' l l wander a round, talk to friends, look at others' games, look for women to play chess with, think about other things. This isn't a good excuse, but it's the truth." O ften during a ga me, while his opponent is deep i n thought, Asa can be found strol ling the h a l lway, check ing out the p air i ngs sheet, chatting with a friend , or compl a i n i n g about a recent decision made by the tournament d i rector. He's at the board when he needs to be. Th at's what happening today. He's here, there , or over there, while you're taking your t i me w ith your moves, weigh ing the d i fferent options. As you consider your twenty- fi fth move , A sa gets up from the board , walks a round , and returns after you've made a move and punched the clock. He makes a move . I t looks l i ke a strong one, as he's putting fu rther pres­ sure on your position . But once you consider the position closely, you see that you can i nvite a trade of rook s . This would defuse the stra i n on your position , w h i le giving more active play to your rem a i n i n g pieces. W h i le you're giving thought to this possibil ity, Asa gets a pained expres­ sion. He shakes his head and looks away i n d i sgust. Someth ing i s upsetting· him. You take it to be the fact that your i ntended moves w i l l give you an equal position , or more . You're trying to figure out the best way to conti nue. You're aware of your opponent's head-shaking, but you're not sure of the cause.

B LU N T I N T E R S U B J E C T I V I T Y

What's he t h i n k i ng? What's upsetting h i m so? What is he trying to do, and what does he think you want to do? A lot of mental energy goes into-or should go i nto-trying to figure out what an opponent is attempting to do i n the game and, if called for, work ing to prevent it. " W hy did he make the move that he did ? " and " W hat does he want to do ? " a re the two questions that many chess teachers try to get thei r students to ask themselves with every move their opponents make. One of the tel ling l i m itations of a beginner i s that he focuses too much on what he would l i ke to do without su fficiently taking i nto account his oppo­ nent's a i m s . At the h i ghest levels, a game can often enta il a rich dia logue between two attentive i ntellects i n which, move by move , each acts and thinks ca refu l ly about the actions and i ntentions of the other.

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Players tend to fluctuate between these two modes of consciousness­ between moments of empathy and self-thought singularity-i n terms of both their overa l l approach to the game and how their thi n k i n g transpires while they 're at the board. Bobby Fischer, for one, demonstrated a keen sense for any wea kness, hesitancy, or letup on his opponent's part, and would then try to capitalize on it by i nvesting all of his energies at the board . A s M a rk Ta i m a n ov, one of his victi ms, put it, "As soon as Bobby senses even the sl ightest decrease i n h i s opponent's energy, or uncertainty i n h i s play, he instantly concentrates all h i s forces and begins playing with a redoubled will to w i n ."23 So i ntense was Fischer's concentration, and so single-mi nded h i s intent, that he would sometimes become i m mersed i n his own ideas at the board and forget certain possibilities ava ilable to h i s opponent. " Yet possessing a tremendous w i l l to w i n ," Elie Agur w rites of Fischer, "he m ight h ave ' forgotten' h i s opponent at times, carrying his plans through as though no obstacle could be put up to cou nter them." Or, to quote the man h i m ­ self: " M y opponents m a ke good moves too-sometimes I don't take these thi ngs i nto consideration ."24 It takes two to play a chess ga me. The contours of these i ntersubj ective engagements a re in accord with a " basic i nsight" hit upon by scholars of h u ma n subjectivity, that "the subj ect is both sepa rate from and fu nda­ mentally con nected to others ," to quote phi losopher and psychoanalytic theorist Roger Frie. People are profoundly related to others i n their worlds . ' T h e grou nds of being and subjectivity for any person a r i s e and proceed th rough the i nterplay between self and not- self. As French phenomenologist Mau rice Merleau-Ponty conveys it, a crisscrossing " i nterworld" emerges when people engage w ith one a nother, where "there i s woven between us a n 'exchange ', a 'ch iasm between two "destin ies'" . . . i n which there a re never quite two of u s , and yet one is never a lone."25 That chess games a re deeply i ntersubj ective affairs i s evident i n people's n a r rative accounts of ga mes they 've pl ayed , for time and aga i n such na rra­ tives i nclude references to an opponent's thoughts , actions, and embodied presence . " Basically, he got too aggressive," begi ns one example, culled from an a mateur player i n his mid-twenties: He was playing someone who was 1900, and he should be killing h i m , with­ out even thinking, I guess . . . . Basically, he pan icked ; once he sta rted fal l i n g behind he g o t r o o aggressive , and kept t r y i n g to save h i mself by just making the position worse, and d igging himself deeper into a hole . . . . He kept trying to make it more wild, and that just kept getting the position more and more worse for him . . . . The thing that ended up being memorable i s that I just kept

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tel ling myself aga i n and aga i n , " T h i s is such a winning position, this guy is completely-he m ight be 2 3 8 0 or whatever, but he's completely busted ." I ended up check mating him . . . . Just the whole time I had to keep walking away from the board so m a ny times because I had a totally winning position, but I knew that it was just going to make me feel worse i f I ended up somehow managing . to blow it and give h i m a draw or something . . . . I kept tel ling myself, " Don't blow it, look at what his weakness is." . . I think he was having a pretty rot­ ten tournament. H e had a l ready lost to some guy who was rated similar to me. .

N a r ratives of chess games a re i ntertw ined with the presence of the other. T here's someth ing real and d i rect, and potenti a l ly unsettl i ng, i n the hand-to-hand contest o f a chess game . A pl ayer i s positioned before an agonic countersubject i n a cross-cutting, multifaceted situation. R i sk is i nvolved because people take chances when competing with others; as with any sportive ventures, a person's sense of self and soci a l status are on the line. C reative possibility exists i n the i nterplay between two opponents , for something new can come out of that encou nter-new understa ndings, fre sh creative efforts , or novel ways of rel ating to others . Opacity and uncertainty a re centra l to the encou nter, since players often do not k now what their opponents a re thi nk ing, and they usua l ly can't anticipate fu lly what the next turns of a game will bri ng. A n opponent m ight work i n duplicitous ways, t r y i n g t o m a k e t h e person sitting across from h i m think one thing while setting up a sneak attack . These intersubjective encounters can be decentering; they can destabi l i ze a person's sense of self and others . Yet the encou nters are also grounded in moments of empathy and tenta­ tive understanding. The player also finds he grasps something of another's l i fe, however precariously or provisional ly. There a re moments of appro­ priation and counterappropriation : both players a re trying to size up their cou nterparts, and they d raw on repertoires of assessments , understandings, and gut feeli ngs i n doing so. Chess encounters a re also patterned th rough and th rough by social conventions and cultural sensibil ities, which shape how people make sense of just these sorts of encounters. Competitive chess fosters · a blunt intersubjectivity; blunt i n the sense of d i rect, brusque, face -to - face. Chess play figures a site of confl icting w i l l s and i ntentions, of bonds of mutual ity at once playful and agon is­ tic. That me-with-you, me-against-you dyn a m i c sets up a n array of d i f­ ferent i nvolvements through the course of a game, many of which bear resemblance to assorted one-on-one dea l i ngs common to everyday l i fe. D i fferent models of i nterpersonal rel ations echo, i n mute and ghostly ways, through the course of a chess struggle. At ti mes while engaged i n a game it's as though you're sounding each other out, or waltzing about, or arm

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w restl ing, or exchanging ridd les , or greeting an old frien d , or convening i n prayer, or mugging an inva l i d , or m a k i n g music together, or murdering your brother.

"A L L R I G H T , T H A T ' S A H E A D - S H A K E R "

You both give thought to the position. It's your move . The clock is ticking. Asa shakes h i s head and looks with displeasure at the board . O n l y after the game does A s a say he w a s peeved at h i mself because h e m issed a move that would h ave l e d t o a strong advantage . He says much the same months later when shown the game aga i n . "I had a clear adva ntage, but I mi ssed some stuff," he expla i n s . " T h i s seems to me to fal l under the category that I mentioned before, that I didn't use my time properly i n slow games. In other word s , this was a game where I thought that my position was very good , and I did what I thought was the obvious position a l p lan, and m issed a tactic that would h ave won . S o aga i n , I did n't p lay my best because of not using my time." You decide that a k n ight move is the best way to counter your oppo­ nent's i ntentions. You've got a decent position a fter a �olley of moves. You both pass the fi rst time control with your thi rtieth moves, and add a n hour to each of your clocks . You have a slight advantage . You r k n ight is posted on a good square, where it covers a lot of key squares; it w i l l be d i fficult for Asa to dislodge it. Asa has a passed pawn on the queenside-a paw n , in other word s , that doesn't have any enemy pawns blocking its path to its promotion square on the last ra n k . But that pawn is presently a weak lamb away from its flock, and there's a good chance your wolves can snap it up. You step away from the board and go to the small bathroom j ust outside the playing room. You open the door cautiously. A few weeks back you stumbled upon a ni ne-year-old boy and his parents, huddled together. The parents were consoling their son, who was teary- eyed and sni ffly. He had just lost a game against a n i nternational master he had good chances of defeating. You return to the board . You r opponent doesn't look pleased with h i m ­ self. He is taking t h e game more seriously now. H i s moves come a t a slower clip. There's no way he wants to lose this ga me. Even a d raw would be a d i sappointment, perhaps a minor embarrassment, and lessen his chances of w i n n i n g some money. Asa shifts a rook from one file to a nother. As you're considering whether to take his passed paw n , he shakes his head. You take it that he's di spleased

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with the position or h i s earlier misplay. He looks at the board, shakes his head , leaves the room . A l l this gives you confidence. You t h i n k you might b e able t o beat the guy after a l l . You try to calcu late how many rati ng points you'l l ga i n a fter beating two ma sters in a row. It has to be at least twenty, twenty-five points. You take the pawn with your queen . Asa retu rns with a new cup of water a n d looks at your queen . He responds seconds later. You see now that you overlooked an effective com­ bination that he can employ. You look at the pieces for a few seconds, sensing that your opponent i s sensing your d i smay, and then record h i s last move . You're forced t o g o a long w i t h t h e sequence of moves Asa has i n iti ated : queen takes quee n , rook takes queen , rook takes paw n ! Once the dust clears, your adva ntage has been canceled out. I n ches s , a combination is "a forced vari ation with sacrifice," to quote a leading authority. 26 T here is rea l beauty in a lot of combinations. A " beau­ tiful combination puts me i n a state of fever," Akiba Rubinstei n , the great Russian player, once saidY Beauty i n chess comes i n the exacting precision of a ma ster's play. Won ­ drous combinations can comp a re t o t h e elegant beauty of mathematical proofs-"a beauty cold and austere , l i ke that of sculpture," as Bertrand Russell put it.2H We see it as well i n the ha rmonious arra ngement of forces on the chessboard, where every thing works wel l together, l i ke the melodic sounds of a Mozart sonata . We can find it i n the skil led execution of opposing conceptions advanced by two players , i n a scintillating attack , or in a gritty defense. S m a l l moments of beauty can fl ash in any game, l i ke autumn light through a canopy of leaves. As I w rote i n my fieldnotes, " Playing a quick casual game against Nol an at K i m's house the other n ight. We were fighting it out i n a tough middlega me position , when I spotted something resplendent and unexpected: I could sacri fice my queen, to open up a bishop's i n fluence on his ki ngside , and then mate his k i ng with a rook. Everything worked just right. I made the moves, Nolan gasped . Beautifu l . A k i nd of found art." M a ny appreci ate the beauty to be found i n chess , both in thei r games and i n those of others , and they enjoy the myriad acts of creativity that i l l u m i nate the ga me. U k r a i n i a n grandmaster David Bronste i n , for one, promoted an approach to chess that highlighted its creative , imagi native qual ities-" Chess A rt"-an approach in contrast to the ration a l , scien­ tific methods of his Soviet riva l , M i k h a i l Botv i n n i k . " B eautiful chess," Bronstein rem arked toward the end of his l i fe , "was my contribution to help people recover from the horrors of

1 9 3 o-45 ·

"

Bronstein knew those

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horrors fi rsthand, as his father was i mprisoned for several yea rs i n a gulag, and his fa m i ly suffered greatly during the wa r. "My generation perished and I have felt a vacuum around me all my l i fe," he said i n a

1995

i nter­

view. Bronstein's contempora ry, Va sily Smyslov, a Russian grand master and world cha mpion , s i m i l a rly valued an a rtfu l , ha rmonious approach to chess . Tra i ned as an opera si nger, and professing "a strong attraction to music," S myslov strove for "a sense of ha rmony" and formal truth in h i s c h e s s . " From childhood," h e recalled, " I became accustomed t o t h i n k i ng of chess as an a rt, and have never regarded it as anything else, for a l l the science and sport i nvolved in it."29 The sentiment of some is that, as Hans Ree puts it, " Chess is beautiful enough to waste you r l i fe for." These words recall some lines from Plato's

Symposium: " W hat if the man could see Beauty Itself, pure, unalloyed, stripped of mortality and all of its pollution , sta i n s , and vanities , unchang­ ing, divine, . . . the man becomi ng, in that com munion, the friend of God, h i m self i m morta l ; . . . would that be a l i fe to di srega rd ? " 30 Chess pl ayers sometimes gli mpse Beauty Itself, pure and unal loyed. The catch is that you have to know the game wel l enough to appreci ate those moments . The geometric beauty of chess i s a n ice-pure resplendence that often rema i n s invisible to the u n i n iti ated. By making use of the specific but often hidden features of a position , a pl ayer can orchestrate a sequence of moves that pleases the m i nd as much as a painting or a poem c a n . M a rcel Duchamp m ight have had this i n mind when he w rote , " Beauty i n chess is closer to beauty i n poetry; the chess pieces a re the block a lphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts , although making a visual design on the chess-board , express thei r beauty abstractly, l i ke a poem . . . . From my close contacts with a rtists and chess players, I have come to the person a l conclusion that w h i l e a l l a rtists a re n o t chess players , a l l chess players a re a rtists ."3 1 True enough, but at the moment you don't appreciate your opponent's a rtistry. You're kicking yourself for missing this tactical sequence and for gobbl ing up h i s pawn too quick ly. You should have made some preparatory moves fi rst. You start to wooder i f his recent bout of head shakes were a way to th row you off your game and instill an undue sense of con fidence . I f s o , it worked. You're trying t o play t h e board, not t h e m a n , b u t it's difficult to do so when the man's actions keep taking you out of a ny decent focus on the board a lone . You ask about the head-shaking months l ater. "After the game I wasn't sure i f you were shaking you r head to try to psych me out." " No, I wou ldn't do that," says Asa. " Usually I don't shake my head

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at a l l . I usually don't make any faces or gestures deliberately, to try and d istract people. But some people would do that. Some people act as i f they had blu ndered when they 're setting a trap. But most people don't h ave good control of their nerves, and when they j u mp up they h ave actually blu ndered , or fea r that they have . " You show h i m t h e position where he fi rst sta rted t o show his displeasure. "A l l right, that's a head-shaker," he says.

A S L OW D E AT H

You're sti l l peeved a t yourself for al lowing Asa's combination. You get back to work . The ga me is bala nced, with materi a l eve n . As a pair of rooks comes off you enter i nto a n endgame i n which neither side has a clear adva ntage . A grand master would be a b l e to achieve a d raw from y o u r position , but you're no grandmaster. Soon forty, then forty-five moves are noted on your score sheets . It's a fter fou r in the afternoon . Most of the other games h ave fi n ished. You're sweaty, ti red , hungry. Your opponent seems alert, though u n nerved that he has been kept at the board for so long. You have a rook , a knight, fou r paw n s , and a k i ng left, w h i l e he has a r o o k , a bishop, fou r pawns, and a king. He has a sl ight but secure positional advantage . H i s bishop is fixed i n the center, slicing through your dark squares. There's no good way to dislodge it. It's your move , but you're at a loss how to proceed. Your rook is tied to defending your k i ngside, while your once - i n fluential k n i ght i s out of pl ay, with little leverage on the m a i n proceed ings. You could move it a round, but it doesn't h ave many other good squa res to resettle on. You begin to consider adva ncing a pawn on the k i ngside. You r opponent sees you looking there. You know he's watch ing you, glancing from your eyes to the board , track ing where your eyes a re look­ ing. You're not sure how to proceed . More out of fatigue and i nertia than anything else, you're contemplating moving one of your pawns one square forward. Part of you thinks this is a bad ide a , because pawn moves l i ke this can be weaken i ng. " D i strust a pawn move-exa m i ne c a refu l ly its balance sheet," Ema nuel Lasker once advised,-12 O ver the years you've soa ked up warni ngs l i ke this, which perhaps expl ai ns why you've yet to move any of your k i ngside pawns i n the present game. Don't do it, you think. Don't do it. You reach out and nudge the pawn forward .

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"The m i sta kes a re all there , on the chessboard , waiting to be made," rema rked Polish grandmaster Savielly Ta rtakower years before. Asa's eyes light up upon seeing you r move . He begins to advance his king towa rd your position, hoping to exploit the sl ight weakness you've created. He k nows how to play this kind of position better than you do. He has a "perceptu a l advantage" over you : he sees more in the position . He finds a way to bore i nto your position and forces you to su rrender a pawn. You still have chances of d rawing the game, so you play on, through fi fty, sixty moves. People step close to appra ise what's happen ing. The high school girl and her mother come over to the board, i mpatient for the game to end so that the next rou nd can commence. You try your best to defend your position , and generate enough counter­ play to keep Asa from converting his advantage. He m ay h ave a fish on the l i n e , but you're not coming i n easi ly. T here's still a chance you could break away. You set up tricky situations i n which he needs to play accu rately to sustai n an edge. Each time he finds the correct response . The tricks run out and he has created a passed paw n . It's all but over after another slight but consequential mistake. You can't stop him from adva ncing his pawn to h i s eighth r a n k a n d promoting it t o a queen. O n c e he does that, he'll be able to mate your king. The last stages of a lost game can resemble the act of dying. You know that the prognosis is bleak, you try your best to fight against death, but it becomes clear that there's no way out, no way to stave off the inevitable; the clock keeps tick ing, and you're compel led to rel inquish your hold on l i fe . Chess players develop a sy mpathetic relationship with death . A chess death comes , sign i fica ntly, at the hand of another. Levi- Strauss notes that i n many societies, " to win a game is symbolically to ' k i l l ' one's opponent." That's the case i n chess: your opponent k i l l s , symbol ical ly. It's often a public death , as others are look ing on. That arra ngement can bring its own quarry of shame and emba rrassment. "And what fol lows is a hurt, a confused hurt-not a physical hurt-it's a hurt combi ned with anger; it's a what-w i l l -people-think hurt; it's an asha med-of- my- ow n-abil ity hurt." The words belong to Floyd Patterson, the A merican heavyweight boxing champion, i n describing what it's l i ke to be knocked out during a title fight, as retold by Gay Ta lese in " T he Loser," his 1960 portrait of Paterson . They also apply to the senti ments of many chess players a fter a p ainfu l ly public loss. "If I play bad ly," said German grandmaster Robert Hubner, "I h ave the feeling that I have no right to exist, that everybody should despise me, because I a m such a bungler." Nolan puts it bluntly : " W hen you lose, you lose a l l respect." Few other sportive games i nclude the ritual of resigning,

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of admitting defeat outright. 3·1 That act can itsel f i nvolve an explicit, hum­ bling submission to a n opponent's w i l l and mastery. Bow dow n , concede your i n feriority; Yes, sir, may I have another? Yet there's a lways a chance to rise from the dead, to redeem yourself even . A new chess adventure could be m i nutes away. " For me," said Ukrai­ n i a n grandmaster Eduard Gufeld, "chess i s l i fe , and every game i s l i ke a new l i fe . Every chess player gets to live many lives in one l i fetime." You tip your king over, sign a l i ng you r resignation-figu rative u n m a n ­ n i n g-and h o l d o u t y o u r hand. Asa shakes it and s m i les. It's a tough loss, one you'l l remember for some ti me. You gave him a good ga me. W h i le collecting your belongings, you ask Asa i f he'd l i ke to take a look at the game. He agrees to this. You go upsta irs, find a free table, and share your postmortem thoughts on the sequences and unplayed variations that came between you . He says you played at times l i ke a 2 1oo -level player, which is nice to hear. You just need some lesson s , he says, to fill in the gaps in k nowledge . Your thought is that he's trying to hook you into taking some lessons with h i m .

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"What's better than that? " " I really l i ked the ga me," said Rusudan Golet i a n i , a vibrant Georgian A merican chess player and former U . S . women's cha mpion . " I real ly enj oyed study ing it, so my fa m i ly took it very seriously. I remember when I would study chess at home, doing my homework , everybody was so quiet, they would whisper, they would let me concentrate ." Rusudan, born i n 1980, grew up in the former S oviet republic of Georgia, the home of several great female chess players and a strong tradition i n women's chess. H e r father, a un iversity professor and " b i g fa n of t h e ga me," taught her chess when she was six. She picked up its pri nciples quick ly. She attended a chess school , competed in tou rnaments, and studied with a private coach. " We sometimes j oke about the 'secret' of the Soviet school of chess: there is no secret, it's j ust hard work-j ust learning the game wel l , a n d putting a lot of t i m e i nto it." By age nine, Rusudan had won the S oviet junior championship for girls. She went on to w i n two Russian cha mpionships and three world j u n ior championships i n her teenage years. She left the economic turmoil of post­ communist Georgia for the Un ited States in 2000 and settled in New York, where she sta rted teaching the game, married, and gave birth to a daugh­ ter. She continues to play competitively when t i me a l lows. " I chal lenge myself when I play chess ," Rusudan said late one Saturday afternoon while sitting i n a classroom at the Westchester Chess Academy, a chess tra i n i ng center. And if I win, for e x a mple, I feel great about myself and about what I have cre­ ated over the board. I t 's a l most l i ke being a poet, I guess. I f you write a poem and then read it, you're happy about it, you think it's great. I t's the same with chess: you create something that you enj oy. So I think that's why I keep playing che s s . I t ' s hard for o t h e r people t o u ndersta nd. I f y o u don't p l a y chess, y o u can't rea l ly appreciate the game. Even if you k now the basic moves , you 're not going to get i nto the depths of the position. But when you play chess it's l ike look­ ing at a piece of art. Especially when you create one of those beautifu l moves where you sacrifice your queen and checkmate your opponent. What's better than that?

C H A PTER 4

Sveshnikov I ntrigues To get squares, you gotta give squares. -Bobby Fischer

September

2 4 , 2003 .

I 'm in the midst of a love a ffa i r with the Sveshni kov.

It wasn't love at fi rst sight. When I fi rst met her I found her awkwa rd , unga i n ly. Her features clashed with what I thought a good chess defense should look l i ke . I was intim idated by her complex ity, by the demands pl aced on a nyone who wanted to engage with her. I steered clear. But the more I thought about her, and the more I saw her i n action , my attitude cha nged . I became intrigued by her dark beauty, the geometry of her moves. I couldn't help myself. She was j ust so compelli ng. I broke up with the Accelerated D rago n . It's not you, it's me, I told A . D . I need someth ing d i fferent, something more exciting, before I get too old to play this game. So we went our sepa rate ways, and I began to court the Svesh n i kov, old school. I booked up on her, nestled up to her ideas and logic, and began to dance with her. We 're now on intimate terms with each other. I miss her when we're not together. We h ave a standing d ate on Friday n ights. I 've gotten to know her h istory, some of her secrets, the stories of her l i fe . I ' m fu lly sm itten. I speak figu ratively, of course. But I do think that one can speak of an erotics of chess. The contours of certa i n positions possess a sensu a l , enticing qual ity. T h e positions i ntrigue me. I w a n t t o caress t h e m w i t h my thoughts , u n ravel their mysteries. The deli neations of form found with some chess positions a re , for me, as beautifu l as the curve of a woman's back or the nape of her neck.

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" H O L E S , RUI N S "

The Sveshni kov, the cu rrent object of my a ffection s , is a va riation of the S i c i l i a n D efense that was popu l a r i zed by Latv i a n grand ma ster Evgeny Sveshni kov. A combative, double- edged way to proceed , it offers Black l ively piece play at the expense of potenti al ly long-term positional weak­ nesses. The defense has been popu l a r since the ea rly 1990s, fi rst at the professional level , and later at the club level . It's now one of the most played variations of the Sici l i a n . Its m a i n sta rting position-its signature structure, rea l ly-i s depicted in figure 2 . 1 For years, many took the defense to be incorrect, dubious, "anti positional" because of the apparent deficits in the position . In advancing his e-pawn to the es square, Black is giving hi mself a backward pawn on the d-file. A pawn is backward if it's stranded behind neighboring pawns. With no support from other pawns, it can appear feeble, prone to predators. At the same time, with his c-pawn exchanged away ea rly on and his e-pawn jumping out to the es square, Black can no longer use a pawn to exert influence on the i mportant d5 square. He is inviting White to place a piece i n this gaping hole with i mpunity. With its chronic positiona l weaknesses, the configuration looks down right bad to a classically trained player. As Estonian grandmaster Jaan Eh lvest tells it, " I didn't like the Sveshnikov because it's not a classical opening. I 've had many bad results with Wh ite against it. So I 've actually hated this opening." Jaa n's friend A lexa nder Shabalov, a Latvian A merican grandmaster, recalls that he did not l i ke what he saw when the Svesh n i kov started to become popular, about 1979. He was a young teenager then, living in h i s native Latv i a , and a l ready a strong player. He tel ls m e : I w a s looking at these fi r s t games, and I w a s saying, " I f there's o n e opening that I w i l l never play i n my l i fe , this i s it. This is it." When you look at any Sveshnikov position, the first thing you see i s the d5 square and this Wh ite knight. What's going on to the left and to the right, you don't care. So I ignored the Sveshnikov for a very long time. I knew Sveshnikov personal ly, and every time I saw him he would say, "This i s a great opening." And I would say, " But you know, it's not the game that I want."

Eventually the Svesh n i kov became A lexa nder's m a i n open ing. Its dynamic features fitted h i s game to a T. " It's still my m a i n defense. I would say it works great, espec i a l ly in an open tournament. T here's no easy way for White to make a d raw. But of course aga inst strong pl ayers I 'm suffering from time to time. I don't have the level of control of the game that I would have i n a classical opening. But it sti l l is my main open ing."

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The "backwa rd " d6-pawn The dS-"hole"

a FIGuRE

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

2 . A main starting position of the Sveshnikov Variation

Peekskill's Joe Guadagno doesn't l i ke to play the Svesh n i kov when he has the Black pieces. "I remember learning from my ea rly chess that mak­ ing that hole is j ust so antipositional," he told me. " How can you do it? But of course, now the best players a re doing it and getting away with it. But it's rea lly-wow ! " " It's counteri ntuitive ? " " It rea l ly i s . It really i s . " B l a c k s e e m s t o be g i v i n g away t o o m u c h i n t h e position. It's l i ke cre­ ating a huge pothole i n the middle of a driveway. The formation looks wrong, off-ki lter, l i ke a politici a n c a mpaigning with his fly open , or a model posing with a missing front toot h . How can arrangements l i ke these be effective? S o ran the senti ment th rough much of the twentieth century. While much the same open ing system was played now and then, usually u nder the name the Lasker-Peli k a n Defense, it was only i n the l ate 1 9 60s and early 1970s-when Svesh n ikov, his friend Gennadi Ti moshchenko, and a few other grandmasters bega n to i nvestigate and play it-that it became

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c l e a r t h a t there were trumps in Black's position. I n effect, t h e player with the Black pieces is saying to h i s opponent, " B e my guest, place one of your pieces on the d5 square, where it means a lot i n the center of the board . And try to put pressure on my pawns. I n the meantime, I 'm goi ng to be able to develop my own pieces quickly-a nd to good squa res , no less , where they can be qu ite active. S o I ' l l be able to work around any kn ight posted on the d5 square. As Bobby Fi scher put it, ' to get squares, you gotta give squares.' My setup m ight look ugly, but looks can be deceptive , n o ? " W h e n Svesh n i kov and company bega n t o p l a y t h e defense i n interna­ tional tournaments , other players looked skeptically on thei r pet system and were eager to refute it. "What sort of variation i s that?! Holes, r u i n s , a weak point at d5 . . . " leading Soviet players teased the twenty-th ree-year­ old Svesh n i kov when he employed his system at the USSR Cha mpionship i n 1973 . 2 A fter A n atoly K a rpov " tormented " Sveshnikov and h i s defense i n a game at that same tournament, he said to h i m , " W hy spend so much energy on this d i fficult vari ation ? Find something easier. " 3 As Ti moshchenko relates his own ea rly efforts with it, " I was attracted by the unusual nature of the varia t ion, its boldness, and the fact that it was completely u nex­ plored . In practically every l i n e , masses of new ideas were found, and a pl ayer who knew these ideas had a great adva ntage over an opponent who was playing by the usual concepts. Soon the fi rst tests of the va riation took place, and the resu lts exceeded all expectation s: even masters did not know how to play with White ! " 4 It wasn't j ust that players wield ing t h e Black pieces were better i n formed about the nuances of the resulting positions. They were playing a new and d i fferent kind of chess , one i n which the dynamic, "concrete" features of the setup could outweigh its positional d rawbacks. " Something was hap­ pening here that ran counter to a l l classical chess sense," recalls D utch grand master Jan Tim m a n , referring to the revolutionary force of the ideas at work i n Svesh n i kov position s . The Sveshni kov devotees were like Cubist pai nters, working with concepts of for m , space, a nd time at odds with those com mon to more classical modes of art. O n ly in h i ndsight do chess theorists today fu lly appreciate the revolution ary role that the Sveshni kov Va riation has played in the development of chess. As G a rry Kasparov tel ls it, the vari ation i s " v i rtually the main symbol of modern chess. I n its u ltra­ sharp l i nes the evaluation of the position is extremely concrete and very changeable, since it depends on a great variety of dyn amic factors. A nd la rgely thanks to the intense development of the [Sveshni kov] Va riation , the scrupulous rega rd for such factors has become an i ndelible p a rt of overa l l strategic evaluation . " 5

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" I S TI L L N E E D A G O O D O P E N I N G "

She's w ith me now, the Sveshni kov, dynamic factors and a l l . I 'm ca mped out before a chessboard on this rainy autumn a fternoon at the table i n our k itchen , the wooden figures set before me. Our building is adj acent to the Metro North tra i n line that sna kes down i nto M a n hatta n , and every so often the sounds of a passing passenger train enter my awareness . Ton ight I h ave a game at a local chess club. I 'll be playing the t h i rd game of a fou r-game m atch with an expert-level pl ayer. I won the fi rst game, he the second. There's one game tonight, and the final contest a week from now. I have the Black pieces ton ight. I opted for a Sici l i a n Defense i n my fi rst game with that color. We soon had a Svesh n i kov on the board . It was clear right off that my �pponent did not know how to play against it effectively, as he made a couple of second­ rate move s . I ga ined a good position, which led to a w i n n i n g position , and my opponent resigned before m a k i ng his twenty-n i nth move . Now that my opponent k nows I 'm banking on the Sveshni kov, I h ave to expect h i m to have studied up on it. I want to be prepared for ton ight's game. My a i m this a fternoon is to go through key vari ations and positions associ ated w ith the defense, to prime myself. The Black pieces a re set up closest to me, on a board next to an open loose-leaf notebook that conta ins my notes on the variations I 've been studyi n g for several months. I start to move the pieces on the board and think about what's going on , the lines of force and counterforce at hand. I bega n learning the Sveshnikov i n the w i nter of

2003,

about the time

the variation was starting to become popular at the club level and i n weekend tourna ments i n the Un ited States. I w a s growing bored w i t h the Accelerated D ragon , the variation of the Sicilian Defense I 'd been playing. It was sol id but unexciting. Someti mes a d raw was the best that Black could hope for. I had seen the Sveshnikov being played, at the profession a l level a n d at weekend tournaments , a n d I found i t s formations i ntriguing. The variation promised someth ing modern, feisty, unusual. Each chess opening offers d i fferent ways to align the pieces. That's the case with the Sicilian D efense, with many of the systems having names of thei r ow n : the Najdorf, the Schevenengin, the D ragon. Each of these defenses hosts a ra nge of specific vari ation s , such as the Yugoslav Attack i n t h e D ragon, or t h e E n g l i s h Attack i n t h e Naj dorf. A s g a m e s a re pl ayed over the yea rs, they a re c i rculated, played over, critically exa m i ned, and stored i n databases , and they become the h i storical backdrop for ongoing play. Crucial lines, continuations that are thought to be the best ways to play

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for each side, are establ i shed i n time. To keep track of it a l l , devoted play­ ers consult any number of "open i ng encyclopedias," which conta i n terse, tra i n - schedule-dense l ists of the m a i n variations, or they draw on computer databases, or page th rough book-length manuals devoted to specific open­ ing systems or variations. A s with every thing else known to humans, these texts and d atabases h ave thei r genea logies . Through the fi rst seven decades of the twentieth centu ry, most open i n g k nowledge was to be found in p a mphlets, bulleti n s , magazines, or open i n g compend i u m s , and m a ny professional pl ayers used notebooks or i ndex cards, orga n i zed by hand, to keep track of open i n g i d e a s . B u t t h e explosive " i n formation b o o m " t h a t emerged worldwide i n the late 1960s a n d beyond contri buted t o a sign i ficant revolution i n chess thought. I n 1966,

S a hovski

I n formator, a publ i s h i n g company based in

Yugoslav i a , launched the periodic publication of the Chess Informant (or

Informator, as it is k nown in many cou ntries) , a ti mely d igest of i mportant games and open ing novelties . The text introduced a new, now-stan d a rd classi fication of ope n i ngs, and it relied on u n iversal symbols for the tran­ scription and analysis of games, making it accessible to readers a round the world . Soon professional and a m ateu r players a l i ke were ordering the hefty period i c a l and a b sorbing ideas and open i ng "novelties" rel­ evant to their own play. The fi rst generation to m a ke fu l l use of the new tech nologies consisted of players who c a me of age i n the l ate 1960s and ea rly 1970s. These " C h i ldren of the Informant," as Tigran Petrosian, a Soviet grandmaster and world champion in the mid-196os, c a l led the m , brought t o t h e g a m e i n - depth knowledge of open ing theory and systematic open ing a n a lysis and prepa ration. Chess Informant also released a five­ volume series c a l led The Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, or ECO, which became a n invaluable reference source for many players . T h rough the 1 9 70s to the 1990s and beyond , publ ishing houses pri nted books devoted to specific open ing systems, with these manuals becoming more deta iled and more comprehensive as the years ticked by. The 1990s also saw the development of the first computer chess databases, the successive incarna­ tions of which are now i n broad use tod ay. These digital compend i u m s , recorded on computer disks and stored on computer hard d rives, took the Informant's procedu res to a more sophi sticated level of i n formation d i ssemination. Here were data banks of m i l l ions of ga mes, with game positions to be sum moned at the click of a mouse and "opening reports" electronically prepared i n a m i n ute or two. The computeri zed i n formation a l so contributed to the playing styles of a new generation of young chess pl ayers-mocki ngly cal led "database kids" by British gra n d m a ster Tony

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M i les-who developed many of their chess s k i l l s through the savvy use of such digital data. New text- and computer-based technologies, in tandem with increased competition at all levels and the extensive profession a l i zation of chess, have molded the shape of chess theory and p ractice over the past forty years. While i ndividual human actors ( Fischer, K aspa rov, etc.) have pl ayed a cruc i a l role in the evolution of modern chess, the i n fluence of new tech­ nologica l , epistemic, and social arra ngements cannot be underesti m ated . The oodles of i n formation spawned by competitive play have become more cod i fied, systematized, aggregated, globa l i zed, and accelerated in pace. Those who h ave access to the books and softwa re-and to the computer technology and time necessary to make good use of them-can presumably have a leg up over their competitors . I m mersing oneself in these texts is a daunting enterprise, as there are ga mes upon games, positions upon position s , to be scrutin i zed . Epi stemic a n x iety i s a chronic condition a mong many chess players, as they feel that they don't know enough about open ing theory, the collectively established k nowledge of open i ng positions .

"

I clearly should i mp rove at the open­

i ngs . . . I 'm way behind," says a professional player. "I still need a good open ing," says a n a m ateu r pl ayer preparing for a n i mportant tourna ment. The texts and computer i mages can i nduce a sense of the " mathematical subl ime," I m ma nuel K a nt 's term for those situations i n which people can­ not qu ite wrap their minds a round an overwhel ming richness of data. You can lose a l i fe in thei r vast recesses . T h e evolution of an open ing system l i ke the Sveshnikov reflects these trends i n chess technology and knowledge . The defense's labyrinth ine path­ ways were inscribed and codi fied i n ECO, and many of the battles waged in its name were to be found i n computer database s . W h i le I made use of these texts once I adopted the Svesh nikov, I needed a more language-based guide to help me figu re out matters . There was one wel l-received opening manual that had just been published on the subject: The Complete Sveshnikov by Russian grand master Yu ri Ya kovich, who had been playing it for years. I bought a copy of this book, with the i ntent of work ing through it. For sev­ eral weeks the book, all 268 pages of it, dozed at a corner of my desk . The text's th icket of vari ations and observations was overwhe l m i ng at fi rst. I would open it up now and then, read a few pages, and lay the beast dow n . I wa ited until I had severa l free weeks before I delved i nto it. The book became the bible for my Svesh n i kov stud ies. The wel l-trodden variations of a lternating Wh ite and Black moves that constitute the core of a chess open ing can be l i kened to the branches of

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a tree-and chess players do speak of "open ing trees." From the trunk reach thick l i m b s that splay off i nto smal ler bra nches, which fork i nto even smaller branches. If I were to play the Sveshni kov well, I would need to know about its stem s and branches, what they were and why they took the for m they did. That's what I set out to do. Using Ya kovich's book as my guide, I began to sort through the d i fferent branches of the defense. Wad ing through the ch apters , each devoted to a m a i n conti nuation and pa rtitioned i nto precise sections corresponding to a specific variation, I began to get a feel for what was at stake. At fi rst I couldn't figure out the logi � of some moves, why they were pl ayed at a l l . I n time I ga ined a better understa nding, espec i a l ly with the help of Ya kovich's explanations. "Black has pl ayed in model fa shion for this l i ne," runs one of his comments. " By sacrificing two pawns he has won the fight for the central squa res and obtai ned a p owerful pawn-center. Wh ite must solve some d i fficult prob­ lems." 6 Good to know. Ea rly in my crash course I used the book i n tandem w ith a chessboard . Holding t h e text i n m y left h a n d , I would u s e m y right h a n d t o make the moves noted , and then thi nk about what was going on: Those pawns over there are cramping Black's position, but he has a bishop aimed at White 's queenside. I found each new position I came across as i ntriguing and fascinating as the ones before it. I began to store the recom mended moves and their accompanying ideas i n my computer, with the help of a software program cal led Chessbase. This p rocess helped me to organize the many variations and my thoughts on the m . I stored this work in sepa rate computer files, which I could print out and keep i n a notebook. The tools that helped me i n t h e work-chessboard, notebook , computer database s , bra i n , eye s , hands, paper, pen, other chess players-made for a case of "distributed cogn i ­ tion," t o u s e t h e term o f cognitive scientists. Much as a p i lot's efforts i n an a i rline cockpit rest on coord i n ated i nteractions of " i nternal and external representational structures," from navigational know-how to fl ight speed monitors , so a chess player's practical understa nding of a n open ing system i s "distributed," spread out, among a number of tools, activities, and neural c i rcuits. D i stributed cognition i nvolves a complex cognitive system that goes beyond the naked capabi l ities of any si ngle bra i n or " m i n d . " 7 A s t h e notebook pages sta rted t o a d d up, I came to grasp something o f t h e strategic and tactical ideas i nvolved i n t h e Sveshni kov. I gleaned what to watch out for, how to exploit m i stakes and weaknesses, where to post pawns and pieces. I was trying to absorb specific continuations and the concepts motivating those sequences .

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I had learned long ago that it i s a m istake to focus on sequences of moves a lone. You have to k now the reasons behind them-why, say, this kn ight i s transferred to that square, right then and there . When I was playing as a young teenager i n the late 1970s, I tended , l i ke a lot of untra i ned kids, to devote my energies to memorizing sequences of open ing moves, with the idea of arming rnyself for over-the-board contests. The problem with this method i s that without a keen cogn i zance of the i ntern a l logic of those moves, you can easily lose your way i f your opponent veers off a fa m i l i a r track. It's l i ke a c h i l d w h o knows on ly o n e precise way home from school; i f he takes a w rong turn at any point, he's lost. "As soon as I took the kid -out of the variations he knew, he didn't have a clue as to what to do," said one man a fter trouncing a twelve-year- old at a tou rna ment. As the weeks went by I developed a better feel for m atters , for what felt right i n a specific position. I also bega n to employ the Svesh n ikov in casual and tou rna ment games at the clubs I attended . It proved fruitful from the start. I would get good midd legame position s , and hit on what Ti moshchenko d iscovered years before : that many players did not know how to play against it. When they resorted to the usual concepts , it was easy to get a good game against them. At stronger levels, where players k new what to do, I couldn't expect easy games. But still I got decent games out of it, and it was i n question then who would better navigate the i ntrica­ cies of the position. I kept at it. " You play some weird stuff," said one man a fter I wielded the Sveshnikov against him at a club. "That's a good system," he said a dozen games later. I picked up several other books on the Svesh n i kov, i nclud ing a used copy of Sveshnikov 's own treatise on the defense, published i n 1 9 8 9 . By read ing this and other books, I carved out a deeper sense of the genea logy of ideas i n herent i n the open ing. Strong players w i l l tel l you there's great value i n understanding a chess opening i n h istorical term s . I n coming to k now how ideas and continu­ ations developed th rough ti me-what new bri l l i a nt ideas occurred, and when , and which once-fashionable lines and formulations were d i sca rded a fter being refuted-one can appreci ate the precise, decades-rich cogn ition that has gone i nto the understanding of certain position s . It's revea ling to trace out the vast collective thought that goes i nto the development of chess ope n i ngs. A pl ayer i ntroduces a novelty, the product of home preparation , i n a key vari ation one week . The next week another grandm aster comes up with a response that neutra l i zes it. That sends legions of competitors to their la boratories, and so on through months and years, as opening

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theory evolves. An a rchaeology of an opening reveals layers upon strata of agon istic, experimental effort. The structure and pace of i n novation parallel the ways that k nowledge proceeds these days i n scientific fields such as m icrobiology or plasma physics, where competing research tea ms hit on new insights month ly. I f the principle of " i ntel ligent design" applies any where , it's with the opening systems devised by chess players . I n playing the Sves h n i kov, I felt I was participating i n its h i s tory, however minutely. The more I played and studied the openi ng, the more Sveshni kovesque my thoughts became. I was soaking up the formations and energies common to the va riation, and all that shaped my perceptual and cogn itive faculties rega rd ing chess. I was playing more boldly and energeti­ cal ly. I saw how the dynamic, concrete features of a position could offset certa i n position al d rawbacks . The Svesh n i kov was helping me, l i ke others before, see chess i n a d i fferent light. It offered a world of sharp energies, angular pawn formations, slicing d iagon a l s .

I N FINIT E S T R A N G E S H A P E S

D i fferent openi ngs possess d i fferent qual ities. The structu res and energies com mon to a specific opening give it particular features, distinct tones of a n a l most metaphysical ki nd. Openi ngs can be quiet or sharp, flexible or formulaic, sym metrical or unbalanced . Some have a for m a l , classical feel to them. Others a re dow n right cra zy. Mu rky, clear, double-edged, aggres­ sive, boring, worn-out, risky, ancient, dubious, schoolboy i s h : d i fferent motifs and auras apply to d i fferent open i ngs. The pawn deposits of the Sl ave D efense rem i nd me of the stalactites and stalagm ites found i n icy caves . The endga mes of the Griinfeld Defense evoke an arid but fertile desert. The French Defense resembles a labyrinth of fork ing paths, while the Najdorf Sicilian i s a brutal street fight, with a swirl of kn ives slash i ng about. Yet another, the Four K n ights Va riation of the English Opening, i s an ornately elega nt cathed ra l . One variation re m i nds me of an aban­ doned, water-logged factory I once explored in Fairfield, New Jersey. Then there are those variations whose names speak to their shape or nature: the Hedgehog, the Dragon, the Bayonet Attack , the K n ight's Tour, the O ranguta n , the Fried Liver Attack , the Frankenstein-Dracula Va riation. The d iversity of open ing systems never ceases to engage me. When I visited the New York Botan ical Gardens one spring day I was struck by the d i fferent forms pla nts can take. Desert cact i ; forest pines; bog mosses; seaweeds and coral reefs; orchids and sycamores and rhododend rons­ d istinct l i fe -forms have a risen out of possibility and need . It's much the

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same with chess: while the pieces and pawns a lways move i n the same ways, the precise a l ign ments and requ i rements of d i fferent positions lead to vastly dissi m i l a r formation s . There's a lways someth ing new to attend to, someth ing u n fa m i l i a r for one's eyes to a l ight upon. That's the case for me, at least: I love thei r " i n fi nite strange shapes," thei r ton al ities and tex tures. s To me, the Sveshnikov is a surrea l , postmodern building, with sharp a ngles and a vacant gash in its center, w ith stairs that lead nowhere, w ith walls where there should be wi ndows and windows where there should be wa l l s . Yet somehow the design is h ighly fu nction a l , i n a n obliquely knotty way. Despite the range of possibil ities ava il able to them, players d i splay dis­ tinct preferences when it comes to employ i n g openi ngs i n thei r games. Some prefer sharp, complic ated a ffa i rs where keen-eyed calculation can w i n out, while others seek placid waters where they can rely on their under­ sta n d i ng of the strategic requ i rements i nvolved. A cultural di mension to opening inclinations i s sometimes in evidence. Dutch grandmaster Genna Sosonko contends that it's no accident many Armenian pl ayers savor the French Defen se as thei r main weapon aga i n st the move

r.

e4: "This Eastern

i nterl acing, these intricate patterns of paw n s , especially i n systems with a closed center, evoke the a rch itecture of the monasteries a nd chu rches hewn out of the A rmen ian mounta i n s . " It could be a rgued that many A merican players have a pench ant for d i rect a nd open systems, airy plains where their pieces roa m freely. In some ways the evolution of a player's open ing choices reflects his development as a chess pl ayer. A r i Ziegler, a n i nterna­ tional master from Sweden, relates that he stopped playing the Svesh n i kov Sicilian after he got ma rried and had children, as he did not h ave the time to keep up with the latest developments on the defense . I n turn , he decided to take up the French Defense, which he found to be " more stable" and requ iring less preparatory work . The French , he says, is an open ing for "old" or "slow" pl ayers , whose bra ins do not work as fast as they once d id .9 Openings a re often metaphors of selfhood, i n that a pl ayer's choice of open ing systems is taken to be ind icative of that person's ways of acting, t h i n k i ng, and yea rning. Somerset Maugham once observed that i n each shave lies a philosophy. The same holds for chess openi ngs .. Having either the Wh ite or the Bl ack pieces i n a game can make a big d i fference. Wh ite's right of the fi rst move gives its player the better chance of secu ring a n edge out of the open ing ( "Just l i ke i n l i fe," quips a Latino friend) . " Dang, I 've got Black aga i n ," says a tou rna ment pl ayer, look ing at the pairi ngs for the next rou nd. That u ndersta nding i s borne out by database statistics, which suggest, by one count, that at h igher competitive

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levels Wh ite wins roughly 37 percent of the time, while Black triu mphs 27 percent of the t i me, with the rem a i nder pl ayed to a d raw. Indeed , at the top levels pl ayers a re often content to obta i n a d raw when they have the Black pieces, whereas they go for the w i n with the Wh ite pieces. The uneven playing field shapes the opening a i m s and strategies of chess pl ayers . When they have the W h ite pieces, skil led players a re usua l ly trying either to go for a knockout blow at once or to ga i n a slight but pressing edge that they can nurture i nto a winning advantage. When they have Black, they a re usually trying either to equa l i ze the ga me by securing an even position , or to create a complicated , uneven, dynamically cha rged scene i n which the party who plays best w i n s . The latter strategy underpi n s the chemistry of many of the more modern open ings, such as the Sveshni kov, which were establ ished by players who weren't content to settle for a draw with the Black pieces. Bobby Fischer once rema rked that his revelation while i n h i s teens that Black has dynamic opportunities and need not be satisfied with equ a l ity was the "turning point" i n his career. 1 0 I n thei r choice of open i ngs, players are trying to shape the cha racter of the resulting play, be it messy and mudd led, clear and straightforward , or tactical and memory-dependent. Rusudan Goletiani prefers openi ngs that lead to positions where her tactical skills can reign. "I l i ke open i ngs that lead to exciting positions with a lot of attacking chances , with lots of piece play," she told me. "I enjoy positions where you can attack the k i ngs more. It's not easy to get them, especia lly i f you're playing grandmasters, but . . . " K i m Qvistorff l i kes airy positions with open lines, sava nnas where he can sta l k for combinations. Closed, cramped positions a re his worst n i ght­ m a re . "I h ate positions that are rea lly locked up," he says. E l i zabeth Vicary says she does best i n positions that offer clear strategic plans to follow. Yet she, too, has had a l i k i ng for the Sveshni kov. " I have sort of a love for the Sveshni kov," she told me in 200 8 , "a lthough I do rather badly w ith it . . . . I love it because it's so surrea l , i n some way. You k now, the positions a re so weird, Black is very active , when you w i n you w i n through some great attack. I guess that's why-it feels l i ke a space where you can be creative ." Months l ater, E l i zabeth a n nounced i n her blog that she was aba ndon ing the Sveshni kov. " It's so depressing," she w rote. " S o , I know I 've been say­ ing this for a long t i me now, but I'm goi ng to give up the Sveshni kov. It j ust doesn't make me happy. I feel gui lty all the time, I lose constantly, even when my opponent does noth ing, I still get not very good position s." The stark fact is that i f you want to play chess at a decent competitive level, you need to develop a robust reperto i re of open ings. I f, for example, you wish to begin a game with the Wh ite pieces by moving your e-pawn

94

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to the q square,

1. q ,

you have to know what to do i f Black bids for a

Sicilian Defense with I . . . c s . But you also have to k now what to play i f he opts for t h e French ( I . . . e 6 ) , t h e Pirc ( I . . . d 6 ) , t h e Modern ( I . . . g6 ) , the Alekhine ( I . . . Nf6 ) , the Caro-Kann ( I . . . c 6 ) , o r the Scandinavian

( I . . . ds) . Meanwh i l e , i f you r opponent responds with I . . . es, match ing your pawn move with a sym metrical response, then you h ave to decide whether to steer the game toward a K i ng's Ga mbit, an Italian Game, a Scotch Game, or a Ruy Lope z . Each of these openi ngs comes with a num­ ber of major variation s . There's a lot to give thought to. Much the same goes i f you want to open a game by adva ncing your d-pawn to the d4 square, or by using any other respectable i n itial move . A longside a l l this you also have to h ave defenses prepared for when you're sitting i n front of the Black piece s . I f your opponent starts by pushing his d-pawn two squa res forward, do you steer the game toward a Semi-Slav? How about playing the K i ng's I n d i a n ? And i f that, what do you do i f your rival opts for the Classical Va riation or the Bayonet Attac k ? A l l this takes a l o t of hard work-exacting, mind-crunching labor that deters many from taking up the game seriously. "I used to play chess­ when I was in the t h i rd grade ," a psych i atrist tel ls me. " Then I heard that there was someth ing c a l led ope n i ngs, which you had to learn i n order to play wel l . That's when I switched to basketb a l l . " Yet once you do have a l l you r K i ng's I n d i a n s and Queen's G a mbits i n place, t h e boa rd can come a l ive with meaning. It's i mpressive what some players know. Dale Sharp, a master-strength player who l ives i n Peeksk i l l , New York , tel l s me of a game that he pl ayed some years back, in a variation of the Ruy Lopez known as the M a rsha l l G a mbit. He h a d the Black pieces, and the g a m e fel l i nto a sequence that he had previously worked out i n depth through home a n a lysis. A fter making h i s n i neteenth move , he left the board and took a stroll a round the play­ ing h a l l . He met up with a friend , who asked how his game was going. "Good," he said. "My opponent has made a m i stake, and he's going to lose "

a piece on move 27. His opponent lost a piece on the twenty-seventh move . "That was when I was really study ing the open i ng," Dale says.

P A T T E R N R EC O G N I TIO N

A pl ayer can come to feel at home with spec i fi c opemng system s . " I t h i n k I have a n excel lent i ntu itive sense o f most Sicilian structures," Sam Shankland, a young i nternationa l ma ster from Californ i a , tells me. " I n other open ings, I feel l i ke I ' m a l most an idiot. But with the Sicilian I feel

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that I 'm quite strong. I l i ke Sici l i a n structures: there's a l o t o f positionally complex ideas, and there's a lot of calculation ." T h rough h i s years of playing with and against Sicilian structures , S a m has built u p a fine-grai ned feel for what's i nvolved i n t h e i r most com mon configu rations of pawns and pieces. Pattern recognition is the term chess writers use when talking about this kind of learning and thinking. " Chess is to a considerable extent about pattern recognition ," remarks English gra ndmaster John Nun n . "The more patterns you have fi r m ly fixed i n your memory, t h e more effective y o u a r e l i kely t o be at the chessboard ." Without a l a rge store of patterns, it's di fficult to develop fa r as a player. Psychologists esti mate that a grandmaster has in his grasp anywhere between seventy-five thousand and a hund red thousand patterns-d i screte "chunks" of i n formation-that i n form what he perceives and k nows of chess. This practical k now-how points to the way in which the human m i n d knits its patchy grip on the world th rough clumps of meani ngfu l form-concepts , d i agra m s , emblems, l i nes drawn in the sand. "If you really think about it, it gets down to patterns at some point," Rusudan Goletiani told me one day. " Even grand masters say it's pattern recognition . They k now so much about chess, they don't have to come up with anything new when they play, the ideas j ust hit thei r heads. They've seen m i l l ions of d i fferent games, and they h ave a l l these ideas i n their heads, and it just comes up, pops up. They ra rely come up with something that has never been played before. I mea n , once i n a while they do-th at's why they're grandmasters, right?-but mainly it's pattern recognition ." " Would you say it's the same when you 're playing, that you're looking for tactical patterns , strategic pattern s ? " " It's n o t l i ke I 'm look ing for i t , it j u s t comes u p , because I 've pl ayed chess for long enough. Something tel ls me it's there . S o I guess you get bet­ ter i ntuition when you h ave a lot of knowledge of the game, and then you try to see how you can work it out. But it comes down to h a rd work . The more you work , the better you get . There is no secret, real ly, because this is something you can't learn overnight." M a ny of the patterns a re elementa l , such as a doubled pawn formation, a castled k i ng, or a fi anchettoed bishop; they 're l i ke the words people use i n spea king a language . A long with this pa noply of concepts are various thematic, fu l l - board positions that frequently occur i n competitive pl ay. These more compl icated conceptions are l i ke the oratorical and rhetorical forms a n accompl ished speaker can d raw upon i n ways spontaneous and trenchant. To play chess wel l , a person has to know how to proceed capa­ bly and creatively i n these situations-how, say, to play with (or aga i nst)

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an isolated queen's paw n , or how to launch (or parry) a m i nority pawn attack on the queenside. Predrag Traj kovic, a Serbi a n grandmaster who teaches chess online, once told me that there are some

150

key positions

that one needs to m aster i n order to play chess at the highest levels-of which he h i mself k nows about seventy or eighty to date. As he and m a ny others u nderstand it, the most effective way to know these positions well i s to become fa m i l i a r w ith the ga mes of knowledgeable players in which the positions occ u r : classic, time-tested games by Capablanca, A lekhine, Ka rpov, and the like, i n which exemplary methods of play a re apparent i n clear, instructive terms. " A grandmaster," Kaspa rov once observed , "needs to reta i n thousands of games i n his head , for games a re to him what the words of their mother tongue a re to ord i nary people, or notes or scores to musicians." Another ana logue might be that of a novelist who must read the great works that have preceded her before she i s able to mature i nto a w riter of substance herself. Gleaning the patterns, soa king them up until they 've saturated one's mental equipment, enables a player to work with the formations of the game, h a ndle its devices and structures, and intuit those crucia l poi nts when prudent decisions must be made. A s fa r as the patterns i n a particu­ l a r chess open i n g go , it takes at least a year of play and study to begin to k 11 �w them wel l , and more than that to m aster them fu l ly. The process of becoming educated is l ike coming to know

a

city. At first everyth i n g about

the place is new and unfa m i l i a r ; only a fter months of wa lk ing its streets do you begin to get a sense of it. Even then , for years a fter, previously untrod side ways, taverns, and neighborhoods can reveal themselves. " I 've been playi ng the Ta i m a nov Sicilian for twenty yea r s ," said Predrag Traj kovic, "and I'm still not sure I know it very wel l . " S o m e players get b y w i t h a m i n i m a l knowledge of opening theory, sav­ ing their energies for any midd lega me or endgame battles that m ight fol­ low. They a re content to get the ball over the net, and then take it from there . Some find the study of openi ngs a ted ious chore. "I admit that I was never able to study open ings-it rea lly bored me," Pal Benko, a Hungarian grandmaster, wrote i n

200 3 .

" I remember being with a gi rlfriend who asked

me to look over some chess openings with her. I i nstantly fel l asleep. I found that I could take a nap i n any situation by just looking at some open ing variation-my eyes would shut right away." ' ' Some players say they don't study openi ngs much because they soon forget the nua nces of thei r investi­ gations. O thers a re fascin ated by open ings and devote hours to analyzing their intricacies. It's similar to the appreciation for Mendel i a n genetics that some studen t s stumble upon while i n high school, when they learn about

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genetic " factors" and ma rvel at their intricate determ i nations . A nd along with the sheer pleasure of learning something new, it's fu n to figure thi ngs out, while appreciating the intricate knowledge that led to its development. Work ing with others i n this pursuit carries its own pleasures and ben­ efits. I 've often studied with friends, at k itchen tables or neighborhood clubs, parsing ideas and va riation s . Nolan has come over to my place on many occasions, w ith soda bottle and sandwich i n hand. We toi l for hours, a chessboard between us: " S o that's why the bi shop needs to be there . . . " Ta l k i ng, compa ring, a rgu i n g m atters out bri ngs home the lessons­ better-attesting to A � erican anthropologist Pau l Rabi now's i nsight that friendship is "a primary site of thinking." 1 2 Comparing thoughts i s fine for us, but at the profession a l level , where the stakes are higher and where competitors a re trying to hit on something truly new, pl ayers have to be carefu l : some grandma sters a re wary of work ing with others because they a re afra id that their collaborators will give away their cherished "novel­ ties." Secrecy is a professional requi rement.

T H E P E R SI S T E N C E OF P A W N S T RUC T U R E S

The rise i n the number of regional and internation a l tourna ments i n the 1970s , the i ncreased profession a l i zation of chess, and the expansion of writings on chess openi ngs i n the 1970s and 198os a ltered the way chess pl ayers approached competitive chess, the open ing stage of the game in particular. I n the age of Capablan � a and Alekhine, the open ing was chiefly a means to get to the fu l l - blooded battlegrou nds of the middlegame and endga me. Now, ha nd-to-hand combat starts from the fi rst moves. As Igor Z a itsev, a Russi a n grandmaster and noted open ing theorist, recalls the chess i n the post-Fischer era, when Z a itsev h i mself was i n his thirties, " Tournament points began to bring money, and to achieve decent results on a regu l a r basis, you had to learn to obtain good results. From the very fi rst moves there was a desperate struggle for a n adva ntage, every tempo counted , and the slightest nua nces were exploited . The open ing was trans­ formed i nto a self-contai ned force, it became a kind of chess megalopol is, grow ing i n both depth and width and devouring a l l the adjacent territory." That i n formation sprawl has continued to this day, with m a ny openi ngs having been worked out some fi fteen to twenty-five moves from the start­ ing position-well i nto the m iddlegame segment of a chess game. " T he midd lega me, I repeat, is chess itself; chess with a l l its possibilities, its attacks , defenses, sacrifices, etc . ," or so said Eugene Znosko-Borovsky, a Russian chess master and writer. u R ich is the poetry of its means: bad bish-

.98

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ops, m i nority attacks, pawn storms, superfluous knights, hanging pawns, dark-square strategies. I n some ways, the m iddlegame i s the most d i fficult part of the game to study d i rectly, as its principles are more d i ffuse than those apparent i n openings or endga mes. Players tend to acqui re a sense of them through steady practice and, i f they know what's good for them, through the study of frequently recurring positions. I ndeed , as a m iddle­ game position often carries vestiges of the structures and dynamics bi rthed i n the open ing, l i ke an eroding sand castle, some chess phi losophers say that the secret to studying openi ngs i s to grasp wel l the m iddlegame (and endga me) formations that commonly result from them. Th at's the approach advocated by John Watson, an i nternational master and chess theorist from Nebraska. "I think now kids are overwhe l m i ngly focusing on the opening," he expla i n s . "A nd I think that's okay. Because I think what happens is that that's the end to learning about the middle­ game. I n other words, the only way you can learn about middlegames i s playing a lot, and the positions that arise tend to be s i m i l a r structur­ a l ly. There's tremendous overlap. A n d theory itself now goes way i nto the m iddlega me. You can a rgue that it even goes i nto the endgame. When you're learning open i ngs, you really a re learning midd lega mes ." " Basically, I think open ing theory is midd legame theory," John says, when asked about the impulse beh ind h i s decades-rich focus on openi ngs. " You j ust can't d istinguish between the two anymore. Opening study is really the entryway to midd legame study. Its boundaries are just rea l ly disappea ring quick ly." "A nd so, by doing that, you're really writing about the heart of chess ? " Yes , I t h i n k so. I t 's really t h e heart. Wh ich is funny because, when I w a s grow­ ing up, I didn't think much of open ing theory. I thought, Oh, what a b o re! Yo u 're just m e m o rizing m o ves, right ? And I think that's just changed d ra m ati­ cal ly. The opening has just been pushed so far out, but not only that, but I think also the concepts that we say a re part of openi ngs now go up to the endga me. So even i f you aren't memorizing up to move 23, you 're still working with advanced concepts that a re con nected to the opening, up to the middlegame . There's j ust a huge overlap. I should also say that i n terms of my interest i n the midd lega me-a nd most people's, real ly-the most i mportant thing, or at least the most nontrivial thing, is pawn structure. Pawn structure really has the priority i n things like attack­ ing, the i n itiative, and defense. It's not l i ke they 're a l l just a big m i x : pawn structure has sort of a lead role . . . what k i nds of pawn structures persist, and which ones break dow n ? That's one reason that open ing theory is m iddlegame theory-because of the persistence of those pawn structures. At least it's the thing that we can grab on to most easily.

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I ask John about the Svesh n i kov. "It depends on what level you 're at," runs the gist of his respon se. For many players, the defense c a n lead to positions they find exciting, dynamic. But at the top levels it's now taken to be a n effective "draw ing weapon," as the player w ith the Black pieces can boil the game down to a situation i n which White has to settle for a d raw. " I n fact, it's been a real problem [for the Wh ite side] . That's why the top players have consistently been avoiding it-by playing someth i ng else." The romance has d isappeared for that crowd . Aga i n , it's because that the same sorts of middlegame formations arise game after game that a n opening system l i ke the Sveshnikov embodies a certain "cha racter" and acqu i res a specific reputation.

C H A R M S A N D F E TI S H E S

John's take on the value of studying open ing and middlegame ideas i s a correct and fru itfu l one. Sti l l , many pl ayers study openi ngs more than a ny­ thing else, and they try compul sively to memorize vari ation upon variation i n a nticipation of future battles. There can be a m a rked cost to this approach. The danger of focusing too much on the study of open i n gs i s that it c a n come at the expense of other aspects of the game. " C hess players have become sl aves of open i n g theory ! " excl a i m s renowned R u s s i a n trai ner M a rk Dvoretsky. " I n stead o f perfecting their style, technique and so o n , they spend a l l of their t i m e o n t h e computer, processing i n formation . " 1 4 Or, a s Predrag Traj kov ic puts it, " Openi ngs are not chess ! " Read ing u p o n open i ngs c a n give a person a sense o f security a n d con fi­ dence, a fi r m ground of knowledge to stand upon i n the i n itial stages of a game, so that the epistemic a n x iety endemic to modern chess is abated , i f o n l y tempora ri ly. T h a t stance can fuel a lust for i n formation , for explor­ ing every crevice, every new w r i n k l e , of a n open i ng's ever- developi n g "theory." But t h a t m i nd-set can also promote a fa lse s e n s e of mastery. You can't anticipate everything that can h appen , and what do you do once you step beyond you r zone of i n formation ? " O peni ngs a re easy. Chess i s hard," says M l aden Vuci c , a n international master from C roat i a . O p e n i n g knowledge can be a wonderland of m a rvelous forces . It c a n l e a d to i nsight a b o u t t h e g a m e . It can also serve a s a t a l i s m a n , a magical charm worn for protection against evil spirits . It can become a fetish to which a chess player is slavishly devoted. In anth ropological term s , a fetish is a material object regarded a s being the embodi ment or habitation of a

roo

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Sveshnikov Intrigues

potent spirit or as having magical potency. Bones, feathers , and certa i n types o f plants a n d wood a re com mon fetishes i n societies worldwide , as i s b l o o d . Fetishes often h e l p people t o ga i n control over situations i n which they feel th reatened or overwhelmed. T hey can bestow on their owners a sense of agency and control , and i n fluence the world in mysteriously effec­ tive way s . Wel l-studied chess openi ngs can l i kewise serve as i nstruments of existential control . They can be a means of magical resistance aga i n st the threats and chal lenges of others. They can serve as information-based security blankets of sorts, with players seek ing refuge i n the fi n itude of docu mented data. Could it be that mastering spec i fic bodies of i n formation a mounts to one of the supreme fetishes of late-modern societies? Yet the psychoa nalytic take on fetishes-as persona l i zed objects that arouse erotic desire, excessive attention , or obsessive attachment-applies here as wel l , as some players a re drawn to, i n fl a med by, certa i n chess openings.

P O S T SC R I P T

The love a ffa i r continued. But after months o f study and play I began to weary of the Sveshn i kov's repeating geometries. I found myself facing the same m iddlegame formations, game after ga me, the same u n ruly turmoil or the same pared bones. I yearned for someth ing new and varied, and became fa m i l i a r with the French D efense. A fter a torrid, yea rlong romance i n those provinces, my a ffections hit the skids, and I moved on, wistful ly. The Sicilian Defense welcomed me back . T h i s time, though, I hooked up with the Ta i m a nov Sicilian, a dependable, shape-shifting mesh of counter­ attacking strategies . The Ta i m a nov's ways i n the world, its sinuous for m s and possibi lities , fitted w e l l w i t h my o w n predi lections . We've b e e n together since. And yet the memories of other loves haunt me sti l l . Chess, l i ke l i fe , is a n a morous experience, desirou s , bewitching, maddening.

I

ror

"Chess cannot be my hobby " B rookly n-born J i m Sa ntorel l i is a wa l k i ng, talking chess game who con­ verses with friends as though he's analyzing a complex m idd lega me. At times, an a rsenal of riposte s , counterarg u ments , and creative commen­ tar i es muscle his speech . " For every d isadvantage there i s a n equal and opposite advantage ," he tells h i s students. Jim learned to play chess i n 1 9 6 8 , when he was nine, at h i s fa m i ly's home i n Bay R idge . H i s was a "ga mes fa m i ly," and chess was one of the games they played . Mostly self-taught, Jim was the best player in h i s h igh school. " I actually had problems focusing as a kid," he says as we talk at his home i n Connecticut. "A nd I bel ieve to this day that I have a lea rning disabil ity. I was a visual learner, i n the days when the idea of visual learners wasn't there . Most visual lea rners a re d rawn to the game of ches s . " He gave up the game for stretches of time i n his teenage years " because girls d idn't l i ke chess. They l i ked music. G i rls l i ked musicia n s at that time. We 're talking about the seventies." J i m worked in a corporate job i n the mid-198os, while living i n West­ chester Cou nty. He started to teach ches s , and ju mped i nto that profession fu l l -time i n 1 9 8 8 . "The corporate world and me did not blend i n together," he says. "I rea l ly did not fit i nto it. And one time I decided at work that I j ust couldn't stand the corporate world . I f you think there's something being done w rong, you just h ave to keep quiet, because you don't say any­ thing, and that just was not my personality. I would analyze it l i ke a chess player and say, ' No , it's the w rong way. This i s the way it should be done .' I got i n trouble ." I n 1991 J i m became cofounder of the National Scholastic Chess Founda­ tion , a Wh ite Plains-based charitable orga n i zation that teaches chess to young children in nu merous schools i n the tri state area . He proved to be a natural in the classroom . " I love teach ing chess," he says. " I love teach ing kids more . Chess i s what I teach . I believe i n what I teach. I t i s a phenom­ enal education a l tool. Chess encompasses every aspect of critical thinking skills." J i m stopped playing competitively for close to a decade , and then sta rted again i n

2 00 3 .

He stopped competing aga i n two years later, when health

concerns led him to stop pa rticipating i n tou rnaments. "I have lost the competitiveness i n me somewhat, because that's all I do," he said i n

2007.

" I 'm teach ing chess a l l the time. The whole rationale i s , the last thing Tiger Woods i s going to want to do when he's on vacation i s to play a round of gol f. My hobby i s not chess at the moment. Chess cannot be my hobby.

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What I l i ke to do is play the guitar. So if I have a particularly rough day, I ' l l t a k e it o u t on some blues lead, I 'l l take i t o u t on m y guitar." I n the fa l l of 2009, Jim was i ntent on playing aga i n i n tou rnaments. " O n occasion I need t o reemerge for a period o f t i m e , and p lay," h e s a i d then . " Being a chess profession a l , I feel a responsibility to play competitively to bring my ga me back to for m . It's still not my hobby, but I figure I m ight as wel l enjoy it while I 'm doing it."

C H A PT E R 5

S on of S orrow No chess player sleeps wel l . -H . G . Wells

Febr u a r y 9, 2004 . John R iddell plays chess the way a hawk scans the ground for prey. He looks and looks; then swoops down and snatches up a lonely pawn. This hawk is seated across from you at a table in the fa r corner of a ground-floor h a l l of a Presbyteri a n chu rch in north central Yon kers. It's j ust after seven on a wintry Monday. You've both just a rrived , having navi­ gated icy streets and sidewa lks to get here . You're setting up the last of the pieces on a green and white roll-up chessboard. John looks at h i s watch and asks, "Do you want to get started ? "

D Y N A M IC P O T E N TI A L

On Monday eveni ngs the h a l l , which is the size of a m iddle school caf­ eteri a , is the meeting place of the B ron x-Yonkers Chess Club. 1 Ba nquet tables a re situated th roughout the room, with some corners of the place ser v i ng as storage a reas more than a nything else. A bookcase sits by the m a i n entrance, d i splaying used paperbacks for sale. Next to it stand a coat rack and a tall electric fa n . Down the hall is a bathroom with a toilet that keeps running unless someone shakes the handle j ust right. I n one corner, a mong other boxes , lies a chest that holds a n assortment of d i scolored chess pieces, aging vinyl chessboards, and a handfu l of tournament results from the 198os and 1990s . The club has been undergoing a rena issance of sorts over the past year,

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with an increasing number of members coming weekly to pa rticipate in tournaments. You learned about the club the previous w i nter and h ave been frequenting it since. I t 's composed of a core of players who h ave k nown each other for dec ades , a long with a h a ndful of newer players l i ke Nola n , K h a n , and yourself. The Yon kers club has a more relaxed and a m i a ble atmosphere than the Marshall Chess Club i n M a n h atta n , but there's s t i l l a competitive spirit at work . People take their rated games seriously. Joh n , one of the h ighest-rated regu l a r s , has been a member of the club for years. John's a n amia ble guy with a big laugh, but he's focused when at the chessboard . A Bronx nat ive who moved to Yon kers i n the m i d 1 9 8 o s , he has b e e n playing s i n c e he was a boy. E a c h chess player has h i s o w n o r i g i n story, of how t h e g a m e became a sign i ficant part of h i s l i fe . John's dates back t o when he w a s nine, when h i s stepfather, a man n a med Kenneth Bla nchard , taught h i m how to play. "I guess I learned chess l i ke Capablanca did," he told me. " T hey say that Capablanca lea rned by watch­ ing his father pl ay, and I learned by watch ing my father pl ay. I never really k new my real father, and my stepfather raised me, so he was like a father to me. I would watch him play when guests c a me over. He taught me how to pl ay. He a lways used to beat me." A fter h i s father died, John joi ned the M a rshall Chess Club, took a few lessons with legendary chess teacher Jack Col l i n s , and played in h i s high school chess club. He i mproved mostly by playing i n tou rna ments , and achieved h i s m aster title when he was twenty. "At times I thought I would never make it," he said. " I hit cei l i ngs , l i ke everyone else does. I wanted to make it i n honor of my father. I f it wasn't for h i m , I probably wou ldn't be playing chess. It was great when I did [ become a ma ster] ." Joh n's rating has been as high as

2300,

but nowad ays, with a fa m i ly to support, he doesn't

h ave much ti me to devote to chess, and it has been bouncing a round

2 20 0 .

He has a quick eye for tactics and a rich, intu itive understanding of posi­ tions. His playing style is rem i n i scent of Bobby Fischer's-active , d i rect, precise-a nd it's not surprising that he enjoys study ing the latter's games. " I l i ke Fischer's games," he said i n

200 3 ;

then he added, " But he's dead to

us now." He had i n mind Fi scher's comments to a Phil ippine radio station hours after the September

u,

2o o r ,

attacks on the Un ited States, that it was

" wonderful news" that the country had been attacked , that " W hat goes a round comes a round, even for the Un ited States ." Like Fischer, John has a natural feel for the game. One even i ng while at the club, J i m Sa ntorel l i and a friend were going over a game that Jim had played the week before, look ing for effective moves. John a r rived and

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j o i ned them. Within seconds, he had sized up the position and suggested specific ways to conti nue. "I tel l you this," Jim said l ater of h i s good friend. " W henever John walks i nto the club, he's the most talented pl ayer here ." You're sl ated to face John ton ight, in the penulti m ate rou nd of a club tournament. This is your fi rst rated ga me against him. You've played a nu mber of blitz games, w i n n i n g only a few of them. You're now playing for rea l . He's eager to see what you've got, how you'll fa re against h i m . T h e ga mes usually start about eight, b u t si nce you're both here there's l ittle point i n waiting. The time control i s G a me/8 5 ; you each h ave eighty­ five m i nutes to complete all your moves, even i f there a re a hund red moves or more to be played. With each move you make, there's also a five- second delay clock that winds down before your m a i n clock starts aga i n . J o h n h a s a young d aughter and s o n at home a n d h i s job a t t h e Scarsdale Post O ffice ea rly i n the morning. He's eager to begin the game now so he can get home at a rea sonable hour. You're for that as wel l , as you also have work i n the morn i ng. You start the game at seven-thi rty, before any of the other games commence. You're at one of the better-lit tables at the fa r end of the room, close to a chu rch piano. John has the Wh ite pieces, which adds to the chal lenge before you. You shake hands, start his clock . A Modern Benon i is soon on the board .

Benoni i s a Hebrew term m e a n i n g "son of sorrow," as i n t h e biblical verse "A nd it came to pass, as her soul was i n departing (for she died) , that she c a l led h i s name Ben-oni [son of my sorrow] " (Gen. 35 : r 8) . I n chess c i rcle s , t h e term c a m e t o be applied t o a number o f defensive sys­ tem s that stem from the open ing pawn moves r. d 4 cs

2.

ds . A long with

the Czech Benon i , there also a re setups known as the Schmidt Benon i , the Snake Benon i , and the O l d Benon i . The fi rst docu mented u s e o f the term Benoni Defense was by A a ron Reinga n u m , i n a n ineteenth-century ma nuscript c a l led Ben- Oni oder die Vertheidigungen die Gambitziig im Schach (Benon i , or the G a mbit Defenses in Chess) . The author reportedly worked on chess when he was depressed, and found the title a n appropri­ ate one. O thers soon began to use the same word . It's also specu l ated that the phrase "son of sorrow " refers to a Black pawn on d6, which is a signal feature and weakness of Black's structure. The Modern Benoni (figure 3 ) , which today is the most common ver­ sion of all the Benoni setups, yields sharp, dynamic games. Nunn's Chess

Openings decla res it "an attempt by Black to unbalance the position at an ea rly stage. He gains winning chances, but at considerable risk." 2 The defense was popular from the ea rly r96os through the early r98os, when Mikhail

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8

7

6 The d-6 pawn:

5

---+- the Son of Sorrow, to some

4

3

2

a FIGuRE

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

3 . A common position of the Modern Benoni Defense

Ta l , Garry K asparov, John Nunn, and others won brilliant games with it. I n time, players on the White side hit on effective ways to snuff out Black's most promising continuations, and these days the Modern Benoni is known most as a doubled-edged way to mix things up and play for a win with Black. With the dark-squared " Benoni bishop" ready for battle once it moves to g7, and Black's other pieces and queenside pawns pri med for quick activity, the defense carries a lot of dynamic potential. But some chess theorists have j udged Black's pawn structure unsound because of the weak pawn on d6. Black's approach i mplies a trade-off of structural i ntegrity for activity. Somewhere along the way you've come to thi n k of the Modern Benoni as a sleek black motorcycle. A t ti mes, when the machinery i s worki n g smooth ly, it's a dynamo of force and beauty. At others, it crashes horribly on a rain-sl ick h ighway. As F I D E m aster Ca rsten H a n sen puts it, "This open i n g can m a ke you look l i ke a genius i f you r plan works out, or a complete patzer i f someth ing goes wrong." 1 You r next actions come rapidly, with John making aggressive moves and you trying to counter them with energetic ones of your own . You find

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ro7

yourself with the move ; there a re two m a i n option s . One i s to play it safe and set up a solid, if passive, defensive position . The other is to go for broke and sacrifice a pawn to ga in a lead in development and attacking chances. You begin to ca lculate what would happen i f you sacri fice the pawn.

Let 's see, you say to you rself. Bishop takes knight, queen takes pawn, knight to d7, pawn takes bishop . . With each move you envision, you're .

trying to think of the position as it occurs at that j u ncture, as you proceed three, four, five moves down the road . You're not i magi n i n g the entire board and pieces in photographic detail so much as you a re apprehending piece dy n a m ics that come into play under various a r rangements .

L U D IC F A BU L A T I O N S

T h i s cogn itive process, which chess pl ayers regu l a rly engage i n , i s as i ntriguing as it i s d i fficult: a person i s looking at a speci fic position on the board , but in his m i nd 's eye he is giving thought to-constructing, enacting-a series of i m aginary r i ffs on that concrete real ity. The further he goes down i nto the rabbit hole of variations , the vaguer, more ghostly the imagi ned position becomes, and hence the greater the chance for mis­ takes i n calcu lation ( " long variation, w rong variation" c h i med D a n i sh grandmaster Bent La rsen) . Some Russian players a re known to look up at the cei ling while work i ng out possible continuations to avoid having the actual position cloud their construal of the positions they are trying to visu a l i ze and evaluate. Most players tack between rea l ity and fa ntasy, between perceiv ing the pieces as they appear on the board and imagining their potenti a l movements. I f we watch chess players analyzing positions, working out good moves to pl ay, we can gli mpse something of this process i n the movements of their eyes: glances dart about the chessboard, tracing hypothetical moves. While chess players speak of this process as one of "visuali zation," most of them do not "see" the pieces move about so much as imagine their l i nes of fl ight. The ability to concoct a n i magined rea l ity i s a signal feature of the human mi nd. Humans can conj ure up i magined scenarios at a moment's notice, in a form of control that phi losopher Edwa rd Casey, in h i s book

Imagining, c a l l s "self- i nduceme � t." They can guide these scena rios by deciding to d i rect the future course of their imagini ngs, in acts of " i magi­ native guida nce"; and they can "term i n ate" them at w i l l . One way to account for this ever-present and seemi ngly effortless abi l ity i s to consider the ways i n which the human brain i s constantly involved i n processes of "neural fabulation ." Brian Sutton- S m ith i nvokes this term i n addressing

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the idea that "the bra i n is a lways creating some kind of ceaseless inner fiction, or i s at play within itself." The brain i s forever busy a nticipating actions, fantasizing, composing words or action s , guessing at i ntentions , t a l k i ng t o itself, desi ring what it lacks , considering situations from d i ffer­ ent angles-it's a lways at play w ith possibilities. " Waking consciousness is dream ing," suggests neurologist O l iver Sacks , " but d rea ming constra i ned by exter n a l rea l ity." Or, as French phi losopher Merleau-Ponty grasped it, we " weave d reams round things."4 Chess pl ayers cultivate such imaginative-cognitive faculties. I n chess, it's easy to i n itiate, guide, and term i n ate the i magi ning of specific sequences of chess moves . The h a rd part lies i n "guiding" the sequences wel l . To play chess successfu l ly, you can't steer your imagini ngs i n any ra ndom d i rection; what you conceptualize has to tie into the concrete situation on the board . You h ave to hit on effective sequences of moves. Otherwise, you'l l blunder pieces away left and right. A strong tempora l d i mension underpi ns this process, as a player i s trying to fathom what m ight h appen if certa i n moves were made. Strong players can anticipate better what they 'll be facing i n a position down the road, before they actu a l ly get there. "The d i fference , real ly, between weak and strong players," says Dale Sharp, a l i fe m aster, " i s in how they assess the positions they calculate out in thei r minds. Stronger players a re better at assessing the end point of their calcu­ lations." Th rough years of tra i n i ng and competitive practice , master chess players develop a "professiona l vision": they cultivate a way of seeing that enables them to rega rd, scrutinize, and evalu ate chess position s . 5 Some players are so good at these acts of imagining that they can envi­ sion entire ga mes, and the variations that accompany them, w ithout a chess­ boa rd i n sight. Asa Hoffmann talks of how, i n the early sixties, he used to tag a long with Bobby Fischer and his friends as they would walk down the streets of Manhattan at n ight, traveling between chess haunts. "They would be talking about whole games and whole variations i n their heads ;" Asa recalls, "and I couldn't fol low that so wel l." Visualizing chess moves is a cog­ n itive ski l l that some players h ave to a greater degree than others. Some are freakishly good at it. In Monte C a rlo each year the world's best players a re invited to display thei r skills in "bli ndfold" chess at the Melody A mber chess tournament, i n which they play entire games without sight of the position of the pieces on the board . Many of these games are spectacular. "A l l of the top players have of course an absolutely great visualization [of the board] ," says A merican grandmaster A lexander Shaba lov. "A nd you can see it i n the quality of their games at the Melody A mber. It's amazing." Decades earlier, chess masters would display their talents at blindfold chess by playing multi-

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pie games simultaneously, without sight of any of the boards. I n Edinburgh in

1 9 3 7,

George Koltanowski, a Belgian-born A merican player, set what

many take to be the world's blindfold record by playing thi rty-four chess games simulta neously while blindfolded, over a period of thi rteen hours. M any players regard blindfold chess to be mentally taxing. Concerned that simu ltaneous blindfold exhibitions were a health hazard, Soviet authorities officially ban ned them i n

1930.

Sti l l , some chess trainers advocate thinking

about chess positions without sight of a board as an effective way to develop the skill to conceptualize and analyze game variations. One practice a n a logous to this i m agi native process i s the one that Tibetan Buddh ists undertake while visua l i zing the appearance of deities during meditative ritua l s . Here the religious practitioner i magi natively constructs the appea rance of a specific deity, from its faci a l features to the rel igious symbols it carries, i n order to i nvoke or embody its qualities. Religious adepts can become ski l led at visualizing, i n deta i l , the features of a bodhisattva l i ke Tara or Ava lokiteshva ra. I n so doing, they can acqu i re something of that deity's knowledge or purity or divine grace by identify­ ing with the form i magined. I n my work with Tibetan Budd hist peoples, I found that the visualiza­ tion skills that develop from those practices carry over i nto other aspects of l i fe . A Nepalese friend of mine, for i n stance, makes a living as a designer of patterns for Tibetan carpets. When he goes about design ing a new pat­ ter n , he never sketches anything out on paper. R ather, he constructs i n h i s m i n d t h e pattern he i s thinking of, and then menta lly tinkers with it, making adjustments, until he has the i mage just right. He then i nputs the coord i n ates of the l i nes and colors i nto a computer progra m , w ithout d rawing or look ing at a n actual pri nted i mage of the pattern, and sends the coded i n formation on to the production side of the company. Chess pl ayers engage i n a s i m i l a r process: they imagine a certa i n constel lation of forms, and then fiddle w ith it, trying out d i fferent arrangements, until they find something worth a i m ing for on the chessboard itself. Chess players experience a d i fferent k i nd of mental i magery after games. It usually happens at night, when a person is trying to get some sleep or is drifting i n and out of dream states . The m i nd has a w i l l of its own and keeps on visualizing chess positions-k nights leaping onto and off squares, pawns negotiating captures w ith enemy pawns. The images come unso­ licited , spontaneously. A hypnagogic mind can't stop chu rning out chess i magery. The images play the player long after the game has concluded . One m a n says much the same happens to h i m at n ight on days that he has played gol f. He can't keep h i s thoughts from r u m i n ating over the gol fing

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Son of Sorrow

challenges he faced that day, from putting a ngles to fa i rway shots. " T h i s u s u a l l y happens when I 've l o s t rounds of gol f t h a t day," he s a y s . A woman says she meets up with s i m i l a r i mages after playing Tetris, a popu lar puzzle game, on her computer. O l iver Sacks relates that he encou nters such "visual afterimages" upon engaging i n m i ndful activities for hours on end . 6 Yolmo people with whom I 've worked i n Nepa l would call them bhaja, "echoic i l lusions" of thoughts and actions a person has undertaken earlier on. It's as though the brain has been primed for such i magini ngs and wants or needs to keep processing the m , or can't keep from doing so. For chess players , ter m i nating these neural fabulations does not come easi ly. Nor, when they occur, does a sound sleep.

" N O O N E LIK E S D E F E N DI N G "

Seated across from John, you give thought to the position for a few m i n ­ ute s , t h e o n e you're conceptu a l izing. It d a w n s o n y o u t h a t you've seen this con figuration before, i n books on the Modern Benon i . You worked through it several months back. But you can't qu ite reca l l the speci fic va ria­ tions that are known to generate from it. T hat's one of the frustrating thi ngs about chess: you can study a position for hours on end , but a year or a month later only the general themes rem a i n i ntact i n your memory, the speci fics having eroded i nto a foggy mora s s , espec i a l ly i f you h aven't considered the position i n a while. Professional chess players often di splay an exception a l ability to recall games and positions they've come across. "A l l the gra ndmasters that I know have a fa ntastic memory," says Asa Hoffm a n n . Bobby Fischer was phenomenal i n this rega rd . Fra n k Brady relates that after participating in the World Speed Chess championship at Hercegnov i , Yugoslav i a , i n

1 9 70,

Fischer "rattled off all his twenty-two ga mes from memory." 7 Some say that Fischer was able to remember a l l of the games he ever pl ayed , move by move . But Bobby 's not here to help you. You can't rec a l l what you're supposed to do once you reach the position you h ave i n m i n d , outside of a few core themes. You're also starting to doubt that this is the position you had once stud ied . This leads you to question how well you'l l be able to navigate the compl ications if you step i nto the m . You're hesitant to get i nto a tactical shoot-out with John; playing a sharp, tactics-rich game with him is l i ke dancing with a leopard. You opt for a safer, "prophylactic" route . You move you r queen to a square where it protects several squa res at once.

Son of Sorrow

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II1

Seconds a fter releasing your fi ngers from that piece, you don't l i ke the look of your position . You r approach i s too passive. John Nunn, a n English grandmaster and chess author, warns about this peril with the Benon i : " Black rel ies fa i rly heavily o n tactical resources t o vind icate h i s open i ng pl ay. Usua l ly there w i l l come a moment when Black w i l l have to continue tactically to justify h i s pl ay, for otherwise h i s pieces will be pushed back from their active squares and he w i l l be reduced to perma nent passivity. " 8 You needed t o m i x thi ngs u p i f you were t o have a n y cha nce of getting a good game. Now you'll be on the defensive. Your move gives John a chance to play a n effective sequence. He ga ins the i n itiative i n a few moves. He continues to make i mposing threats , while you find ways to parry them-at least for now. You've got your work cut out for you . "The Modern Benoni i s a lousy open ing," Nol a n once com­ plained after trying it out i n a couple of games. " It's so easy to get stuck i n a crappy position ." The present position fits that b i l l . The basic idea of the Modern Benoni is for Black to create dynamic counterplay in exchange for a weak central pawn structure. Because of the backtracking you had to do with your bi shop, you have the weak structure but not the counterplay. The genie is stuck in the bottle. You have to sit and defend patiently, hop­ ing for your opponent to overreach. Then you m ight be able to strike back. Jim Sa ntorelli wa lks over and looks at your ga me. He's not playing in the tou rnament, but he c a me to the club tonight to watch the games. He sits down and scruti n i zes your bulwa rk aga i nst John's offensive. Moves fol low, but you 're sti l l ensnared i n a cramped position . You're on your own. T here are no books to help you out, no hugging the shorel ine. " O f course," M i k h a i l Botv i n n i k once noted , "the essence of chess is not to be found in the open ing of the ga me. The basic ingred ient of chess is that i n a complex , origi nal situation, where no source of help i s apparent, a player must find the correct solution or move . A nyone who i s able to do this can feel con fident at the board . " 9 Your opponent appears more confident than you. He gets up and walks a round the room , check ing out the other games, satis fied with h i s play so fa r. You're left to huddle over your pieces. They 're tied up, tripping over one another, w ith l ittle room to maneuver. You're trying to figure out ways to break free, but you don't see anything good. You have to be ca refu l and attend to all of John's threats , tactical as wel l as position a l , through the next few moves. You're caught up i n a con flicting conversation of analyses, w ith John trying to figure out a precise way to convert h i s spatial advantage i nto a materi a l one, and you trying to hit on the precise sequence of moves that w i l l keep h i m from doing that.

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Son of Sorrow

" No one l i kes defending," K h a n once said. It's not much fu n . Attack ing i s less taxi ng, both practic a l ly and psychological ly. It's easier to come up with good moves while attack ing. Whereas defending often requires find­ ing the one and only move that holds you r position together, a n attacker often can go in for the k i l l i n several ways. Attacking also gets a player's creative j u ices flowing. For many players, defending sign a l s unwelcome themes of submission, passivity, reaction. While defending a tough posi­ tion, a person can come to feel h i s very self i s being attacked, rather than a few ghostly squares on a cloth board . A player's chess position can read ily become an extension of his self, taken to be part of h i s grou nd of being i n t h e world (much t h e way discarded h a i r or cloth ing i s understood t o be a n i ntegral component of the s e l f i n some societies) . " H e w a s attack ing m e there , and there," pl ayers w i l l s a y in t a l k i n g about their games. I n l ight of this tendency, it's best to think about the position alone, ego aside, and treat it l i ke a puzzle to be solved . You try to do that now, to figure out how you m ight parry John's assault. Toward that end , you're seei ng well ton ight. You can anticipate what John wants to do, and counter with good responses. Some eveni ngs it's l i ke a dense fog, especi a l ly if you're t i red, but for now at least you can calculate .

C A L CU L A T I O N M O D E

With h i s twenty-third move John pushes one of h i s pawns i nto the sin­ ews of your position. It's questionable how effective that adva nce will be. You've seen this move coming and feel you've calculated out a sufficient response. You check things aga i n , to make sure you've got them right, and respond with what you take to be the best move . You're considering your twenty-fourth move of the game. You're think­ ing of adva ncing a pawn of your ow n , to try to get some counterplay going on the queen side. It's a tricky position. You decide to devote some time to calculating out the responses and cou nterresponses that m ight result. You slip i nto a "calcu lation mode," tel l i ng you rself to think systematically and work out the d i fferent vari ation s . H o w do chess players calculate ? D i fferent positions call for d i fferent kinds of calculation , and players go about it i n various ways , though sev­ eral procedures do tend to rec ur. Experienced players try to think system­ atically about the position at hand by mapping out their options with each move, and then assessing each one's consequences . They combine concrete calculation and abstract reason ing i n sorting through the ideas i nvolved. They often identify a handful of "cand idate moves ," which they evaluate

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a s to their merit, and then work to assess the positions that arise a fter a series of anticipated moves; the eva luation gets less precise as the posi­ tions grow more distant from the actual one on the board. Players can also d raw on thei r sense of the positional patterns and tactical motifs at hand, often intu itively and subconsciously. They often sense when the features of a position hold a w i n n i n g tactic, and they will look for the key move or sequence of moves that can u n lock it. This i s a creative , active process of imaginative wandering. It's best for players to proceed practically rather than a i m for perfection ; they should try to hit on good conti nuations, with the game and clock situation and their opponents in m i n d , skirting the desi re to figu re out every t h i ng to the nth degree. T hey often c i rcle back aga i n to revisit positions and possibi l i ­ t i e s , informed b y their previous searches, t o s e e things w i t h fresh eyes . I f time permits , they t r y t o double- check everyth ing, making sure there a re no " holes" or oversights in their a n a lyses . Final ly, they decide on a specific way to proceed before making a move on the board . Players often proceed with a certa i n idea in m i nd-w i n n i n g a piece , mating a k i ng-a nd try d i fferent possi bilities until they find something that work s . I t can be l i ke one of those " fi nd a . . . " puzzles that children l i ke to work through, i n which, for i n stance, a drawing of a tree hides various objects that they have to identi fy. In ches s , the theme often i s " fi n d a tactic": a k n ight fork, a nasty p i n . I f nothing appears t o work, players w i l l move on to a variation on that ide a , or another approach a ltogether. I n effect, players draw on their felt sense of the position to work creatively through a set of idea s . T hey also tend to engage in a lot of cognitive switch­ ing, shifting a mong d i fferent modes of thought-fancifu l , calculative , reflexive, evaluative, wishfu l-while trying to decide what to play next. What tend to d i ffer most i n the "variation processi ng" central to chess calcu lation are the accu racy, speed, and i magi native powers of d i fferent players . 1 0 A popular conception is that strong players simply outcalcul ate their weaker opponents , or calcu late further down a string of variations. But it's actually the speed and the qual ity of the calcul ative reasoning employed by s ki l led pl ayers , more than the extent of their think ing, that wins the day. Compa red to a top player, a n a mateu r ca lculates much more slowly, with less accu racy, and not as effectively. He also brings to the c a lculating process less knowledge and fe.wer conceptual resources . He m isses things. Grandmasters , i n contrast, calculate w ith

a

strong measure

of imagination, precision, and creativity, as well as a refined intuitive sense of the possibi lities i nvolved. I n watch ing Leonid Yudasin play and analyze games, for i nstance, it's

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easy to conclude that he thinks less in terms of i n d ividual moves than i n strings of moves, much as a n accomplished musician w i l l p l a y melodic l i n e s , not ind ividual notes. A club player noted much the same thing after watch ing two masters a n a lyze a game j ust concluded at a tou rnament in Con necticut. "I was watch ing Lapshun and Figler go over thei r game," he said. " T hey think i n variations, whereas we think i n terms of moves." Some elite players-from Capablanca and Ta l to Fischer and Ana nd­ have been renowned for the lickety-split speed of their calculations. The visualization , memory, and calculation skills evinced by top players make them "cogn itive experts" of a speci fic sort. The best chess pl ayers seem to possess a natura l , and at ti mes superhu m a n , talent for visuali zing and calculating variations. Yet players do develop their calculating skills to a sign i ficant degree. One of the most d i rect methods is to decipher the a nswers to tactical "puzzles" or combinations d rawn from master play. People set up the positions on a chessboard and try to find the solutions without moving the pieces. Through those exercises they learn to navigate the d i fferent variations that come to mind while visualizing the new posi­ tions. The practice can i mprove both pl ayers' calculating skills and their "combinational vision ." As J i m Santorel l i puts it, " D oing tactics puzzles i s l i ke d o i n g mental pushups ." You get strong t h a t way. Chess i s a labyrinth of possib i l ities. T h i n k i ng about it enta i l s a combi­ nation of concrete calculation and what- i fs . Players can see for certain the game position on ly, and they 're often work ing in a climate of uncerta inty and expectation. They 're toi ling i n a "subjunctive mode" of i magi native thought, to filch a term from n a r rative theory. In English gra m m a r, the subj u nctive mode is used to express hypothetical or i maginary situations: "If you had a m i l l ion dol lars, you would travel around the world." People often engage in a mood of subj u nctivity as they l i sten to stories or go about their l ives . As psychologist Jerome Bruner puts it, " To be in the subju nctive mode is . . . to be trafficking i n human possibil ities rather than i n settled certa inties." 1 1 When l istening to a story, people a re drawn i nto a world of possibil ity and uncertai nty, where they don't know what's a round the next n a r rative corner and where they 're i nvited to participate i n the pro­ tagon ists' own indeterminate progress through the story. Much the same happens in chess, as a player often doesn't know where , precisely, a con­ tinuation w i l l lead or how the game will turn out. To begin a chess game is to step i nto the unknow n , to foresee vague possibi lities, to encounter formations at once fa m i l i a r and unexpected. Even when the story of the game reaches its endpoint, there's much that rema ins uncerta i n , as there a re all those i magi ned but unplayed continuations that would have led to

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d i fferent games altogether. Players can't help but wonder what would have happened i f some of these shadow variations had in fact been played . The abil ity to calcul ate well is an extremely i mportant aspect of ches s , so much so t h a t many ga mes a re decided because one pl ayer calculates better i n complicated positions and thus ga ins a deci sive advantage . He sees something his opponent does not notice, or evaluates the outcome of a certa i n conti nuation more effectively. When Tigran Petrosian was prepa ring for his world cha mpion title defense against Boris Spassky in 1966, he noted to h i s assistants , " You know, a l l these lofty matters we have been study ing-strategy and endless open ing subtleties-a re not the m a i n thi ng. T h e match w i l l be decided , fi rst and foremost, b y our calculation reflexes during pl ay, or, as they say, who i s better at doing 'you go there and you go here.' " It often comes down to who is better at doing this kind of analytic work . In chess c i rcles , being i n good form boils down to being able to make good decisions at the board, in quick and efficient ways, and to play cre­ atively and imaginatively without having to rely on pat or routine modes of thought. As Rusudan Goleti a n i tells it, " I f you play a lot, you a re i n good for m . You're sharp, you can ca lculate wel l , you can see thi ngs faster. " A l l t h i s req u i res having t h e right assortment o f mental and physical equipment over a certa in stretch of days: cla rity of thought, resou rcefu l ness, acu ity, sta m i n a , ease of m i nd and m a n ner. The technologies of the self hum a long. Players often talk about "seei ng wel l " at the board . That effective vision is a m a rk of being i n good for m : a person sees how to get a n edge i n the open ing, how to ward off a n opponent's th reats , how to weave a mating net and go i n for the k i l l . To be i n poor or lousy for m , in contrast, is to miss good moves, to think routi nely and munda nely, to calcu late erratical ly, vaguely, slowly. Most players' engagements suggest that they need to spend at least an hour or so a day a n a lyzing positions to maintain any k i nd of sharpness in their playing abil ity. If they don't, if they skip even a couple of days of prac­ tice, they can lose their sha rpness . In chess-as i n other endeavors, such as dance, music, and box i n g-people's performance skills erode quickly if they a ren't bei ng exercised on a d a i ly basis. Vlad i m i r Kramnik expl a i n s , " Chess i s l i ke body- b u i l d i ng. I f y o u train every day, you stay i n top shape. It is the same with your bra i n-chess i s a matter of daily training." 1 2 It's also e a s y t o fa l l o u t of good form i f y o u don't p l a y competitively for a while. " Chess does not forgive those who a re u n faithful to it," Russian i nternational master Ruslan K ashta nov once observed . "If you stop pl ay­ i ng, your s k i l l deteriorates very quick ly." 1 3 Players can't j ust analyze posi-

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tions. T hey have to put themselves in the heat of competitive games, where their thinking i s tested with every move . " The more I play, the better for m I 'l l be i n , " a college-age pl ayer says . " I f I play at t h e M a rshall Chess Club every weekend, then I'll be i n good form." The catch is that l i fe often gets i n the way-j obs, persona l i nterests, fa mily com m itments, and relationships. It's easy for a person to become so consu med with the matters of l i fe that there's little time to do the work conducive to being i n good for m . Listen to former world cha mpion A n atoly K a rpov 's explanation , during a n i nterview, of why he backed out of play­ ing i n a n international tou rna ment i n

2004 :

"At the very last m i nute I u nderstood that I cannot play chess right now. I a m n o t i n good form , and I d o n o t have t h e t i m e . There a re more i mportant thi ngs waiting for me." " What more i mportant things ? " " M a ny d i fferent things, business a n d social comm itments that have t o b e attended t o a t t h e e n d o f a long a nd a rduous year. Under such circumstances it is impossible to play games at the very h ighest level , you just don't have the necessary concentration." 14

L i fe can get i n the way of being in good for m , while stay i ng i n good form can get i n the way of having a decent l i fe . That i s the quandary of ama­ teurs, i n pa rticular, as they h ave fu ll-time jobs on the side. " C a reers sure get i n the way of our chess ! " a fervid a mateur player once told me.

F L OW

Decision made after ten minutes o f thought, you reach out a n d push the pawn two squares forward . You hit your clock , w rite dow n the move : 24

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b s . John notes it as wel l , and then considers the position. J i m is back

at your table, seated to your left. He's also studying the ga me. You and John play a sequence of precise moves, and a series of pawn and piece exchanges fol low. You had i magined this sequence of moves when a n a lyzing e a rl ier. The position i s now easier to assess , because it's on the board . Aga i n there's an i mportant choice to make. Two moves look good and you have to decide which one i s best. Do you move your k n ight here , or there ? You rest your head i n your hands, blocking out distraction s . You're i m mersed i n t h e t a s k . Everything d isappea rs except t h e chess posi­ tion itself. One n ight I went to bed a round midn ight after i ntensely a n a lyzing a n opening position for a n hour. I fel l into a n oneiric state i n w h i c h m y m i n d

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kept analyzing o n its ow n , i ntensely. I woke u p from that a n a lytic reverie and for a few seconds, before my neural ci rcuits recon figured themselves, I had no sense of where or when or who I was . Strange as it m ight sound, I was the a n a lysis itself, w ith l ittle awareness of my su rroundi ngs i n time and space. P u re thought. W h i le it took an extreme form that n ight, this kind of concentrated i m mersion , which can occur during stretches of a game or during the bulk of a weekend tournament, appeals to chess players . It's an act of cogn i ­ tive magic i n line w i t h t h e absorption and imagi native intensity t h a t come with people's i nvolvements in ludic activities. For m a ny chess players, the pockets of i m mersion offer a way for them to get away from the worries and duties of everyday l i fe . Rusudan Goletia n i says, W h e n y o u p l a y chess, I l i ke the fact t h a t y o u can completely forget a b o u t t h e r e s t o f the world, and just r e a l l y g e t into t h e g a m e and apply myself to t h e game for five or six hours . . . . I think that's great because we do so much, we have so many things to worry about, we have a lot of stress i n our lives, but then when you sit down and play chess you completely ignore everything and just completely apply you rself to this game, and you rea l ly enjoy that time . . . . You get i nto your own worl d . I t 's l i ke a d i fferent kind of world .

" I love doing it," says K i m Qvi storff. " You would n't say it's necessarily relax ing, because you get to be completely exhausted , you play two games a day. But it's a d i fferent world , completely apart from the Monday-to­ Friday l i fe . And you can completely take your bra i n out of the normal concept of l i fe." One man pl ayed a lot of chess as a child and teenager while growing up i n a ru ndown neighborhood i n Brookly n . When asked why he l i ked to play chess, he said with a tinge of anger, " Because it took me out of that hellhole that was Coney Island ! " " Everything goes away for a while," says Tom Mendol a , another avid chess player. " But when you lose, real ity i m mediately crashes back i n-the bi lls you h ave to pay, work . When you w i n , it's like a suga r high, you're let down slowly. But when you lose, it all comes back right away." M i haly Csikszent m i h a ly i , a Hunga r i a n - born psychologist, was held w ith h i s fa m i ly i n a n Italian prison camp at the end of World War I I , until it could be determi ned that they weren't Fascists. He found solace i n chess. T here was l ittle the ten -year-old could do i n the camp to ease h i s worries about his fa m i ly 's fate . But he could play chess aga i n st the grown-ups, and he found that during the games he wou ld " forget about everyth ing . . . . I

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d i scovered chess was a m i raculous way of entering i nto a d i fferent world where all those thi ngs didn't matter. For hours I 'd j ust focus within a rea l ­ i t y t h a t had c l e a r r u l e s a n d goa ls. I f y o u k n e w w h a t t o do, y o u could s u r ­ v i v e there ." 1 5 Csi kszentm ihalyi (pronounced Ch ick-sent-me-high- ee) drew from this and other observations of i ntense, absorbing experiences to develop what he calls "the psychology of opti m a l experience." A concept central to this psychology, and of a mple relevance to chess players, is what Csi kszent­ m i h a lyi ca lls " flow." An experience of flow usually occurs when a person is engaged i n a chal lenging activity i n which thoughts and actions h ave to be devoted to the task at hand. Rock cli mbing, painting, sail ing, and writing a re good examples: one i s engaged with the challenge, but also feels in control of one's action s , ma ster of one's fate . When that happen s , a person can feel a sense of exh i l a ration , a deep sense of enjoyment. As Csi kszent m i h a lyi puts it, flow i s " being completely involved i n an activity for its own sake. The ego fa lls away. Time fl ies. Every action, movement, and thought fol lows inevitably from the previous one, l i ke playing j a z z . You r whole b e i n g is involved , and you're u s i n g you r skills t o t h e utmost." 16 When a person i s engaged i n such a way, everything else-mortgage payments, where the car is parked-fades from consciousness. " O ne acts with a deep but effortless i nvolvement that removes from awa reness the worries and frustrations of everyday l i fe ." 17 This i m mersion makes pos­ sible the "escape" fa m i l i a r to chess players , which they learn to seek out when they sit down at the board. Forms of play often enta il a transcen­ dent, otherworldly qual ity, i n which the participants a re transported to a province of meaning beyond the normal concept of l i fe . Concentrating on chess moves can effect a l i beration from speech, synta x , chatti ness, and the threadbare thoughts that prattle th rough our wa king hours. When asked if the idea of " flow" makes sense to her, E l i zabeth Vicary says, Yes absolutely. I mea n , it's fun ny, chess is i n s o m e w a y s b o t h t h e m o s t stressfu l and the most relaxing thing you do. So when you 're there and you have an hour and a half on your clock, and you have a problem to solve, and no one can talk to you, and no one can bother you , and it's absolutely silent, and you're just sit­ ting there and there's nothing but you and this problem to solve , it's the most relaxing feeling i ri the world. Because there's not the chatter i n the bra i n . . . I think flow is a very applicable concept. .

It's easy to consider such flow experiences as being singularly subjective i ncidences, occurring by happenstance. Yet E l i zabeth's words point to the

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ways in which such i m mersion is p romoted by the l ived d i mensions and the situated social practices of chess play. The conditions have to be right. The bou nded spatial and temporal fra me assigned to a serious chess game, the climate of silence and sol itude that contestants and spectators agree upon , the rhyth m i c , trance -i nduci ng tempora lity of the ga me, and the j oys and chal lenges of focusing d i rectly on the task at hand a re conducive to a state of flow. Csi kszent m i h a ly i h i mself noted as much . " T he rules, equipment, and orga n i zation of the game provide a clear-cut sepa ration between 'nor­ m a l l i fe' and the activity. Therefore , a player can easily shut out i r relevant stimuli and concentrate on the l i m ited world of the game . " D rawing on i nterviews his resea rch team conducted a mong club players i n the Chicago a rea in the ea rly 197os, Csi kszentm i halyi describes the ways in which chess players often tap i n to a flow experience i n both casual and competitive p lay. " Concentration on the game excludes thoughts that a re i r releva nt, and perceptions of events outside the board a re held i n abeya nce. The sense of t i me i s suspended ." For ma ny, the i ntensity of concentration requ i red while playing ches s , the sense of being i n control at the chess board , and the fact that one gets clear feedback on every move help to make the activity of chess play absorbing for the m . As one pl ayer expl a i ned it to Csi kszent m i h a lyi's resea rch tea m , "The best thi ngs about chess a re being i n control of a situation and having a l l the evidence right there . . . . I n chess everyth ing i s i n front of you to see. No other variables . . . can control it." 1 8 Players sometimes find that there's more i nvolved i n their chess thoughts than the i r own conscious efforts, that they are not the sole or primary agents of their efforts . " I think people from a l l competitive events say sort of the same thi ng," Dale Sharp told me, " but I feel someti mes when you're really play i n g wel l , you're j ust sort of watch i ng. You r fingers a re play­ ing, and you're sort of watch ing and moves just sort of appear. . . . It's l i ke you're channeling from some great sou rce of chess moves somewhere . They 're flow ing th rough you and you're watch i n g them." Chess as flow and escape and m astery, as a way to forget one's worries for a spel l , as a n alternative state of consciousnes s . A n effacement of t i me and self comes about i n an a rena of competing selve s . Yet there's a price to pay for such flow experiences, as Csikszentm i h a ly i points out. " I n chess , as in other flow activities," he rema rks, "the need to be a lways ready to act to meet c � a l lenges produces mental and physical stra i n . Tou rna ment play is espec i a l ly debi l itating. People emerge from a series of ga mes exhausted, and the demands of the body rush i nto awareness." 1 9 A chess pl ayer can get a " flow high," as it were . Yet once that sweet feel i ng burns off, the world can come crash ing dow n .

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" D R AW ? "

Enveloped i n your thoughts , you sort through the variations. You use some twelve m i nutes to trace out the l i nes of play that could fol low each move, as best you can envision them. You decide that exchanging kn ights i s the way to go . As soon as you make this move , Jim l i fts his head in a gesture of surprise. You take it that he's thrown off by your deci sion , that he thought the other k n ight move was better. John doesn't flinch. Jim gets up, walks away, and steps outside the building to smoke a ciga rette . The next few moves come quick ly. " D o you want a draw ? " you ask John. At fi rst glance it's a fa i r offer, as you're up a pawn and have two passed pawns on the queenside. But the pawn s a re both feebly protected, easy prey to Wh ite's rooks. John's pieces a re more mobile than you rs, and his king is more secure. You're stuck with a bishop that has l ittle room to move about, whereas John has a bi shop that is cramping your k i ng's l i festyle. All this adds up to a sl ight but sign i ficant edge for W h ite. John decl ines your offer with a brisk no. You expected this response, but there was no harm in asking. John m a kes a series of precise, hawkish moves and snaps up both of your queenside pawns before you have a chance to defend them effectively. It's after ten . Most of the other games have fi n i shed now. You've been rooted to your chair, trying to stay in the game. You don't feel tired, you're burning on adren a l i n e . John is pressing against your position, while you're fend ing h i m off. He's down to less than five minutes on his clock. The rule is that one doesn't have to keep score of the moves i f either opponent has less than five minutes rem a i n i ng, so John stops writing down any moves m ade and you do the same. You have eight m i nutes left, while John has less than two m i nutes ; then less than one; then h i s clock runs down to two seconds. John makes good use of the five-second time delay he gets with each move before his main clock starts tick ing; he plays each of his moves now w ithout losing any time. You've seen him play this way before . He's good at it, and cool enough to m a i ntain his composure. But the position is a devilish one, and as he adva nces his pawns they become less secure. You pick off one; then a nother. You h ave three m i nutes left on your own clock. With each move you h ave the luxury of t h i n k i ng more methodically than John does. Rushed with each move , he's getti ng frustrated . He's losing his adva ntage and the

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w i n i s slipping away ( " I was mad," h e says l ater. " I h a d a clear w i n , but I kept losing paw n s . " ) A crowd of on lookers is gathered a round your table. John makes a move, hits h i s clock. " D raw ? " he asks. You look at your clock, see you have two and a half m inutes left, and consider the position . You're sl ightly better right now. You h ave a pawn more than he does. You could w i n with perfect pl ay. " Not now," you say, and make a move . John m a kes another move , capturing one of you r pawns with a paw n . You take back w i t h your k i n g , and toss John's p a w n t o t h e side. H i s next move slices through your consciousness. He attacks your king with h i s bishop, forcing y o u t o move y o u r k i n g . O n c e you move it, h i s bi shop w i l l w i n you r rook, w h i c h i s o n t h e s a m e d i agona l as h i s bishop, on t h e back rank, undefended , the victim of a deadly skewer. You're lost now. You know, he knows it, the onlookers know it. Some­ one groa n s . You move y o u r k i ng. J o h n snaps u p t h e rook , h its his clock . You m a k e more moves at b l i t z speed, forcing h i m t o do t h e s a m e , i n t h e hope that under the time pressure he'll slip up or run out of time. But he does neither, and soon there's no point i n continuing. You sti l l have a pawn more than he does, but you r king and bishop a re no m atch for his k i ng, rook, and bishop. He'll be able to check mate you soon . You tip you r king over, shake h i s hand, l o o k at t h e b o a r d . You're frustrated w i t h yourself. With i n second s , a sure d raw has turned i nto a loss .

Checkmate. The term derives from the Persian phrase shah mat, which can be translated as " the king i s a m bushed, made powerles s , a rrested, thwarted , or countered completely."20 While other pieces can be captured or k i lled, the king is made powerless and paralyzed without being hit by anybody, once escape is i mpossible. That sums up your mood right now. You're broken , du mbfounded.

P O S T M O RT E M S

It's not the end of the world, of course , and within m i nutes you and John reset the pieces and begin to work through the game, sh aring thoughts on the decisions made. Jim joins you i n this postgame analysis. You talk about how the game might h ave gone had you made d i fferent move s , and you try to figure out how White m ight have converted his adva ntage earlier on. " You should have been able to bash through," Jim tells John. He suggests a way of doing so.

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A n a lyzing games is a frequent component in the ritua l i stic structure of serious chess games . D u ring both la rge tourna ments and club competi­ tion s , players often scamper off to a free table to begin to work out, either with their opponents or with friends or a nyone who h appens to take an i nterest in the proceed ings, what they should or should not h ave played i n the ga mes they've just fin ished . Through these colloquies, the mute, agon ic encounter of the game can tran sform i nto a col la borative exchange of ideas, intentions, expectations. This is one of the great pleasures of the game. " T hese days I often l i ke going over games more than playing them, actual ly," my friend K i m Qvi storff tel ls m e . There's often a n a i r o f commensality t o the proceedings, with the participants partaking i n the delights of chess. Going over games i n a coll aborative fashion i s a way for people to make sense of what hap­ pened i n them and sound out their u ndersta ndi ngs a mong others. " It's a way to bounce off ideas," says Nol a n . You can learn what you r opponent was t h i n k ing, or what others deduce, and so add to your comprehension of the game's nua nces . Shards of one overhea rd postgame colloqu i u m : "What did you play here ? . . . I was actually very worried about that . . . . I don't know i f it's good , it just looks fu n . . . . I wa nted to bring the kn ight over here , but then my rook gets blocked in . . . . I thought it was your only move , and I d idn't see anything else . . . . I thought this would be a more dynamic move . . . . The way you played it was good . . . . I wa nted to do this, but it looked ugly to me . . . . I was thinking about that, you have to watch out for t h i s , though . . . . I thought that kn ight takes pawn is actually your last chance . . . Did you see my face after this? I was worried . . . I thought you played a good game until queen to q. It was a tough game. My hands were all clammy and such . . . So where a re you from i n Philly?" Readi ngs and counterreadi ngs eme rge . A s with acts of storytelli ng, the analysis sessions entail a cooperative " workshop of meani ng-making" that helps people make sense of the events and actions they happen upon i n l i fe . These efforts at meaning, of m aki ng sense of d i fferent possibi lities, c a n work t o decrease t h e m o o d of subj u nctivity t h a t persists w h i l e t h e game is under way. M a ny of the half-knowns and tentative assessments that preva i l then can be rendered more k nowable a fterward, especially because i n the postmortems you can move the pieces a round to check out ideas as you work through a string of moves. Opacity is d i m i n i shed in two ways: players can better understand what thei r opponents were thinking, and they can get a better grip on the i n fi n ity of variations. Work ing together, participants i n postmortems engage i n acts of "collaborative imagini ng," where they use chess pieces , speech , gestures, and vi sion to j ointly i m agine,

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talk about, and eva lu ate l i nes of play, and so create imagi n a ry rea l ities that l i nger long after the pieces have been put away. 2 1 M apping o u t sequences of moves can b e a way t o rega i n psych ic com­ posure a fter a tough loss. Losing a game can yield a m i n or trau m a . Going over that game can help a pl ayer soothe wounds, ga i n some perspective, d i m i n ish the shame of losing, and recover a sense of integrity that was momentarily lost. It's a talking cure of sorts. Postgame a n a lyses can recon­ stitute a sense of self and meani ng-i n ways s i m i l a r to those found with acts of mourning, or with the hea l i n g r ites that communities a round the world d raw on when trying to rebuild the l i feworld of a person a ffl icted by i l l ness or ma levolent harm. S i n h a lese Buddhists in Sri L a n k a , for example, often employ a n ela borate rite known as Suniyama that works to reconsti­ tute the consciousness of those who have been devastated by sorcery. As anthropologist Bruce K apferer expla i n s it, the rite, which is " reconstitu­ tive and harmon i z i ng," i s centra lly concerned w ith the practices th rough which human beings form and reform themselves with i n the l i fe world ." A mong Nepal's Yolmo people, those suffering from "spirit loss," a dys­ phoric, fuguel i ke malaise of de-spi ritedness , seek the aid of local healers , who strive to rejuven ate thei r clients by ritually prompting a renewed sense of sensory "presence" and spiritual-persona l i ntegrity. 2 2 The ritual of a postgame a n a lysis can involve a re-formation of selfhood a mong those affl icted by a crushing loss. Yet tension can crop up here as wel l , for players will often disagree or try to demonstrate their superiority of understa nding. Players often try to show how they were w i n n ing i n d i fferent variation s , even i f they lost the actual ga me, and they take p a i n s to note that they saw deeply and extensively i nto the position, or at least i n ways more perceptive than thei r opponents'. This is called " w i n n i ng the a n a lysis," as i n : " H e lost the game, but won the a n a lysis." E l i zabeth Vicary told me, " T here i s someth i n g about chess culture that's hypercompetitive after t h e game. I f y o u have ever watched people goi n g over their games , it's ridiculou s , it's ridiculous." Egos a re at stake. "Man, that guy 's conceited ! " said one player to a nother a fter a third walked away from a postmortem a n a lysis that took place between rou nds of a weekend tou rna ment in upstate New York. Postgame a n a lyses can stir up anything from new friendships to gripes and i nter­ player strife .

1 24

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"I have tried to quit twenty-five times" " It's a real love-hate relationship," said Sunil Weera ma ntry as we talked one summer morning i n the Wh ite Plains office of the National Scholastic Chess Foundation , of which he i s the executive d i rector. He has tried to leave the game on many occasion s . He keeps coming back to it. Sunil i s a n a ffable, tousle - h a i red vortex of cerebral energy, with a n entrepreneur's touch t h a t has served h i m w e l l i n t h e free-for- a l l world o f scholastic chess. He is widely rega rded as o n e of t h e b e s t a n d most i n flu­ ential chess teachers i n the count ry. Born i n Sri Lanka i n 1 9 5 1 , the son of an attorney who later worked for the United Nation s , he learned to play chess i n 1 9 5 8 , when he was going on seven. "At the time there were serious race riots i n Colombo, and there was a curfew, and we basica l ly had to stay indoors ." Confined to his fa m i ly 's build ing, he picked up the rules of the game by watch ing his pa rents play. Days l ater his grandfather, a serious a mateur player, sta rted contesting ga mes with h i m . " T h i s became a great way for us to spend time, and so he chose to spend his t i me with me playing chess," Sunil recalled. " We pl ayed just about every day." When Sunil won a game against h i s grandfather a year l ater, his elder said, " Wel l , I think you're ready to go to a chess club." Sunil started playing at a local club off and on , and i n local tou rna ments . He kept with the game when his fa m i ly moved to Switzerland in 1962. By the time he was sixteen , and the w i nner of the A bsolute Championship of the Ca nton of G eneva, he was playing at the strong m aster level, despite never having had a formal teacher. He shied away from chess for several years, while preparing for and attending law school in England i n the ea rly 1970s. He gradua l ly became uninterested in his lega l studies, and came to spend hours playing chess. He moved to the Un ited States in 1973 and sta rted competing i n tou rna ments after settl ing in New York. Sunil was "an extreme t i me pressure addict" i n those days, a roused by the adren aline rush that comes with having to w i n a game with only m i n ­ utes left on t h e clock . " I was at m y sha rpest, most focused, most i ntense then, and I saw thi ngs the clearest. That feel ing was for me not dupli­ cated i n anyth ing else, but at the end of it I would be tota lly defl ated and exhausted ." S u n i l 's " brea kthrough" came in 1 9 7 5 , when he won the New York State championship. He sta rted giving private lessons soon a fter to a budding chess pl ayer, when the boy 's parents i mplored him to do so. Finding that he and h i s student were successful at their mutual endeavors, he launched a ca reer as a chess teacher. " I brought my fi rst student to 2200 from scratch,"

1 25

he related . "That's what got me i nto it. I rea l i zed I could do this, and I enj oyed it." Despite having dedicated much of h i s l i fe to the cause of chess, S u n i l 's k i nship with the game is confl icted . " I rea l ly do enj oy the ga me," he said, and I think I appreciate the aesthetics of the game. A game well played has a lot to susta i n me emotional ly--even though I can get very frustrated and really upset and pull my h a i r out. You can go through a number of losses and then have one really wel l-played game. That attraction just keeps reeling me back i n . At times, I never would have thought that I would play another g a m e . I 've had games that I 've played in my career that have been published a l l over the world . And that's the attraction to me. I guess in a sense a well-played game has the sense of perfection. I mean noth ing is perfect, but it's a work of art. I t's a great feeling of satisfaction . . . . This i s my way of being able to create someth i ng . . . . I have tried to quit twenty- five times. I feel that there can be a destructive side to it. That's when things a re just not going right, not necessarily because you made a mistake or you miscalculated, but because something you were trying to play just didn't exist in the position . And it could be easy to take that sort of negativity and turn it against yoursel f. S o you have to be very careful of that, and clea rly it's the case that you lose more games than that beautiful game that you won . There's a rea l danger. Some might use that to better their outlook on l i fe , and grow from it. But if we a re so i nvolved i n the game, then we can become bitter.

As the years pass, S u n i l has come to accept that the works of chess art a re coming at a slower clip for him. " I suppose that a number of times I 've thought maybe I would quit because there is this feel ing that you can't go beyond a certain point. I suppose, to be honest, that you have to accept the fact that, i f you can not m a ke the masterpiece , then you can get enjoyment from participating i n someone else's. Of course, in terms of you r ego, that's a d i fficult step to get to, and to accept. But I thi nk that's rea l ly the a n swer."

C H A PTER

6

A mbivalence He spoke of t h e fact t h a t a l l a round t h e m was a bright, free world, that chess was a cold amusement that dries up and corrupts the bra i n , and that the passionate chess player is just as ridiculous as the madman i nventing a perpetu u m m o bile or counting pebbles on a deserted ocean shore . . . . " H orror, suffering, despair," said the doctor quietly, " those are what this exhausting game gives rise to." -Vladi m ir Na bokov,

June

27, 2004.

The Defense

I 'm swimming i n waters tepid and chlorinated on this late

Sunday a fternoon, at a hotel on the outsk irts of Phi ladelphia. It's an out­ door pool adj acent to the hotel's gy m , bounded by an a rray of concrete walls. I say "sw i m m i ng," but my actions can better be described as floating, drifting, sinking, with an occasional leg kick to restore buoya ncy. Two boys occupy the shal low end, splashing, j u mping. Their mother watches from the va ntage point of a deck chair. Shadows hit the ripples on the water. In distant caverns i n the hotel, scores of men, women , and children a re hunched over chessboards, clawing their way through their second game of the day. They are competing i n various sections of the thi rty-second a n n u a l World Open, h e l d e a c h s u m m e r i n Philadelph i a . I could be playing right now as wel l , eyeing chess pieces, as I'm also enrolled i n the tou rna ment. But I decided to sit out the last round of the weekend by taking a half-point bye . I just fin ished a gruel ing, five-hour game, which bega n at ten i n the morn ing, and I have neither the energy to play aga i n today nor the interest. A fter my fi rst ga me I felt drained, back-sore, i n need of movement. A swim seemed the better option . I ' l l be driving back to New York soon , but I 'm i n no hurry t o get goi ng. It has been a scorching weekend, and I ' m waiting for the heat and the S u nday traffic to die dow n . I also have some thinking to do. The thing i s , I 'm smack in the m iddle of an existential crisis.

! 26

A m bivalence

I

r 27

That's the phrase that came to me th ree weeks ago-half j ok i ng, but also h a l f seriously-at the end of a weekend tourna ment that I participated i n outside o f Hartford , Con necticut. I had played i n thi rty-three tourna ments since my return to chess in 2002, with my energies devoted to learning how to play better. But something was d i fferent now. M a l a ise encroached when I sat down at the board . I was playing wel l enough , but I wasn't enjoying the trials of tourna ment pl ay. Trapped in a hotel for two days , sleeping poorly at n ight, toi ling through unending variations in crowded , w i ndowless rooms , I began to ask myself whether I was i nto playing chess competitively. But i f I stopped participating i n tou rna ments , would I still be interested i n chess , i n study ing the game and playing casu a l ly ? And i f I weren't, what mea n i n g would my l i fe h ave ? Where would I find passion i n l i fe ? M y crisis w a s o n e o f purpose a n d meaning: where would I find them i f I were n o longer interested i n playing chess competitively? I came to rea l i ze it was a question of having a valid illusio i n my l i fe , to i nvoke again that social-science term . What k i nd of dedicated " i n terest and i nvestment" i n life would inspirit my efforts, now or i n the coming years ?

Illusio is forwa rd-looking, as it's tied i nto a person's ideas of future endeav­ ors and comm itments. W hen they a re i nvested in particular l i fe proj ects, or i n the game of l i fe more general ly, people come to a nticipate and hope for certain situations, be it getting a job promotion , watch ing one's children grow up, or migrating to another country. W h i le driving back home i n the Sunday even ing summer traffic from the tourna ment i n H a rtford , I had r u m i nated over the thought that, if I weren't going to be competing i n tourna ments any longer, I would be left w ithout a clear and concretely forthcom i ng futu re. Life without illusio i s blea k .

A F E S TI V A L O F C H E S S

This was on my mind when I followed th rough on playing at the World Open three weeks l ater. I had a l ready doled out the $ 2 25 entrance fee , and I wa nted to see how I would fa re i n the com p etition . Perhaps the malaise I had felt in Con necticut was a fluke, and events would be d i fferent. Perh aps I would h ave such terrific success that it would become clear I was destined to play tou rnament chess. The World Open i s one of the la rgest, most prize-laden open tour­ neys i n the world . Pl ayers from around the world make the pilgrim age to Ph i l adelph ia each summer to compete for cash prizes and the glory of victory. More than a thousand players participate, i n d i fferent section s : t h e O p e n section, where grandmasters and masters wrangle, followed b y

I28

I

A mbivalence

the divisions Under 2200, Under 2ooo, Under 1 8 oo , and so forth. At the event, mon k l i ke contemplation j ostles aga i nst real -world com motion . The a ffa i r is part chess carnival, part blood sport. Most of the playing sections convene i n huge meeting rooms, which to the u n i n itiated m ight look l i ke massive sweatshops with rows of laborers seated at workstations, sl av­ ing away on some biza rre product. While playing, competitors sit at long banquet tables , twenty-four to a table, set up row after row. The contes­ tants, ranging i n age from six to eighty-five and at least

95

percent of them

male, a re either caught up i n their games or check ing out other battles or walking about searching for food or coffee, talking with friend s . During the tou rna ment rou nds a constant tra ffic of players streams to and from the bathrooms l i ke a tra i l of ants dutifu lly proceed ing from nest to food sou rce then back aga i n . Parents of younger players fi nd corner nooks to wait out the d ay. Tou rna ment man agers, wearing yel low shirts procla i m ­ ing

DI RECTOR,

roa m t h e aisles. Computer i m ages of t h e top six games

glow on a la rge screen, so that spectators can watch the games i n real time. W h i le the top grandmaster games take place at tables sepa rate from the general playing a rea, other grandmasters h ave to fight it out l i ke the rest of the players at tables pressed closely together, observed by an endless stream of peering onlookers. Pleas for quiet-" Ssshhh! "-sound out when the rush gets too noi sy. Now and then people crowd a round a specific game, bent on fol lowing a compelling position or a young prodigy's play. O utside the playing h a l l s , d o w n t h e h a l lways a b i t , y o u can find food vendors, chess vendors, book d i splays, a n a lysis rooms, a press center, lectures conducted by expert grandmasters, and broods of players and k ibitzers d iscussing games just fi n i shed or dabbling i n pickup blitz games, the antistructural counterpoints to the structu red ceremony of tournament chess. Players crowd a round the standings sheets to see how they and others are fa ring. Excha nges a re voiced in Spanish or H i n d i or Russian or Mandarin or English . Most of the talk revolves a round the battles at hand. " W ho are you pai red against ? " " I better get back t o m y game." " I felt sorry for m y opponent." I n the lulls between rounds, players i n habit the hotel's h a l lways, bars, and restau rants, with chessboards set up on any ava i l able table beside abandoned pizza boxes and water bottles. Blitz games scurry on l ate i nto the n ight, many of them plied by street players look ing to earn some cash. "The World Open i s a zoo," an older pl ayer tel l s me. For many it's also a lot of fu n . " I love playing in a big room ," E l i zabeth Vicary says of participating i n the World O pen . "I feel l i ke there's a certa i n beauty to five hundred people being in a room, and all just sort of meditatively t h i n k i ng.

Ambivalence

I

1 29

That's awesome. You don't get that very much i n the modern world ." What takes shape is a sense of communitas, a spirit of solidarity and together­ ness, an " i rrefragable genui neness of mutu a l ity," where the chess commu­ n ity shares a common experience outside the rote of everyday l i fe . ' La rge tou rna ments h ave much i n common with other festiva ls held a round the world , i n which participants find them selves part of a dense col lective meld of bodies and consciousnesses and a re i m mersed i n a " t i me out of time," to quote the title of a book on festiva l s . Here 's folklorist Dorothy Noyes's account of La Patu m , a trad ition a l festival that takes place each year i n Catalon i a , Spa i n : "As the five d ays of the festival prog­ res s , as the d a nces a re repeated over and over, as the great d r u m keeps beating ' Pa-tum' i nto your head and the band and your neighbors force your feet to dance, as you d r i n k more and more and sleep less and less, as the smoke of the fi recrackers blackens face and the crush of bodies takes you from the control of your own movements . . . . You lose your everyday name and position : no longer d i stingui shed by the m , you a re a part of the sweating d a rk mass . " 2 O ver the five days of the World Open , as games a re contested one after another, as the clocks tick off in your head and the tournament schedule forces you to calculate , as you d r i n k more and more coffee and sleep less and less, as the crush of bodies takes you out of your own l i fe and you lose your everyday identity and status, beco m i ng a rating number and tou rna ment score on ly, you a re part of the gritty, sweating mass. Curious about that mass ritu a l , I decided to play i n the tournament for the fi rst time. Because my rati ng has crept over Under 2000,

2200

2000, I

am playing in the

section, composed mostly of players rated between

but with a few a mbitious players rated below

2000

2 I 99

and

i n the m i x . Ten

thousand dollars w i l l go to the fi rst-place w i n ner, five thousand to the second-place w i n ner, and on down the line. With prizes l i ke these, a few sandbaggers are probably at work-devious players who h ave artificially lowered thei r ratings in order to compete in a section below their true playing strength and i mprove their chances of w i n n i ng. " S andbaggers a re everywhere," Asa Hoffmann warns me. Contenders can participate i n one of severa l schedu les , a l l of them con­ verging for the final rou nds, held on the hol iday Monday of the Fourth of July weekend. This yea r pa rticipants can also opt for a two-weekend schedule, i n which fou r games a re played one weekend and five the next. I signed up for that schedu le in part because I thought that, by breaking up my games into two clusters, I could better handle the grind. Nine i ntense games i n just a few d ays makes the World Open a test of

r30

I

A m bivalence

sta mina as much as of sk i l l . The pace i s characteristic of A merican tou rna­ ments these day s , where a kind of manic, "supersize" mentality reigns, with orga n i zers and pa rticipants trying to cram i n as many games as pos­ sible over a long weekend . A merican grandma ster Jesse Kraai, for one , is not fond of such a rra ngements . "I generally avoid the big A merican tou rna­ ments ," he says . " I would say that what you've called the c i rcuit is d i fferent i n the U . S . than i n Europe. Generally the tourna ments l i ke the World Open and Foxwoods a re going to be two rounds a day, and they 're going to be pretty stressful to play, and kind of cutthroat. You don't h ave that much energy for the l ater rou nd." P rofessional players who have migrated from Russia and Europe, where most tou rna ments proceed at a one-game-a-day clip, often find that a two-ga mes-a-day pace has an "enormous negative i mpact" on the quality of the games, as one grandma ster puts it. 3 It's easy to get t i red, especi ally during a day's second game or toward the end of a tournament. " Twelve hours of chess is too much at a ny age," notes grandmaster Vad i m M i lov. Physical condition ing counts for a lot. And as a player has to conserve energy for upcoming matches, games are more often a renas of down-and-di rty survival than ca nvases of richly contested ideas. It's tou rna ments l i ke these and a general trend toward faster time controls that led David Bronstein, a former world champion contender, to posit that "chess has changed from a phi losophical play to a sporting ga me."4 More phi losopher than ath lete myself, I was doubtful from the start about my chances. I a rrived i n Philadelph i a late Friday a fternoon and checked i nto a hotel room w ith a i r-condition ing and synthetic ca rpeting. I did n't fa ll soundly asleep until

2:oo A . M .

or so, owing to nerves, anticipa­

tion, and the d istant sounds of a n elevator. I n the morning I ca rted a groggy bra i n to the playing h a l l m i nutes before the fi rst rou n d . Wa l k i n g past rows and rows of banquet tables , I made my way to the back of the h a l l . I was playing on Board twenty boards set up for those participating in the Under

2200

12,

one of

section. We

were seated in long rows, l i ke i n fantrymen in an a rmy mess h a l l . Next to our pl atoon was the Open section , where the tables hosting the top grand­ master ga mes were cordoned off from the other contests and any spectators by a d roopy red rope. I sat dow n , opened my bag, and produced a clock, a chess set, and a thermos of tea . Other players soon a rrived , positioned elbow-to-elbow with their neighbors. My opponent was a man i n his fi fties na med Vlad i m i r Polya k i n . I had noticed him on occasion at the M a rshall Chess Club, but had never talked with h i m . He sat down and we shook hands; no words excha nged and little

Ambiva lence

I

131

eye contact. That's the mood a mong competitors . Serious, somber. Not hostile in a ny way, but by no means friend ly. At la rge tou rna ments , the a rdor of competition can cut i nto any sense of communitas. I had the Wh ite pieces. My opponent, w ithout a clear plan to his moves, started to drift in the ea rly m idd lega me. I gai ned an edge and was pressur­ ing his formation , but he managed to craft counterplay aga i nst my king. After a few i mperfect moves I was in trouble, and he ended up weav ing a mating net a round my k i ng. I had to resign in the fi fth hour of pl ay. I tipped over my k i ng:

o- 1 .

"Wel l," Polya kin said as he shook my hand and looked at the position . He knew he had a l most lost the game. " Yeah," I said. End of conversation . We packed up and went our sepa rate ways . It was now just before four o'clock, with the next round to begin i n a n hou r's t i m e . Tired, discou raged , I decided t o take a bye. T h i s would a l low me to rest up for the next day's games. Like many others, I 'd prefer a one-game-a-day schedule. I went for a swim in the hotel pool , took a nap, and then d ropped by the tou rna ment hall to check out the ongoing games. I walked over to the skittles room, where some pl ayers were look ing at games just completed and others were playing blitz chess. I caught some of the patter that fol lowed one game between friend s . " W hy are y o u a lways t r y i n g t o h u r t me? W h y ? Why ? " " You were dancing too smoothly . . . " " I can't help it if you can't do the two- step ." I watched blitz wizards play a couple of games for money, and rei n­ troduced myself tO a young man I had met once before. We sat down at a board of our own and played a series of five-mi nute blitz ga m es. Now, this

is fun, I thought. Pure flow. I ate a lone and sold iered back to my room. I slept poorly aga i n , my m i nd revved up from the game and the tough loss. I woke up sluggish, underrested . That showed i n my next game, against a man i n his forties named Igor Dayen. The round began at

ro:oo A . M .

We were aga i n a l igned i n two tight

rows. Th ree boards dow n , a player man aged to get his queen trapped by the twelfth move of the ga me. He knocked his king over and stormed off, growling at his opponent, " Your clock i s too loud ! " I gla nced a t the contest t o m y left now a n d then . A teen with a sandwich w rapped i n aluminum foil by his side was trying to outplay h i s older oppo­ nent i n a Closed Sicilian. H i s elder would put on a pair of read ing glasses when he had to w rite dow n a move , and then take them off aga i n when he retra i ned his eyes on the board. The teen was playing with a n air of patient,

132

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A mbiva lence

cautious con fidence , and was slowly ga i ni ng a n edge . The older man sighed now and then . I was not enjoying mysel f during my own ga me. Sitting tensely, sifting through queen and bishop moves for hours on end, I concluded that there had to be a better way to spend one's time. At one point, while it was my opponent's move , I set out for the bathroom. A long the way I ran i nto Dan iel Pomera ntz, a player in h i s late teens from W h ite Pla i n s . Playing i n t h e Under

2000

section , he w a s fighting over key squares w ith a thi rteen­

year-old girl. We got to talking just outside the playing h a l l , and I told h i m I wasn't fi n d i n g pleasure at t h e board . " I wouldn't want t h i s as a j o b , even i f I w a s getting paid t o do it," I said, as others walked by. " S itting for hours on end, that i s , having to calcul ate vari ations upon variations. Then doing that aga i n for a nother fou r or five hours straight." "I know what you mean," said Daniel. " But see, for me, playing in tour­ na ments l i ke this is a way to get some good games in, which I can then go back to l ater on and a n a lyze. It's a way to get some data that I can use l ater on , and hopefully i mprove my chess. It's l i ke creating an a rchaeological record that I can look back on afterwards." Dan iel said he also valued the social aspects of tournaments. " I l i ke the fact that you play your opponent, you compete with him for fou r hou rs, and I kind of enjoy that, a fter the game, you c a n go out and grab a bite to eat and look at the game together."

B E A S T LY M O N K S

Ta lking with D a n iel got me thi nki ng: W hy, i n fact , do chess players l i ke to sweat out for m a l tou r n a ments ? Why go th rough the bother of paying to travel to a d istant city, stay in bland hotel rooms, and apply free time on weekends and holidays to such an enterprise? S u rely it's not the promise of prize monies a lone, espec i a l ly at the a m ateur level , since only a few earn enough each tournament to cover even the costs of participating. S o what do players get out of i t ? S i n c e I wasn't t h e b e s t authority on t h e subject, considering my own ambivalence, trying to grasp why people l i ke to compete i n tourna ments became a n i nterpretive endeavor in its own right. And so for several months I asked friends and associates to expl a i n what motivates them. What I came to learn was that chess pl ayers grind through tou rna ments for a number of reasons. Some see the form a l competition as a way to test themselves, to measure thei r chess skills or progress. Some l i ke the thrill of

A m bivalence

I

r33

t h e hunt. S o m e take it as a competition of egos: m a y t h e sma rtest person i n t h e room w i n . For some it's an exercise i n domination ; they w a n t t o crush their opponents . Some a re bent on w i n n i n g cash . Some consider it a vaca­ tion from the everyday, where they can elope from their work aday lives for a wh i l e . Some enjoy seeing old friends or being a n i ntegral part of a community of chess players . Some appreciate the drama of the struggle, the heady rush that comes w ith striving for mate whi le the clock i s tick ing; it can make them feel more i ntensely alive. "The true m a n wants two things: danger and pl ay," w rote Nietzsche. 5 For most players-l i ke Dale Sharp, a pharmacologist and l i fe master who l ives i n Peeksk i l l , New York-combinations of these reasons get them to the playing h a l l . Now in his mid-fifties, Dale grew up i n rural Pennsylva n i a and sta rted playing chess i n college . He was, by h i s own adm ission , a "very erratic" pl ayer for many years, and broke 2 roo only when he was i n h i s mid-twenties, the same yea r he ea rned h i s doctorate i n chemistry at Ohio State University. He w e n t on to achieve a master-level rating i n r 9 8 7, with his rating peaking at 2298 a few years later; he won severa l cha mpionships along the way while living in Wisconsi n . Dale is a tough, battle- seasoned competitor who excels i n sharp positions and compl icated midd legame struggles. He's proud of what he has achieved at the board, and accepting of the fact that, now that he's older, his greatest triumphs a re beh ind h i m . " Real istica l ly," he told me over di nner once, with the trace of a Wisconsin accent rounding h i s words, "I have ach ieved fa r more than I ever expected to achieve in chess. Realistical ly, I am not l iable to exceed my previous heights ." In a l l , Dale has pl ayed more than three thousand rated games, i n tou rna ments i n G reen Bay and G ibraltar, in Boston and Bermuda. These days he plays in weekend competitions i n t h e Northeast and i n cities a long t h e East C o a s t . W h e n asked i f he l i ked the competitive aspect of tou rna ments, he said, " O h , yes . It validates that you're good at something. And the community of chess players i s a lot of fu n," he added . "I find the c a m a raderie between chess players is very good. You can go to a tou rna ment anywhere , you don't even know a soul i n this tou rna ment, you usually end up talking to your fel low players and having a good time." When playing i n tou rna ments, Dale's m a i n a i m i s to win. " I 'm there to w i n . I 'm w i l l i n g to win ugly," he says. That's the pragmatic, time-tested attitude of ma ny. For a few others , winning outright i s less i mportant overall than striving to create something beautiful with the chess pieces. This rather a rtistic sen­ sibil ity is more evident a mong older pl ayers who have lost their fervor for

1 34

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the competitive aspects of the game alone and a re looking to create at the boa rd . One autumn day I vi sited Joe Demauro, one of the country's best correspondence chess players, at his home in Mount K i sco, New York . An i ntern ation a l grandm aster i n correspondence chess and recently reti red as a vice president of Verizon Commun ication s , Joe has pa rticipated success­ fully i n a number of correspondence championships over the yea rs, i nclud­ ing severa l Olympiad events. When I asked Joe why he l i kes to play chess, he said that his motives have "changed" over the years. " I used to enj oy it because it was competitive and I was good at it, and I was w i n n i n g a lot," he said. " But over the course of time I lost the competitive motivation." "That d idn't m atter much to you ? " I asked. " I did n't like it, coming home at vacation and beating my brother. d idn't l i ke beating my brother, I didn't enjoy that part of it. I could enjoy playing against opponents that I did n't k now, especially if I could create something really creative . But over time the competitive aspect faded. It's not enough to win a game. I 'm trying to bring something of beauty i nto it." Si nce beauty a lone doesn't pay the phone bill, strong players-those who truly have the capacity to create at the board-fi nd themselves facing an uneasy tension between competitive needs and the quest for beauty. A s Va sily S myslov p u t it, " A chess game i s a work of art between m i n d s , which need to balance two, sometimes dispa rate goals: to win, and to produce beauty." But it's by no means a dichotomy, as Jesse K raai made clear to me: "I think i n order to win the game against a strong opponent," he said, "you have to at least stretch toward the beautiful." For most players, i n most situations, there's stra i n between the two goa l s . C reating a ma sterpiece i n any particular game is terrific, but ultimately players a re trying, by the time the hotel cha rges a re tota led, to h ave more notches on the tournament cha rts than their riva l s . For the clear maj ority of those playing in dow n ­ a n d - d i r t y tournaments l i ke t h e World Open, w i n n i ng-even i f it means winning ugly-ta kes priority over creating works of art. " You a ren't pl ay­ ing in a tourna ment to paint picture s , but to w i n points," chess author C. J. S. P u rdy rem inds his readers. 6 A determined, intrepid approach to the ga me-what players call the w i l l t o win-helps them t o grab those precious points. Seasoned pl ayers speak of such determi nation as an integral piece of a chess player's success. As British grandmaster Jonathan Levitt remarks, " It is not only intelligence, talent for the ga me, knowledge and understa nding or physica l fitness that count; w i l l t o win, pure unadu lterated motivation, can also count for enormous varia­ tion i n the levels that d i fferent players reach ." To underscore that fact, Levitt proposes the equation " Performance = k nowledge + motivation ."7

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Dale Sharp spoke of the signi ficance of such motivation the n ight we talked over d i n ner about the competitive aspects of chess. "The w i l l to win i s probably one of the most i mportant thi ngs," he said as he n i bbled on a leafy salad. " I h ave sat in games, when I was at the peak of my ga me-I was rated around 2 3 0o--w here I was playing players rated 2400 to 2500, and the position was completely even , and I 'd offer a d raw. I 'd figure the position was completely even, which it was , and the 2400 to 2500 player would go i nto a thirty-mi nute think because he did n't want to yield a draw to this 2300 player. He would j ust dig i n and try to find a way. "And you k now, I don't h ave that. I want to w i n , but I don't want to win as much as they do. And I want to w i n a lot. But you hit a level where that's one of the thi ngs that sepa rates you. That's what it takes to hit the very highest level ." A lexander Shaba lov, who teaches chess to kids when he's not playing .in tou rnaments, speaks i n s i m i l a r term s . " When I ' m assessing a young player," he says, " fi rst I see how much of a k i l ler he i s . You can see it i n his eyes . . . . I f the guy doesn't look to kill h i s opponent, he's not going to be a good player." You can see that i n some players: the grim look, the fierce hatred of los­ ing or of sett l i ng for a d raw, the digging-in when need be, the d i sgust a fter losing. Fischer had it. Kaspa rov and K a rpov had it. A mong the younger generation of chess stars, M agnus C a rlsen and H i karu Naka mura h ave it. I saw that mien on a twelve-year-old boy I played at a chess club i n Ta rrytow n , New York. I man aged t o get a w i n n i n g position aga i nst h i m , which h e did n't l i ke a t a l l ; h e w a s determined t o drudge th rough his options before giving up. One motivating device that some players employ is to drum up a n anti­ pathy toward their opponents . They m a ke themselves despise their oppo­ nents, generating " h atred" for them . That way, they want noth ing more than to demolish them and exert their superiority. Some hate; some culti­ vate hatred-what Soviet players used to call "competitive m a l ice." I n his championship days, Botv i n n i k is said to have kept i n his apartment photo­ graphs of his chief riva ls-Bronstei n , S myslov-to " b u i l d up a hatred" of them. Icelandic grandmaster Friorik O lafsson tel l s a story about meeting a fi fteen -year- old Fischer at an i nternational chess cha mpionship in Slovenia in r95 8 . At brea kfast one morning Fischer took h i s k n i fe and started slic­ ing up wasps crawling across the table, sayi ng, " T hat's how I'm going to squeeze my opponents . " R " S ome people u s e negative energy aga i nst t h e i r opponent," says M l aden Vucic, an i ntern ationa l master from Croati a . " Such a person w i l l h ate who

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he plays. He sees you , he doesn't l i ke you , and he uses that energy. It's very d i fficult to play against people l i ke that." Not everyone takes that approach, of course. M l aden, for i n stance, says that he hi mself is "very gentle" at the board. "I l i ke to play n ice people when I play chess. You know, nice and quiet, decent. We j ust play a chess game." David Bronstein l i kewise w rote, with his rival Botv i n n i k l i kely in m i n d , "I can never agree with the idea of fostering a hostile attitude to your opponent on the grou nds that this w i l l help you beat him . . . . O f course, I, l i ke any other player, strive to w i n , and I am very h appy i f I succeed in overcoming my opponent by logic, fa nta sy, ingenuity, knowledge or deep calculation. But to make yourself hate the opponent, to sacrifice peace of mind for the sake of a point in the tou rnament table, this i s an i mpoveri sh­ ment of chess."9 And yet the fact that the hatred-summoners exist, and that their strat­ egy is effective, especi al ly at the h i gher levels, points to the fact that a com­ ponent of aggressiveness is at work i n the dyn a m ics of competitive chess . Some pl ayers a r e highly aggressive . " C hess i s a game for thugs ," or s o says Russi a n A merican grandmaster Boris Gulko. I ndeed, at the professional level there is a n understanding that i f you 're too n ice a guy, then you can't make it to the top of the heap. For some time this psychology was used to expl a i n why Viswanathan A n a n d , the Indian grandmaster with i m mense talents for the game, was never able to vanquish his chief competitors, the l i kes of Kasparov and K r a m n i k : he was too "peaceful" a person, too pleas­ ant and a m iable a guy, ever to become world cha mpion . Nice guys , it seemed, came in second . I n a 2004 i nterview, Howard Goldowsky asked H i karu Nakamura, a young A merican grandmaster who is a fierce fighter at the board, i f he thought that " being a n ice guy, having too much empathy, is a h a ndicap for being a good chess player." " T h at's a d i fficult question," Nakamura replied. "If you look at A n a n d , he's t h e n icest g u y around as fa r as grand masters g o . You probably won't fi nd someone n icer. But it has hurt h i m . It

seems

that the n ice guy i s never

really the top pl ayer . . . . It probably i s a handicap because i f you h ave a l l this empathy towards people, y o u probably a ren't as aggressive i n t h e way you play." 1 0 When A nand won a world championship tournament i n 2007, and then beat Vlad i m i r K ra m n i k i n a world cha mpionship match i n 200 8 , the con­ sensus was that his ta lents and work ethos were so great that they had finally ca nceled out his persona l decency. He was the exception that proved the rule. When asked i n 2008 i f he l acked "the k i ller i nstinct," Anand rema rked , " Normally I avoid con flict, and I a m i ndeed not a k i l ler l i ke

Ambivalence

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Kasparov. That is not my style. I am used to moving around in peaceful su rround ings. I grew up i n a fa m i ly where values were very i mportant . " 1 1 The competitive spirit i s pervasive , even i n casual settings. Chess players a re constantly sizing up others . " W ho i s the better pl ayer ? " is a question that recurs i n the m i nds of ma ny. A h iera rchy of dominance exists, not u n l ike that which can be found at a posh country club or a mong a troop of baboons. Competitiveness and cam araderie form a double -hel i x structure of social relations in chess. The scene at many chess tou rna ments is rem i n i scent of the "ritualized violence" that ethologists h ave noted a mong highly social a n i m a l s , i n which two rivals o f the same species grapple in a restrained a n d conven­ tiona li zed way, with d i m i n i shed risk of injury for both w i n ner and loser. The battles a re usually over territory, access to mates, or social ran k . W h i le no lasting physical d a mage is suffered by either party during such a battle, the vanquished individual does remember the defeat. As Austrian zoologist Kon rad Lorenz rem a rked , that individual "is as effectively and as perma­ nently subdued as i f it h ad suffered serious wou nds . . . one is aga i n and again surprised to observe how completely the loser of a ritu a l i zed fight is intim idated and how long he retains the memory of the victor's superior­ ity." 1 2 I n the ceremon i a l fights of competitive chess, battles over turf, pres­ tige , and social rank l i kewise take place. No blood i s shed , but the losers long remember their defeats. That raises the d i fficult question of whether the parallels between the ritu a l i zed battles of chess players and those of other a n i mals are just chance, or the competitive rages of chess (and other sports) stem, at least i n part, from our biogenetic heritage . A steady d iet of competition and comparison c a n get to be constra i n ­ i n g i n i t s i nterperson a l features. " I 'm sl ightly reluctant to s a y t h i s , b u t I t h i n k there's a k i nd of i m maturity a mong top players," Jon athan Rowson told me. It doesn't apply to everybody, at all. But as a rule, playing a game all of your l ife , no matter how sophisticated the game i s , does m a ke you, wel l , a bit basic in some ways. I t 's qu ite a si mple way of living your l i fe , of living your l i fe i n this constant tempo of w i n n i ng and losing, of compa ring yourself to others. It's a very status-d riven kind of world . O ften people, to get that good , haven't done much else. You do get some very rounded grand masters who can speak to you about a l most anything . . . . But there a re others who clearly struggle to func­ tion i n the everyday worl d , and I think they 're maybe slightly more the norm, although i t 's d i fficult to say-the genera l ities don't get us very fa r. I think that this im matu rity can be l i ke a stockbroker culture, or cultures where people are trying to make a lot of money just straight out of college. I think there's a s i m i l a r kind of atmosphere , where people don't really grow up,

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where they don't necessarily have the k i nd of rich relationships that they need to come out of themselve s . I nstead , they have really base feeli ngs of w i n n i ng and losing, and of being better or worse than somebody else. So it remai n s qu ite a simpl istic developmental track .

Jonathan also related to me that if he spends more than two weeks straight around chess players, he starts to feel a bit uncomfortable. "And that's because somehow it a lways comes back to the game, it a lways comes back to people basica l ly competing about who's the better player. That can be hidden i n a l l sorts of ways, but it's sti l l there ." The ethos of competitiveness often reveals itself i n the la nguage that chess pl ayers use. I f a l inguistic anth ropologist were to l i sten in on chess players talking, she wou ld find that a nu mber of "speech genres" stream through their utterances, from everyday talk ( " Where did you park your c a r ? " ) to random shop talk ( " the N i m zo-Indian i s a good open ing") to locutions of praise and awe ( " He played a terrific ga me " ) . One way of talking that stands out is a kind of low language i n which players d raw on metaphors of sex u a l i zed physical abuse and violence i n talking about their ski rmishes with others. " I tore him a new one ! " " H e screwed me over," and " T he game was a d raw, but I did f6 [ pawn to f6] on h i s ass ! " are some of the m i lder rem arks. O ften it's said to be "all i n fu n ," i n a playfully aggressive tone, but that doesn't make the imagery less h a rsh or pointed. E l i zabeth Vicary has often asked men to stop using sex ually violent l a nguage when analyzing games with her. "I don't need to hear that they 're tearing me a new one while we're going over a ga me," she told me. Images of anal assaults recur. That's perhaps unsurprising, as it's usu­ a l ly man-on-man violence that is schematically i nvolved. "That was a deep-ass sac ! " said one man while watching a blitz ga me. " It's going to get deeper than that before the game is over," replied the player who made the sacrifice. I n recou nting a game he played against former world cha mpion A n atoly K a rpov during a

1992

match, British grandmaster Nigel Short

said to writer Paul Hoffm a n , "I stuck it to him real goo d , way up h i m . T h e guy w a s getting raped." Anal defilement m ight well be o n e o f the most shame-i nducing, feared acts i m aginable to A merican and European men . To convey that one player has breached another in that fa shion i s to show that the loser not only lost, but was al so humil iated i n the process . T h e i m agery echoes the violent homoerotic themes that folk lorist A l a n D u ndes fi n d s in A merican football, which he describes as a " ritual form of homosex u a l rape . The w i n ners femi ni ze the losers by getting i nto thei r end zone ." " S p i k i ng" the ball a fter a touchdow n , Dundes argue s , "con firms to

A m bivalence

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a l l assembled that the enemy's end zone has been penetrated ." Ll Chess has its own form of spiking, when a player slams a piece deep into the enemy's territory. I t can be a m acho world, the competitive chess scene . It spawns mascu­ line values of strength and assertiveness , of tough ness and staying power, of yea rned-for dominance over others, and, for some, a confidence border­ ing on cock iness. It's not a lways l i ke this, and many players a re gentle sou ls. But macho aggressiveness i s a potent refrain i n the down-and-di rty opera of competitive chess . That combativeness can make for a scene that is "sl ightly toxic," as one player, j aded i n its ways, put it. It can spi l l over i nto other fields of l i fe , with players acting a ntagon istically towa rd others . I n his

2007

book King 's Gambit, author Paul Hoffman w rites of how, dur­

ing a d i n ner he shared with Garry Kaspa rov at a M a n hattan restau rant, he became un nerved by the cha mp's "absurd competitiveness," both during the d i nner and at a n exhi bition of simultaneous games that the champ had conducted earlier that day. Kasparov h i mself has confided , " The loss of my chi ldhood was the price of becom ing the youngest world cha mpion i n h istory. When you have to fight every day from a young age , your soul could become conta m i n ated. I lost my chi ldhood. I never really had it. Today I have to be c a reful not to become cruel , because I became a soldier too ea rly." 14 Scholars of play contend that games and sporting endeavors a re a way for chi ld ren and adults to fra me, bracket, and manage aggression . Com­ petitive chess does this as wel l ; but it just as readily incites aggression . " O ne of the negative elements in chess," Leonid Yud asin tel ls me, " i s the spirit of competit ion . It's a very serious problem . People need this, but they also need balance. It's not so ea sy. That's one of the main problems in chess. But the positives a re a thousand ti mes more ." A lexander A lekh i ne was once quoted as saying, i n s u m m i ng up the situ­ ation , that the successfu l tou rna ment pl ayer "must combine the chief char­ acteristics of a research scientist, an ascetic monk and a beast of prey." 1 5

G E N D E R A N D O B S E S SI O N

T h e studious fa naticism requi red o f the game m ight help t o explain why men stick with the game more than women do. " We lose most of them by m iddle school," says M i ke A mori of the girls who attend the Westchester Chess Academy, where he and Rusudan teach. The girls turn to other i nter­ ests-friends and activities with more opportunity for social i nteraction . " Chess is a wei rd thing to do if you 're a girl in high school," says E l i zabeth

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Ambivalence

Vica ry. " I think there's enormous pressure on g i rls when they reach high school to be popu lar. It's how you are j udged, how popular you are. Play i ng a four- or five -hour game, when you can't talk to anybody, is so completely antisocia l . A nd the study time required as wel l-it means you can't hang out with friends." Many boys burrow into hours of study, tournament pl ay, or bl itz ga mes. Rusudan herself grew up i n a chess-rich society where a l most every girl plays the game. But she has found that, both i n the Republic of Georgia and i n the Un ited States, girls go about it d i fferently than boys do: I think girls are not w i l l i ng to put a s much work into it as boys are. I f I compare myself to the boys that I grew up with, they would study so much more. T hey were more obsessed with it than I was. I wanted to hang out, go shopping, take care of myself, look i n the m i rror however long-boys don't do those things, not a s much at least! They wouldn't care. They would study s i x , seven, eight hours a day, which i s not somethi ng I would do. And once I wanted to get mar­ ried , it got harder, because I have a fa mily and every thing else. So I think that's m a i nly why men do better overall in chess, because they become more obsessed with the game. I believe women can achieve the same as men. There a re not that many women grandmasters i n the worl d , but the ones that rea l ly work hard a re on the top.

Judit Polga r comes to m i n d . The strongest female player in h i story, Polga r achieved the title of gra ndmaster at the age of fi fteen years and fou r months-at t h e t i m e , t h e youngest ever. S h e h a s been ran ked as h igh as eighth i n the world . Whi l e living i n Budapest, Hungary, Judit and her two older sisters , Susan and S o fi a , received a rigorous, systematic education from their father, Laszlo Polgar. Laszlo believed i n the adage, " Geniuses a re made, not born," which he sought to prove through h i s experimental educationa l techn iques. Chess was the centerpiece of the girls' stud ies, and each of them made rema rkable progress i n their abilities. Judit i n particu­ ' l a r was recogn i zed as a prodigy from a n ea rly age , bu t it was only through hours of h a rd work that she was able to best world-class players thrice her age . "My attitude toward the game, espec i a l ly in my youth, could be c a l led obsessive," she later recalled. 1 6 F o r others , Judit Polgar i s t h e exception that proves t h e r u l e that men have been more successful at chess than women. Much has been made of this d i sparity. Some statements revea l the ignorance of thei r authors. "A woman world champion would be against natu re," said Hunga r i a n grandmaster L a j o s Portisch i n t h e 198os. " T hey're a l l weak , a l l women," said Bobby Fischer. " They're stupid compa red to men. They shou ldn't play chess, you k now. They 're l i ke begi nners. They lose every si ngle game

Ambivalence

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r4r

against a ma n . " 1 7 Beyond the diatribes, chess players a n d others have ven ­ tured a number of explanations for the d i fferenti a l in the success of men and women. Some of these a re biologica l in nature: women a re constitu­ tionally weaker, less aggressive than men, and hi ndered by thei r biologic a l rhythms (read : menstruation ) . O t h e r theories pin t h e d i fference on cogni­ tive capabi lities, contending that women can not concentrate as well as men, or that women a re not as good at spatial reasoning and abstract thought. Some interpretations i nvoke psychological tendencies: that women focus on fa m i l ies and soci a l rel ation s; that they a re easily d istracted ; that they h ave no patience; that they a re too doci le; that they are, at t i mes, overly aggressive i n their chess t h i n k i ng; that they a re not as competitive as men; or that young women a re more boy- crazed than chess-crazed. Some theo­ ries turn to the cultu ral: that social norms disincline women from playing chess, or from getting netted by the game; that the game, l i ke other efforts that requ i re mathematica l and quasi-mathematica l modes of reason ing, has h i storically been associ ated with men . A l l of this is conj ecture. Yet the fact that chess has h istorically been less popular a mong women must count for a lot. I f m a le players outnumber female pl ayers nine to one, it stands to reason that more male players a re going to rise to the top. At the same time, Rusudan's observation-that women do not become as addicted to the game as men do-is an i mportant one. Here as well it's d i fficult to know the precise reasons. Is the intensity of focus displayed by men a product of social upbri nging or cultural expec­ tations, or is biology also involved ? E l i zabeth Vicary favors the latter idea . As she sees it, some male chess players exhibit an orientation to the ga me-scrutinizing pawn endi ngs l ate i nto the n ight, fretting over side variations in Petroff's Defen se, competing for days on end, parsing minute d i fferences i n midd legame continuation s , often t o t h e disrega rd of social t i e s or l i fe more general ly-that smacks o f "autistic obsessiveness." " I thi nk there's a connection here : t h e fact that men more read ily d isplay autistic tendencies than women, and the fact that men a re more obsessive about chess than women are." A mong the tendencies E l i zabeth has i n mind are the "restrictive and repetitive behaviors and i nterests" that are a core feature of autistic behav­ ior. Some resea rchers a rgue that such behaviors and i nterests contribute , in i mportant ways, to the sava ntl i ke capabil ities d i splayed by some people with autism . Psychologist Si mon B a ron - C ohen contends, for i n stance, that the secret to becom ing a savant is " hyper-systemizing and hyper-attention to deta i l . " 1 8 While few top chess players would be di agnosed with autis m , b e i n g a b l e t o restrict one's i nterests, focus repetitively, study and practice

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obsessively, systematize wel l , and attend excel lently to deta i l s a re qual ities that contribute to being a good chess player. It's part of the "cognitive style" of many skil led chess players. I s it the case that, much as there a re three to fou r times as m a ny males as females with auti sm, so d i fferences i n bra i n fu nctioning lead more men than women t o study a n d play chess i n terri fically focused way s ? T h e n aga i n , t h e i ntense efforts o f those m e n a re encou raged in ways that they a re not for women who m ight otherwise be similarly inclined. As Jennifer Sha hade, two-time A merican women's chess champion, points out, while people might consider it weird for a boy to be obsessed with chess, it's usua l ly tolerated, sometimes encou raged . " Now, i f a girl does that, it's not j ust weird, it's dow n right u nacceptable to most parents. Women are usually discou raged from pursuing chess and other intellectual activities that requi re time-consu ming devotion." 1 9 A nother reason that men more than women might be inclined to devote them selves fu lly to chess i s that the ga me can provide an arena of l i n e a r knowledge and action more certa i n and una mbiguous than t h e p l a y o f l i fe . M u c h t h e same h o l d s for other sorts of "hard- edged" fi e l d s of i ntel­ lectual effort, such as computer progra m m i ng, video ga m i ng, physics, and mathematics: men a re not only culturally associated with them, they a re d rawn to them more than women. As science schola r Paul Edwards puts it, " M a ny writers have suggested that ' h a rd' modes of thought, such as highly developed procedural pla n n i ng, mathematical logic, and for m a l ga m i ng, seem more fa m i l i a r and friendly to most men than to most women. They fit well with a culturally defined 'masculine' conception of knowledge as a n objective, achieved state rather than a n ongoing, i ntersubj ective pro­ cess, and with a 'masculine' morality built on abstract principles rather than shifting, contextually spec i fi c , emotionally complex relationships." I n writing o f computer progra mmers a n d the riveting "holding power" their computers have over the m , Edwa rds reports that the progra m mers find great appeal i n the su rrogate, simulated " m icroworlds" that can be created within the mach i n e . 20 The microworlds of computers hold a particular appeal for men. " For men ," Edwards writes , " for whom power i s a n icon of identity and an i ndex of success , a microworld can become a chal lenging arena for an adult quest for power and control. Human relationships can be vague , shifting, irration a l , emotion a l , and d i fficult to control . With a ' h a rd ' for m a l i zed sys­ tem of known rules, operating with i n the sepa rate reality of a m icroworld, one c a n have complex ity and security at once: the score can a lways be calculated ; sudden cha nges of emotion a l origin do not occur. Thi ngs make

A mbivalence

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sense in a way human i ntersubj ectivity c a n not." Chess l i kewise promises an "experience of the closed world of a rule-based game," to use Edwards's l a nguage . Its clear-cut para meters can promote an aesthetic of " h a rd mas­ tery," i n wh ich a person triumphs by ma stering, th rough abstract, linear thought, the principles of a contai ned and structu red field of pl ay. 2 1 Given that the overwhe l m i ng majority of chess players is male, it appears that men more than women appear to seek out that kind of mastery.

D I S I L LUSIO N E D

I made my way back to the playing area. As I walked th rough the h a l l I took note of the m a ny contenders. Some were pacing about. A man in h i s late twenties wore a black T- shirt i n scri bed w i t h s h a r p white letters on the back: " Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent's m i nd ( Bobby Fischer) ." He was playi ng a bearded man draped in a colorful H awa i i a n - style shirt. A chaperoning father sat at a vacant table, catch­ ing up on office work . Nea rby a mother was read ing The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. A few spectators hovered near grandmaster games . The place was as quiet as a chu rch parish in solemn prayer, with sporadic cough ing and the pressing of chess clocks the loudest sounds. A crowd gathered about a game between two masters, and then d i spersed when one pl ayer's i mpend ing demise became clear. As I sat down at my own game, I took a quick look at the contest to my left. The younger player was suffocating his riva l 's pieces i n a k i ng-and­ pawn endgame position in which the older player had little room to maneu­ ver h i s remaining forces. They soon reached a position of Zugzwang­ German for "compulsion to move"-wherein it was the older player's turn to move , but all the moves ava i lable to h i m wou ld worsen h i s position ter­ ribly. He would have preferred not to act, but had to; the game's structu re left h i m no choice . The man examined the position, hoping for a way out, but there was none and he knew it. He sighed , knocked his k i ng over with a fl ick of h i s fi nger, and glanced at h i s opponent. The two shook hands, col lected their possession s , and wal ked off i n sepa rate d i rections. Against Mr. D ayen I made a series of i neffective , middling moves, and found myself down two pawns in a rook-and-pawn ending. It became a question of whether I would be able to pull out a d raw. By three o'clock, ours was one of the few games still goi ng. I tried to hold off my opponent, but it was a doomed effort. I resigned on my seventy- sixth move . A nother five-hour effort with l ittle to show for it. For the tou rnament, I was I shook hands with Dayen , no words exch anged.

o

for

2.

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A mbivalence

The game ended just before four o'clock, with the next round set to begin in an hour's time. I was in no shape to play a nother game just then , let a lone a good one. I felt strung out; my flesh yearned for physical activ­ ity. My eyes were t i red. The pool beckoned. I decided to take another half-point bye, with the sad rea l i zation that I had l ittle competitive fi re just then . That itself was a d i sturbing thought. Where was my will to w i n ? I give thought t o those and other questions w h i l e drift i n g i n t h e pool . Do I drive back dow n here next weekend for the fi n a l five games and pay for severa l more hotel nights and restaurant mea l s , or do I quit while I'm beh i n d ? D o I want to keep going to tournaments, even i f I'm not enjoying the m ? And i f not, w i l l I still find meaning and pleasure i n chess ? Disillusioned is what I a m . Passion can easily mutate into a n x iety.

A SMALL WOR LD

Pl ayers sometimes get m i red i n a muck of ambivalence. They come to t h i n k t h a t chess isn't worth t h e effort, t h a t other thi ngs i n l i fe should be p r i v i ­ leged . N o l a n is u s u a l l y enthusiastic about chess, b u t o n e w i nter he fel l i nto a funk and did n't want to have anything to do with it. " C hess is dumb, pointless," he said i n dec l i n i n g my i nvitation to join me i n trek king to a chess club one evening. " It's an overrated intellectual exercise." A sentiment develops that chess is of l i m ited releva nce to l i fe at large . A s a skeptic o n c e p u t it, chess holds a " mysterious quality of 'trivial depth,' o f a for m o f mental l i fe ultimately i n sign i fica nt-though enormously mea n ­ i n gfu l-a nd trapped i n a world of mirrors." 22 Chess can be a s m a l l and l i m ited world. It's a thin dom a i n confined to its own concepts , la nguage , and h i story, sign i fying nothing b u t itself. A s Stefa n Zweig expresses it i n his

1942

novella The Royal Game, chess is " thought that leads nowhere ,

mathematics that add up to nothing, art w ithout an end product, a rchitec­ ture w ithout substance ." 23 Genna Sosonko tel l s the heartbreaking story of Jan Hein Don ner, a Dutch grandmaster and colu m n ist who suffered a bra i n hemorrhage in h i s late fifties that deprived h i m of the abil ity to speak or walk. Pa rtial speech slowly c a me back to him, and while conva lesci ng in a home for the d i sabled he learned to type with one finger, begi n n i ng with si mple exercises that dema nded i ncred ible effort from him: " house house house wi ndow w i ndow wi ndow . . . " "My world has become very s mall now," D onne r typed out i n composing h i s fi rst column a fter suffering the hemorrh age , " but a chess pl ayer i s used to that." 24 One ex-player, a master i n h i s mid-thirties, told me that he stopped pl ay­ ing chess after he started a business. He found that attending to h i s busi-

A mbiva lence

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145

n e s s a ffa i rs w a s " more interesting than w h a t happens on a chessboard ." There was more variety to it, more creativity required. With those changes, he now has friends with whom "there's something more to talk about than some open ing." The consequences of chess are slight, doma in-speci fic. While that bound­ edness can be e n l iven ing and restorative , it can also come to feel redun­ dant, anemic. Professional players occasionally admit to sentiments of dis­ content with the career they 've chosen. "Actual ly, I h ave a certa i n feeli n g of di ssatisfaction," s a i d Russian grandmaster A lexey Korotylev when a n i nterviewer asked h i m if h e w a s satisfied w i t h h i s chess career i n genera l . " I t seems l i ke I c a n achieve more , b u t the dissati sfaction accumulates , a n d somehow the result i s that I work less o n chess . . . . Sometimes when I look at the board, 64 squares,

32

pieces , I ask myself: what did the game give to

me? I feel that I have i nvested more than I received in retu r n . " " You w i l l spend t h e n e x t

30

years o f you r l i fe l i v i n g o u t o f suitcases and fighting for

control of the d5 square," British grandmaster Nigel Davies once cautioned a student of his who expressed a n interest i n becom ing a chess professio nal. "These days it's no profession ," says Rafael Vaga n i a n , a n Armenian grand­ master, when asked i f he would l i ke to see h i s son play chess professional ly. " I n most cases it's just h a rd work, badly paid, and to spend your whole l i fe doing it." 25 Greg Shahade, an i nternationa l master from Ph i l adelph i a , was several years into a n extended leave from competitive chess when I met him one August afternoon. A n energetic and welcom i n g m a n just past thirty, G reg learned chess as a boy while grow ing up i n a chess-playing household i n 198os Ph i l adelph i a ; both his father a n d h i s si ster a re master-strength play­ ers. G reg has been making a comfortable living the past few years playing poker o n l i n e . A long w ith requ iring less esoteric k now-how than chess, poker generates a better i ncome for him. " I t 's not remotely close," he said. That vocation, combined with h i s d istaste for two -games-a-day chess tour­ n a ments , has kept him from the playing h a l l s . He told me, It's brutal to play i n these tou rnaments sometimes. I t's just so u npleasant. They make it such hard work . I don't know why people can enjoy a game that can last six hours, followed by a nother game that can last six hours i n one day. I t's not fun . . . . You j ust don't want to play aga i n a fter a long game. So I feel l i ke I l ive a comfortable, good l i fe , and to go play i n a chess tourna­ ment, it's u nbelievable torture. Why would I want to do something i f it ma kes me feel u npleasant? But it could be pleasant. I f you played one game a day, in nice conditions, it could be rea l ly nice. I n Eu rope , it's usually just one game a day in these tourna ments, it's more luxurious. Here people want to cram in as many games as possible.

1 46

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A m bivalence

" C hess is a great game," Sam Shankland told me, when he was on the verge of becom ing a grand master. " It's also a lot of fu n . You meet people from all over the world. You get to express creativity. But there's also a lot of pain and m i sery in it." As one man explai ned to me, " But I do l i ke chess. I also don't l i ke it." Some grandmasters say that while they sti l l enjoy playing chess, they've become d i scou raged by the penury that chess professionals face i n the United States. There's also the apprehension that a l i fe devoted to chess can cheat you out of a l i fe i n genera l . "I t h i n k that's the only dow n fa l l of this game," K h a n once told me. " To be great at it, you have to spend a la rge portion of your l i fe on it, and that takes t i me away from other thi ngs . " Khan went on t o s a y t h a t when L a j o s Portisch, a ha rdwork ing Hungarian grandmaster, was i n h i s l ate sixties, he was asked i f there was anything he didn't l i ke about the game. " You know," he a nswered , "I spent my entire life being good at this game, but I mi ssed so much ." Chess , or l i fe-it often appea rs to come down to a choice between the two. "The light has d i m med," reads a

2009

entry in a blog called H a rdcore

Paw nography. " C hess," the author l a ments, "was a burning fl a me i n my sou l , an a l l - encompassing passion, a torrid love affa i r, a reck less addiction , a compel l i ng need. Lately, though , the bright sun that is chess has seem to gone [sic] supernova , bu rned out to a bl ack hole . . . . Part of me is sad, it's like losing my rel igion . But for now, I'm gonna go do other stuff." Some quit a ltogether. Some tire of the exhausting, elbow-butting com­ petition. Some lose interest when they plateau and hover for years at the same rating level, or they get i nto a rut and feel they 're losing more than they a re w i n n i ng. Some find it's not worth the effort requi red to get truly good at the game. Two of the game's greatest players , Paul Morphy and Bobby Fi scher, quit while at the height of thei r powers . Born in New O rleans i n 1 8 3 7 to a wealthy fa mily of C reole descent, Morphy learned to play chess when he was ten ; h i s rema rkable ta lents quickly became clear to others . He traveled to Eu rope at the age of twenty- one and triu mphed over the best players . A long with being a bri l l i a n t tactici a n , he was the fi rst truly modern player, in that he combined positional acuity with sharp attacking skills. H e did not consider chess a proper profession , however, in accord with the consen­ sus of the time, and when he retu rned to New O rleans i n 1 8 59 to practice law, he declared his career as a chess pl ayer closed. His law practice never succeeded, in part because his fa me as a chess player was so oversh adow­ ing that people were disinclined to regard h i m as a lawyer. " People think

Ambivalence

I

1 47

I am nothing but a chess pl ayer, and that I k now noth i ng about law," he said years later. Financi a l ly secure thanks to his fa mily 's fortune, he spent the rest of his l i fe i n idleness. Despite suffering from what he c a l led "chess fever," he played only a few casual games with friends during the ten years fol lowing his return from Europe i n r 8 5 9 , and none at all after r 8 69 . As the years progressed Morphy became i ncreasingly sol itary and morbid, prone to bouts of paranoi a . H e suspected his brother-in-law of trying to rob h i m o f his i n heritance. He d ied o n J u l y r o , r 8 8 4 , at t h e age o f forty- seven , a fter retu rning from a m idday walk. 2 6 Fischer's endgame took a similar path . A fter w resting the world cham­ pionship from Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Icel a n d , i n 19 7 2, at the age of twenty- n i n e , this now most mythic of chess players did not play for a nother twenty yea rs. He was slated to defend his title against Soviet player A n atoly K a rpov i n 1 9 7 5 , but agreement could not be reached over the terms of the match , and K a rpov was awarded the title of world champion . Some think that Fischer had come to hold h i mself to too high an idea l , i n which he could n o t entertain t h e i d e a of losing a m atch or even a n y games, and so avoided play i n g altogether. O thers contend that he was becoming i ncreasingly debil itated by mental i l l ness and was not composed enough to play chess at the h ighest levels. After Fischer refused to play in 19 7 5, he b e came i ncreasingly reclusive , living an itinerant's l i fe i n hotels and the homes of friends, suspicious of others and fea rful for h i s safety. He had his dental fi l l i ngs removed to prevent radio signals from i n fl uencing h i s thoughts and action s . He resu rfaced i n 1992, when he played a second match aga i nst Spassky i n Yugoslavia . Playing for what was dubbed the " world chess cha mpionship," Fischer beat Spassky aga i n , while show ing only traces of his former bri l l i a nce. He pl ayed no competitive games a fter that. I n his l ater years he lived i n Hunga ry, the Phil ippi nes, Japa n , and Icel and, periodically issuing anti-Sem itic and anti-A merican d i atribes that soiled his reputation . He died of rena l fa i lure on J a n u a ry 1 7, 2008, in h i s apartment i n Reykj avik. H i s last words reportedly were, " Nothing soothes pain like the touch of a person ." Much has been made of the signs of mental illness i n the l ives of Morphy, Fischer, and other chess players. One expl a n ation is that the exacting demands of the game and the anguish of its methods can cause severe and lasting mental distress. A s George Steiner put it, "A chess gen ius is a human being who focuses vast, little u nderstood mental gifts and labors on a n ultim ately trivial human enterprise. A l most i nevitably, this focus produces pathologic a l sy mptoms of nervous stress and unreal ity." My own

148

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A m biva lence

sense is that it's s i mplistic to contend that chess i nduces mental i l lness. It's more l i kely that the game's formal qualities and intricate patterns attract people, men i n particu l a r, who a re prone to obsessive or singular modes of thought. These ways of t h i n k i ng can i n themselves be conducive to superior chess playing, but they can also come under stra i n i f l i fe becomes too taxing. At the same time, the game itself, and the culture of chess players, can support narrow modes of existence . A nyone who has spent time at chess clubs or tourna ments w i l l tel l you that at least some of its pa rticipants a re a bit "odd" i n their man ners of thought or engagements with others. But they w i l l also tel l you that chess i s l a rgely a h aven for, not the cause of, this oddness. As former British champion Bill H a nston put it, " C hess i s not something that d rives people mad; chess is something that keeps mad people sane." 27 The pa red-down requi rements of soci a l interac­ tion found in chess clubs and tourna ments make it possible for asoci a l pl ayers t o be present i n those setti ngs i n ways t h a t a re n o t overly taxing. The vast maj ority of players, from the top levels dow n , a re wholly sane, i f d i straught and nerve-w racked at t i m e s . I n demeanor, they a re more l i ke bankers or softwa re engineers than the stereotype of mad artists. What i nterests me more are those instances i n which players w ithd raw from a n activity they were once devoted to. The stories have a way of assu m i ng mythic proportions i n the m i nds of chess players. " Fischer disap­ peared . . . . " The temptation i s there to leave the ga me, cold. Some do just th at-only to return to it once aga i n . A month a fter Nolan exclai med how "pointless" chess was, . he was back at it, contemplating the intrigues of rook and pawn endings. Chess i s a fever that's hard to shake. Its fascina­ tions pull a person back.

DISCO R D

The sun is fad ing now behind the concrete wa l l . The pool is d renched i n shadow s . A sl ight breeze passes through. It's t i m e t o get going. Compelled to move , I kick my way to the side of the pool and climb out, water drippi ng behind me. Later, before heading out to my car, I walk through the tou rnament a re a . I step past the tour n a ment d i rectors' office, where two men a re keep ­ ing track of results reported and compla i nts lodged, past the d i splay of chess books, past the food vendors sel l i ng soggy hot dogs a nd crisp bu rg­ ers. I stumble a round three kids seated on the carpeted floor, placing pieces on a board, and I overhear two men d iscussing a game. "That's a nasty pin," mutters one of the m . I stick my head i nto the skittles room and see

Ambivalence

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1 49

p a i rs of players jousting over rooks and k n ights, and then walk into the playing h a l l , where all is quiet and somber and deadly serious , as though a world is at stake. I feel I shou ld be seated at a board as wel l , fighting it out. But I don't care to be here. Playing now would be l i ke cou nting pebbles in the sand. I feel discordant, antiheroic. Moments l ater I 'm on the road , head ing for home.

I50

I

"I walked in there, and I caught the bug " M i ke A mori, a soft- spoken man in his mid-forties, is a stock trader turned chess pl ayer turned chess teacher. " I kind of back-doored my way into it," he says of h i s profession as a chess i n structor. M i ke grew up i n New Rochel le, New York. While still young he secu red a job as a trader on the A merican Stock Exchange, in lower M a n hatta n . " I w a s a kid, I was in m y twenties when I started," h e says. " But I had n o idea what was going on a round me. You're on the floor of the stock exch a nge , and it's madness sometimes. I had the opportun ity to m a ke some real money had I stuck it out. But there's a picture of me at my mother's house, before I got out of there , I guess I was probably twenty-nine or thi rty then, and you would think that I was forty- five or fi fty. My cheeks were draw n , I w a s goi ng t o b e d at n ight at about eight o'clock , eight-thi rty, up at six i n the morn ing, o n the tra i n dow n , trading, coming back, m iserable." While working on Wa l l Street, M i ke would dabble i n beginner's games of chess with other traders when the sel l i ng slowed . He noticed that a n other trader, a man n a med Ron Hen ley, would come by and watch their games. Henley was a n A merican grandm aster tu rned stock trader. His presence tripped M i ke's interest i n competitive chess. " O n a whim I went to the M a n hattan Chess Club, which at the time was above Ca rnegie H a l l . It w a s l i ke t h i s l ittle backwater chess place, a n d I j ust loved t h e scene. I fel l in love with the whole idea of hanging out i n the middle of the day with guys playing ches s . I was work ing on Wa l l Street, it was the complete opposite of what I was used to. I was work ing a m i l l ion hours a week . S o I wal ked in there , and I caught the bug." M i ke began studying chess and playing i n tou rna ments . "I got abso­ lutely hooked with tournament chess. I just loved it. I pl ayed all the time. I think I 've pl ayed to date about 560 events, which i s a fa i r amount, and I did most of that i n that period , in a very short period of time." He left h i s fi n a nce job to teach chess i n p u b l i c and private schools i n Westchester. " I s a w these kids k i nd of w ide-eyed. I fel l i n love w i t h it . . . . The money is probably a tenth of what I could have made i f I stayed on Wa l l Street. I 'm not i n this for the money. But let me tel l you, it's a reward ing field . . . . I do this for a living because I really love chess ." M i ke pa rtnered with Rusudan Goleti a n i several years back i n launching the Westchester Chess Academy. The two host classes and private sessions at the academy for serious chess players , young and old. M i ke d raws on metaphors and a n a logies to get h i s ideas across . He teaches chi ldren that the pawns i n front of the king a re all fa m i l y: " You would never have a fa m -

ily member make a move without considering how it would a ffect the rest of the c l a n . " With one girl, who was studying gymnastics, he removed a l l t h e pieces from the board a n d used his fi nger a n d m iddle finger l i ke l ittle legs and pretended to do tumbling exercises on the empty board. He then asked her to do the same, so that she could better understand the tumbles of space and movement i n chess. " I 've spent fourteen years of my l i fe face-to-face with five - to seventy­ year-olds talking about l i fe, and about chess," M i ke said one d ay while i n the academy 's anteroom. "The more I do it, the more I find the well is a l most endless. It's a l most l i ke a Taoist k i nd of thing, not to sound that I'm going out too fa r on the Zen carpet, so to spea k . But I feel that, when I have a conversation with a kid about chess, I'm real ly talking to this kid. I feel I can reach them through chess. That's the k i nd of teacher I want the kids to have , that's the experience I want them to have."

C H A PTER 7

Cyberchess To something h igher, farther, more manifold. -Fri edrich Nietz sche,

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

August 1 2 , 200 5 . He's intim idating. He never makes a blunder. He knows his openings l i ke a book. H e someti mes plays weird , i r regu lar move s , w h i c h c a n l e a d t o h i s dow n fa l l aga i n st t h e b e s t players . B u t agai nst your ord i n a ry grandmaster he's close to unbeatable. He's hard-w i red for speed . Built on raw computational power, he processes m i l l ions of moves a sec­ ond. He's ruthless i n victory, u n feeling i n defeat. He never tires. Despite h i s cold , word less demeanor, he makes for a great consultant. He's w i l l i ng to look at your games whenever you like, or a nalyze any position you th row at h i m and suggest i n spired ways to pl ay.

I N F I N I T E A N A L Y SI S

H e ' s d o i n g t h a t just now, on a humid Thu rsday afternoon , as I s i t at m y desk. The a i r - conditioner d rones a steady song. The shades a re draw n . I'm look i n g a t m y computer scree n , work ing with Fritz , a computer chess progra m developed by German computer scientists and publi shed by the German company Chessbase. The fi rst editions came out i n the ea rly 1990s, with new and i mproved versions released since. I now have Fritz 8 on the h a rd d rive of my computer, ready to be sum moned at a moment's notice. One c a n play games against Fritz , but most competitive players use the program to help them a n a lyze positions. You c a n put any position i nto Fritz, set its engine to " i n fi n ite a n a lysis" (figure 4) , and watch it calcu late the strength of d i fferent moves. That's precisely what I 'm doing. I have a

r I G u R E 4 · Work i n g w i t h F ri t z

8 in " i n fi n ite a n a ly s i s " m o d e ; © w w w . c h e s s b a s e . c o m

I

I 54

Cyberchess

m iddlegame position set up, and I 'm underta king an a n a lysis of it with Fritz's help. My motive is practic a l . The computer i s a bra i n prosthesis that adds to my cognitive and perceptual abi l ities . I h ave a rated game tomorrow n ight aga i nst an expert-level player at a local chess club. I ' l l have the Black pieces. My opponent is a tough com­ batant with a good sense of the ga me, so I have my work cut out for me. Th roughout the past week I 've been ha mmering out what defense to play against h i m . I 've been using Fritz to a n a lyze positions that I might see on the board tomorrow n ight. I 've been trying out d i fferent moves to see how the computer responds, what it proposes as good sequences , where I could go wrong. Some of its moves are surprising, counterintu itive even , until I trace out the logic of its actions. As I watch Fritz do its thing, l ighting up the screen with clever tactics, I feel as though its sil icon processors a re pat­ terning the synapses of my bra i n . Today I'm look ing at a position t h a t might a r i s e i n t h e g a m e tomorrow night. It's from a defense that I 've been play i n g lately, known as the Benko Gambit. This time, Fritz is by my side, helping me to find smart ways to proceed . I began this work on Mond ay. I set up a position I ' m expecting i n my ga me and let Fritz a nalyze it for a good ten m i nutes, to give it time to refine its a n a lysis. I n the program's main engine w i ndow, a w i ndow box i n the lower right-hand corner of the screen that shows Fritz's evaluations on specific l i nes, I saw someth i n g like the following: I . + = (0. 3 I ) I 2 . . . Qxb6 . . . . 2 . + = (0.34) I 2

0

0

0

Bby.

0

0

0

3 · + = (0.37) r 2 . . . R xb6 . . . . 4 · + = (0.5 3 ) I 2

0

0

0

Nb4.

0

0

0

The best move for Black, accord i n g to Fritz, is

12

. . . Qxb6 (the queen

takes a pawn on the b6 squa re) . A fter that move the position is close to equ a l , with W h ite having a is

12

0.3 1

pawn adva ntage . The second-best move

. . . Bb7 (moving the bishop on c8 to the b7 squa re) , giving Wh ite a

sl ight advantage (+

=

) ; specifical ly, a

0.34

pawn advantage .

12

. . . Rxb6

(the rook on b 8 takes the pawn on b 6 ) is the t h i rd-best move . While there wasn't a great d i fference i n the value of the top three moves, I became intrigued that Fritz l i ked

"

12 .

. . Qxb6" best. I began to work

through the most plausible vari ations after this queen move , shifting pieces a round the virtual board and mon itoring Fritz's eva luation of the d i fferent

(fritz; seem• to lead lo freer positions for black; also, in RC77) 1 3.1c3 (0 13,0-0 '&J5 d6 15.i4 18..txdS ig5 19.V!Id1 0xd5 20.\!!lxd5 ib7 21.'!!1xc5 llk8 22.'!!1d4 bl 23.(13 \!!11>3 24.�<6 ) 1S.hd5 ( 18. .txb4 'llxb4 19.�<6 igS'f) 18.. ,�d5 19.\!!lxd5 lr8 2.3.1>$ 1/.d5 24.1Zd7 b4 2S,!e3 15 26. �d2

fIGuRE

5 . An a n a ly s i s of the B e n k o G a m b i t p o s i t i o n s ( i n t h e u p p e r r ig ht- h a n d b ox ) ; © w w w . c h e s s b a s e . c o m

r 56

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Cyberchess

positions. I l i ked what I saw, and decided to employ the queen move in my game that week. That afternoon I began to work through the variations that followed from the queen move , trying to understand what was going on with each move Fritz had proposed . As I made moves on the board , the record fol ­ lowed s u i t on t h e computer screen. I typed o u t observations here and there i n that emergent record , i nclud ing warnings to myself to avoid particular paths (figure 5 ) . To the u n i n itiated, the resu lting lines of analysis might look l i ke a surreal pl ate of digital spaghetti. For me, they served as a hyper­ textual map that could help me navigate a dense thicket of ideas . There was no way I could remember all the variations i nvolved, but that wasn't the point: by work ing th rough the d i fferent continuations and ga i n i n g a sense of the nuances associ ated with each one, I would be com­ fortable at the board . Indeed, the t i me I had spent analyzing the positions would be to my benefit, especially i f it was all new to my opponent and he or she stepped u n k nowingly i nto my home preparation. I had found a defense, a good defense. I only needed to work on it, to get a feel for its nuances. The computer comes in ha ndy for that.

A BR A N D -NEW G A M E

O thers have found as much . Through the same stretch of days that I 've been working with Fritz, chess players a round the world , from St. Petersburg to Brooklyn to Beijing, have been using their PCs and l aptops i n s i m i l a r ways. Ca mped before t h e i r monitors, they've b e e n sift i ng through data­ bases and computer a n a lyses i n a n effort to come up with new and effective moves that they can employ in their games. Club players a re hashing out the best moves to play in the Najdorf Sici l i a n , while el ite grandma sters a re at work i n hotel rooms, concocting hitherto u nplayed moves to spring on Viswanathan Anand the next time he ventures the Semi-Slav Defense against them. Computers a re changing how chess i s played . They a re a ltering how pl ayers prepare for and a n a lyze games, how they think during a contest, and what they m a ke of chess. " I t 's a brand new game, a new world," Garry Kasparov has said of this trend. 1 Some professional players no longer have chessboards in their homes; they conduct a l l of thei r chess on a computer screen. "The computer becomes your coach, your second, your everything," says Alexa nder Shaba lov, a top A merican pl ayer. " S ometimes I th i n k I 'm spend ing too much time w ith the computer, that I should look at a book, do some other kind of tra i n ing, not computer-related . But it looks so l a me

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to me to look at the book. A nd if there's some complicated variation i n the book that goes o n , m y fi rst reaction i s , ' I must check this with the computer. How can I trust i t ? "' What happens when you apply soph isticated computational devices to a computation-based play form l i ke chess? Things get i ntense, quick ly, as assemblages of human and nonhuman technologies create new forms of chess play and know-how. The impact of computers on the game i s striking. I n the ea rly spring of

195 3 ,

Svetozar Gligoric, a Serbia n grandmaster, beat

Pol ish- born A rgentine grandmaster M iguel Najdorf i n a n i nternational tou rna ment i n Mar del Plata , A rgenti n a , by employ i ng a new sequence of moves, "a fresh and powerful weapon for Black," in a King's Indian Defense. 2 Najdorf, lea rning from the defeat, used the same idea several months l ater i n a game aga i n st a n unsuspecting M a rk Ta i manov i n a can­ didates tou rna ment in Zurich, Switzerland. I n formation traveled slowly in those days , and Ta ima nov wasn't aware of the Najdorf- G i igoric game when he met up with Najdorf in Zurich. Najdorf beat Ta i m a nov sound ly. That wou ld not happen today. M a ny grandm aster games a re relayed simu lta neously over the I nternet, so that a nyone in the world can wit­ ness the day 's events at a moment's glance. There a re also weekly reports , such as The Week in Chess, that list the moves of i mportant ga mes. These games a re added to databases, which players can purchase and store on the hard d rives of their computers. The most recent version of Mega Database, for i n stance, conta ins more than fou r m i l l ion games. The technological-cultural backd rop to these emergent and ever-evolv­ ing chess practices and sensibilities is the vast cha nge in med i a , scienti fic, and i n formation-sharing practices that are shaping and reshaping the l ives of so many these days. C i rcu lating media i mages, text-based communiques, and l i n ked data banks set the pace and nature of new i n formation flows a round the world, with people and i n stitutions finding themselves faced with "overwhe l m i ng flows of data," in anthropologist M ichael Fischer's word s . Tra nsformations i n m a rket, medi a , m igration , and telecommunica­ tions a rra ngements have led to the deterritor i a l i zation of peoples , labor, commodities, knowledge , and cultural practices. All this has led to the construction of "emergent forms of l i fe," new forms of human subj ectivity, new kinds of social rel ation s , and new means of representation and k nowl­ edge . 3 With chess, as wel l , contemporary technologies of i n formation and commun ication a re contributing to the way players t h i n k and act, a n d the way forms of consciousness , bod i l i ness, subjectivity, and social ity proceed for chess players. When it comes to a n a lyzing positions , computer chess progra m s these

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days rely on a brute force approach, exa m i n i n g every possible position in a "game tree" for a fi xed number of moves. The method is much more systematic and comprehensive than the ones of which human chess players a re capable. A s a chess progra m's designers a re the ones who decide how it eva luates option s , the assessment approaches of various programs d i ffer. This leads to d i fferent playing styles i n the various progra ms: some are known as aggressive attackers, while others a re more positiona l ly inclined. Overa l l , chess computers to date h ave excel led the most i n assessments of "open," tactics-rich position s , where their computational powers can calcul ate a vast nu mber of l i nes in which moves on each side a re more or less forced. As Kasparov put it i n 2002, "When the computer sees forced lines, it plays l i ke God ."4 It took the progra m mers several decades to hone their creations to thei r current god l i ke incarnation s . The fi rst portable chess -playing computers appeared on the scene when I was playing chess as a teenager in the late 1970s. At a local club one evening, a member showed us a portable com­ puter that he had just purchased. It was an a l i - i n - one kind of dea l , with the computer engine snug within a box beneath a chessboa rd . We made the moves on the board, and the computer responded with a move of its own by lighting up the squares from and to which it wanted to move a piece . The machine pl ayed poorly, and we found it laughable that it would make simple blunders by the seventh move of a game. No one is laughing now. By the l ate 198os computer progra ms were play i n g grandmasters evenly in i nternation a l tou rnaments, to the point that computers stopped being invited. I n 1995, Deep Blue, a sophisticated computer put together by resea rchers at I B M , beat then-world cha mpion Garry Kasparov i n the fi rst game of a si x-game match ; Kasparov went on to w i n three and d raw two of the rem a i n i n g five . A year later a n upd ated version of Deep Blue, which could eva luate 200 m i llion positions per sec­ ond , triu mphed over Kaspa rov in another six-game match. A fter losing the second game to remarkable, huma n l i ke play by the computer, a frazzled Kasparov ign ited a fi restorm by raising suspicions that Deep Blue's pro­ grammers were having a n i l l icit say i n its decisions. I n matches pl ayed in 2002 and 200 3 , world champions Garry Kaspa rov and Vlad i m i r K ra m n i k sweated o u t even scores against Deep Fritz, Deep Jun ior, and X 3 D Fritz. " It i s extremely d i fficult to play against a machine with this playing abil­ ity," K r a m n i k said of his match against Deep Fritz. " From the very begin­ n i ng you wander a long a very n a rrow ridge and you know that you will be toppled for any i n advertency."5 I n 2005, Hydra thrashed el ite British grandmaster M ichael Adams i n a

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six-game match, w i n n i n g five games and d rawing one. The match was so one-sided that Hydra's progra mmer, C h r i l ly Doninger, admits that he has lost i nterest i n man-versus-mach ine matches. "I see the same pattern in each game," he told journal ist Tom Mueller. "I call it Chrilly's Law: Every ten moves, at the most, in complicated position s , even the strongest pl ayer w i l l commit a sl ight i n accu racy-the second-best move when only the best w i l l do. H e doesn't even notice it, but Hyd ra does . . . . By the time the grandmaster rea l i zes the problem, it's a l ready Game O ver." 6 M a ny of the most recent computer-hu man m atches h ave given the computer a h a ndicap of some sort, but the machine has preva iled nonetheless. I n M a rch

2007,

Jaan E h lvest pl ayed an eight-game m atch against Rybka, a potent new pro­ gram that established its superiority over other progra ms after its release in 2 00 5 .

Rybka sta rted each game w ith the Wh ite pieces , but with a d i fferent

pawn missing. The match ended i n its favor, with fou r wins for Rybka, one w i n for Eh lvest, and three d raws . " Rybka i s a l ready too good for a ny human to play on totally even term s ," says Larry Kaufm a n , one of Rybka's progra m mers . " We keep raising the hand icap because Rybka keeps getting better. We're past the point of playing on fu lly even terms." Most competitive players do not play games aga i nst their computer pro­ gra ms. It can be depressing to do so. Con sider hitting your head agai nst a laptop for sixty minutes straight. That comes close to the brute sensation of losing time and aga i n to Fritz or Rybka at the i r optimal strength. You run into a mating attack in one ga me, hang a piece in the next, mess thi ngs up a ltogether by the eighth move in the game after that. The computer is just so precise, so smart, that it's not worth playing aga i nst it. A s Nolan put it, " I don't l i ke getting crushed ." A nother reason Nolan does not l i ke to play computers is that he's not keen on their playing style. " I don't l i ke the way they play," he told me, and I don't want to learn how to play like them . They 're just calculating, they play tactical ly. I don't think they u nderstand the position, and I don't feel l i ke I 'm goi ng to understand how to play humans better by playing computers . If I play computers , I 'l l learn how to play computers , but that's not a human being, it's not how human bei ngs play. The computers find funky, weird moves which work, because the computer found the m . But they 're not natural moves that human beings would be able to find . . . . I don't want to think l i ke a computer. I want to think like a h u m a n being . . . . I use the computer to analyze. I work with the computer. I use it as a tool , instead of a s a playing pa rtner.

This is how most experienced pl ayers relate to computers: they use them to orga n i ze i n formation d rawn from existing games and to a n a lyze specific chess position s .

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Devising open i n g " novelties" and then i n troduci n g them in cruc i a l games h a s been an i n tegral p a r t of chess for a good century now. A lek h i n e , Botv i n n i k , and Fischer would d raw on h o m e preparation i n hatch i n g d y n a m i c new moves aga i n st thei r rivals. W h a t makes t h e cu rrent e r a d i s ­ t i n c t i s t h a t pl ayers a re rely ing on computer chess progra ms i n unprec­ edented ways to help them with this work . To give just one example: in 200 3 ,

wh ile prepa ring for a m atch aga inst the computer progra m Deep

J u n ior, Garry Kaspa rov and his assistant Yu ry Dokhoian were work­ ing with their version of the program while a n a lyzing a continuation i n a m idd lega me position that they thought they could expect t o see dur­ i n g the match . They reached a position after Wh ite's seventeenth move , and then saw that the program was proposing a move that at fi rst looked problematic, as it meant that Black would soon be forced to give up a rook for one of Wh ite's k n ights . Because a rook is usually worth more than a kn ight, K aspa rov and Dokhoian at fi rst thought they had fou nd a gl itch i n the computer progra m , which they m ight be able to exploit during the match. But then they noticed that the computer progra m was finding that, despite its material deficit, Black had the better game. " Then Yu ry poi nted at J u n ior's evaluation," recounts Kaspa rov, "which was showing a plus for Black! This caused us to look at the position with fresh eyes. The more we looked at it, the more we found dynamic possibilities for Black i n j u st about every l i ne . Wh ite's pieces are l i m ited and he must find a plan quick ly."7 Kasparov took note of Junior 's "idea" and stored h i s a n a lysis on the hard d rive of h i s computer. The position didn't arise i n the m atch itself, i n part because Kaspa rov wanted to stay clear of that l i ne with the Wh ite pieces. But to handle the Black side of the position, and play the move that Junior proposed, was another m atter. Kaspa rov kept the idea to h i mself until he could employ it at a n opportune moment. He had his cha nce two years later: in a top - fl ight i nternational tou rna ment i n Lina res, Spain, he had the position on the board i n his game against Rustam Kasi mdzhanov, a talented grandmaster from Uzbek istan. He introduced the "strong nov­ elty" w ith his seventeenth move , the move that Jun ior deemed the best. K a s i mdzha nov hesitated when he saw Kasparov's move , and took h i s time i n com ing up w i t h a response. Faced w i t h t h e t a s k of h a v i n g t o a n a ­ l y z e a complicated position over t h e b o a r d , Kasimdzhanov m a d e a couple of less-th a n- opti m a l moves . Kaspa rov, who had scrut i n i zed the resulting positions at home, went on to w i n the game i n spectac u l a r fashion. Kasparov suggested after the game that Deep J u n ior deserved "coau­ thorsh ip" for the novelty. A s chess progra ms have a reputation for mate-

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r i a l i s m-often preferring mater i a l gains (such as the advantage of a pawn or two) over positiona l considerations-the progra m 's preference for an "exchange sacrifice" of rook for kn ight pointed to a soph isticated evalua­ tion process-" i n other words, something that was until recently consid­ ered to be beyond the mach ine's abilities," as S lova k i a n grandmaster Igor Stohl put it. 8 Computers have begun to " th i n k " about chess more the way humans do. Kasparov has had no qualms about incorporating the use of computers i nto his a n a lytic work . "The existence of computers i s good for me," he said back i n the 1990s. "I can i mprove my chess with such a perfect mecha­ n i s m . " Word is that he has a massive database on his computer h a rd drive, which conta i n s hund reds of files with h i s a n a lyses of various open i n g variation s , with countless i n novations he c o u l d w i e l d aga i nst u nsuspecting opponents . His l aptop alone ca rries " roughly 10.3 gigabytes of a n a lysi s . " 9 This m assive a rch ive of d a t a is t h e product of computer-informed a nalyses he has conducted i n preparation for m atches and tou rnaments over the past th ree decades . Kaspa rov's databases a re the product of a symbiotic merger of human intellect and computational force, a powerful , cyborgian orga n i zation of k nowledge . When he reti red from competitive chess in 2005, there was joking talk about what he would do with these thousands of ideas. Would he share them with friends, pass them on to the next gen ­ eration o f players, or sell them t o the h ighest bidder on eBay? The instantaneou s , never-ending, ever-accumulating flow of i n forma­ tion has several consequences. For one, professional pl ayers must work continually i f they want to keep up with new ways of playing open i n g and middlegame positions, l e s t they fa l l v i c t i m t o novelties themselves . Because so many ga mes a re to be found i n databases a n d online, a player can prepare for ga mes against a specific opponent by looking over what that person has played in the past, which of course can have its advantages. The catch , however, i s that it works both ways: if your games a re i n data­ bases , it's a safe bet that your opponents will take a look at them, trying to a nticipate what open i ngs you might w ield aga i n st them. F I D E master S u n i l Weera m a ntry told me that when he played on the Sri Lank a Tea m i n t h e 2006 Chess Olympiad i n Tu r i n , Ita ly, he w a s startled t o fi n d that one of his opponents knew about a game he had played back i n the 1978 Olympiad , and had devised a response to S u n i l 's approach i n that ga me. "I couldn't believe that someone would take the time or effort to prepare for me," he told me. " But it's now become routine. It doesn't matter who you're playing, they still access the i n form ation . So you have to be constantly ahead on this . . . . You r preparation for a particular opponent has changed

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completely. You h ave to be constantly shifting. The pl ayers with a wider reperto i re of openings a re goi n g to be better off because it will be more dif­ ficult to prepare aga inst the m . " T h i s has the effect of m a k i ng competitive players moving ta rgets, shape-shifting pragmatists of chess incl i n ation s . S i nce many potential opponents have the same i n formation stored on databases on their own computers , a few clicks away, grandmasters a re compelled to undertake the labor-i ntensive task of a n a lyzing and memoriz­ ing thickets of critical l i nes that they m ight encounter during their games, to avoid walking i nto a n opponent's computer-assisted home prepa ration . Vlad i m i r K r a m n i k expl a i ned to an interviewer, You have to be much more precise when you a n a lyze positions than before . In the era before computers you had certain i nteresting lines, moves that looked good, and that was enough . You r preparation was done, you just went out and played the move . Basically your preparation took two hours. Now the same thing will take five hours or more. You have to check all the games of your opponent, then you check every thing that happened i n the line you are planning to play. Then you find out what Fritz says about the ideas you have come up with, and try to remember t h i s all. S o you a re work ing much harder. 1 0

T h e p a c e of i n formation has o n l y s p e d u p i n t h e p a s t t e n y e a r s . " I f you do not work with a computer, you don't have a cha nce," Levon A ro n i a n , a top -notch A r m e n i a n grandmaster, explai ned t o G e r m a n i nterviewers i n t h e fa l l of 2008 . " It has become much h a rder for everybody. It i s rea lly absurd . . . . Sometimes you feel you a re i n a spy thril ler. Not long ago it was i mportant to have the best databases of a rchive games. Then it becomes i mportant to have G M games that were played the day before. Tod ay we a re trying to find games that were played m i nutes ago i n some backyard somewhere i n the world . Madness. All this frightens me. It i s l i ke war : who has the best weapons, the best m i ssiles, and atomic bomb." 1 1 With i n the "epistemic c u lture" of profession a l chess, speed wins out. 1 2 The accelerated pace o f i n formation reflects a n arms race o f tech nological know-how a n d ga m i n g i nnovation. Up-to-the-hour cogniza nce i s now the working aim. Tryi n g to keep up w ith it a l l makes for a n a n x ious scen e . Because of t h e work load, professional pl ayers w h o can a fford it-wh ich i s to say the few el ite grand m asters who make a good living from chess a lone-hi re assistants to labor fu l l - or pa rt-time for them sorting through the i n formation and proposing effective ways to pl ay. " D e fi n itely Leko and the other top players have these k i nd of tea m s ," Jaan Eh lvest told me when I spoke with h i m and A lexa nder Shaba lov. He was referring to Peter Leko, a strong Hunga r i a n grandmaster who is one of the best players of his generation . Jaan doesn't have the means to a fford the same kind of

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preparation , which makes it tough going for h i m aga i nst the top players. " Because I can't i nvest i n this, I a m not a professional player when we're t a l k i n g about this kind of prepa ration ." A lexander added , " We're rea lly l i ke a mateurs compared to them ." A lexander went on to note that some chess tea m s , such as the Chinese and Ukrainian state-sponsored tea ms, use mu ltiple computers, with a com­ puter specialist on hand. "A ltogether they a re study i ng a position for five to six hours," he explained; "then when they h ave the a n a lysis, the computer spec i a l ist sets up a round-robin tournament between the d i fferent pro­ gra m s , which they hold overnight." In the morning, the tea m assesses the variations played and divi nes the most effective ways to pl ay. But that's just part of the task i nvolved, as the players then h ave to soak up the advice and learn the material themselve s , often by memorizing complicated variations. This helps to exp l a i n why older professional play­ ers-those thi rty and up-speak nosta lgically about the good old days , when the workload wasn't as heavy. K r a m n i k la ments , " S t i l l , as a chess player I someti mes have a bit of nostalgia for the good old times when you could prepa re for just one or two hours , and then rest and read books. You came to your games feel ing fresh, because you did not h ave to memorize tomes of variations. This i s just the nosta lgia of a n older chess player-I t h i n k young players don't k now this feel i n g and may not understand what I a m talking about. But I can sti l l remember that time, and it was very nice, i n its own way. " 1 3 At the h ighest levels, so much has been studied to the nth degree , and so many variations h ave been worked out a l ready, that it's not uncom mon for a novelty to occur i n the twentieth or twenty- fi fth move of a game, if one occurs at all. This situation has led many to conclude that chess is getting "played out," or that professional games a re being d o minated by pregame a n a lysis, with l ittle freshness or creativity occurring during the game itsel f. Veselin Topalov made this foreboding comment on a

2007

game between K r a m n i k and A n a n d , i n which the two stars negotiated a much- explored m iddlegame constellation : " C hess theory has reached a point where words l i ke ' u nderstand ing' a n d 'talent' w i l l soon be replaced by 'perfect a n a lysis' and 'good memory.' This game i s a good exa mple of what a high-level chess game w i l l more and more look l i ke i n the future." At the top levels, it's often the case, as M a rk Dvoretsky figu res it, that "the contestants simply present their 'docu ments' to one a nother and then d i sperse . '' 1 4 Nolan said to me, " I don't t h i n k computers are a bad thing for chess. But it certa inly cha nges the game. Even i n top grandmaster play you notice

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that people a re going to the board, and when the game i s over, they h aven't pl ayed a move that they h aven't a n a lyzed at home a l ready." His thoughts are cha racteristic of the view that m a ny amateurs have of top - level chess these days: that all too many games lack freshness or sponta neity. "The old chess i s dead. It's pl ayed out," Fischer told a Reykjavik radio station in 2002. 1 5

That senti ment has led Fischer and others to propose va ria nts of

chess, such a s " Fischer random chess" (also known a s Chess 96o) , i n which the starting position of the fi rst- row pieces is randomly set up at the onset of a game, subject to cert a i n rules. The principal idea i s that, with a new starting position occurring with each new ga me, a player's creativity and talent at the board count for more than the memorization of chess open­ ings. While the variants c a n make for i nteresting chess, and a bit of fu n on a slow night at a chess club, they have not yet fu lly caught on.

C O M PU T E R E S QU E

T h e instant accessibil ity o f games a n d t h e powerful a n a lytic engines mean that a player can learn a new opening or a n a lyze a m iddlega me formation i n much more efficient ways than i n the precomputer era . "It was d i fficult to perceive chess and en rich your chess knowledge quickly," A lexei Shi rov has said of the way he and others learned chess when he was a youth. "A nd now you can basically do i n a few days or i n one month what, when we were you ng, we needed years for." 1 6 When chess pl ayers want to learn about a partic u l a r opening or m iddlegame position, for i n stance, they can conj ure up Mega Database on their computers at home and i n a minute's time have on their screens an orga n i zed list of games i n which that position has occurred . M a ny of those games i n clude commentaries and a n a lysis by grand masters . T hey can then sift through the games to learn about effective ways to pl ay, for both Black and Wh ite , and use a computer chess engine to a n a lyze specific variations that stem from the positions i n ques­ tion . What they learn through this work would have taken much longer without the aid of a computer. The i n formation is there , waiting to be stud ied. Because of this, it's easier to learn the game well at a younger age . There a re in fact a lot more teenage grandmasters on the scene than there were twenty or even ten years ago. "The grandmasters a re getting you nger because of the com­ puter," notes Sergey K a r j a k i n , a U k ra i n i a n prodigy who i n

2001

became

the youngest grandmaster i n h i story at the age of twelve years and seven months. " [ It] w i l l certa i n ly teach you a lot." 17 With such easy access to the relevant i n formation and a n a lytical tools, a nyone can gather the necessary

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knowledge at a faster clip. " Chess is getting younger and younger," is a refra i n from professional players of late. O n l i ne play factors i n as wel l , as a person can vie on chess servers for hours on end, day after day. "They a re just grow ing up d i fferently from our time," noted Viswanathan A n a n d , who was born i n 1969, when asked in an i nterview about the " k ids" he was encountering i n chess tou rnaments. " W hen I grew up we did n't have the ICC [ I nternet Chess Club] . They become very strong, they ga in a lot of experience very fast." And since these "database k ids" have a lot of time on their hands and a re free of many of the responsibilities that press on adults, they can get good quick ly. 1 8 All they need is some ta lent and the proper motivation. " You see some of these kids, and it's just scary how fast they learn the game," said Joe Guadagno when we were t a l k i ng about this phenomenon . The younger generations of chess players a ren't just learning the game more quickly; many of them a re playing a d i fferent kind of chess from thei r elders . Computers are spaw n i n g a new !?reed of chess players. Many of them have learned a lot about chess by playing aga i nst or a n a lyzing positions with computer a n a lysis engines, and that cybernetic education i s h a v i n g a n i n fluence o n h o w they pl ay. " I u s u a l l y j u s t a n a lyze positions with Fritz," one teen who competes regularly and successfully at the M a rshall Chess Club told me when I asked h i m i f he studied chess at a l l , outside of playing. He'll set up positions on Fritz that he can expect to play during tou rna ment games, and use the progra m to try out d i fferent ideas and variations , a l l the while learning from Fritz's methodology. Some wou ld find this routine m i sguided . " You can only learn so much by work ing with computers that way," a friend said when I mentioned this to h i m . The young man's method seems to be work ing, however, as he has been stead ily climbing the rating ch arts. O thers have been doing much the same. A merican grandmaster H i karu Nakamura is one of the lead ing exemplars of a computer-based learn i ng regi men . H i k a r u began playing chess at the age of seve n . He ach ieved the title of chess master i n 1997, at age ten , becom ing the youngest A merican ever to earn the title. Nakamura soon grew i nto the muscular build of a high school l i nebacker, with a con fident swagger. He ea rned the grandmas­ ter title i n

200 3 ,

and went on to w i n the

2005

and

2009

U . S . chess cham­

pionships . Hikaru i s also active on I nternet chess servers; he has held a number of rating records i n one-minute bul let chess and three-mi nute blitz chess. He attracts a legion of fa ns who watch " N a ka" and h i s spectacularly creative play when he logs on using his handle " S mallville." Nakamura's approach to the game i s u ncompromisi ng, fea rless, relentless: he rarely

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accepts draws, and fights for every fu l l point. He tends to a i m for compl i­ cated positions in which his tactical acu men and "ruthlessly sharp style" can w i n out, and he m i xes up how he starts off his games. 1 9 Nakamura's education in chess has been decidedly noncl assical. Much of what he absorbed about chess ea rly on came not from studying the i n structional games of the great masters , but from spend ing hours upon hours a n a lyzing and contesti ng positions on a computer. I n

2001 ,

an i nter­

viewer asked him which chess books had helped h i m to become a n i nter­ national m aster at the age of thi rteen . "I don't look at books too often," Hikaru repl ied . " I usually study a couple of hours a day on the computer." When the i nterviewer next asked i f he di dn't go over the classic games, he a nswered , " Not real ly, I t h i n k that's a waste of time." 20 I n

2004 ,

during

another i nterview, H i karu was asked i f he had any favorite chess books that he had read over the yea rs. " I think when I was you nger," he repl ied , "around

2000

[ U S C F rating] , I looked at Fischer's 6o Memorable Games.

I t h i n k I read a Ta rrasch book once, but I c a n 't remember. Lately, I rea l ly have not looked at chess books at a l l . Now I just use my computer." 2 1 N a k a m u r a got s o m e flak for h i s d i s m i s s a l of t h e traditiona l chess clas­ sics, even though h i s playing style has increasingly demonstrated a well ­ rounded grasp of a l l aspects of t h e ga me. "The w a y I play is very u n ique," he said once. " It 's more or less that fearlessness. I'll play some of these really crazy moves that people are not goi n g to be expecti ng. The way I play is not l i ke most people. The moves are very computeresque. T hey 're not the moves that most humans a re goi ng to play." 22 " H i k a r u ? H e 's a monster. Seriously," said M l aden Vucic, the i nterna­ tional master from Bosni a , when I asked him what he thought of Naka­ mu ra's games. " When I see his chess ga mes I don't want to play chess a ny more. It's terrifying. It's j ust sheer calculation ." "So would you say that H ika ru's chess i s d i fferen t ? "

" It 's d i fferent. It's great. It's j u s t , you know, modern chess. There ; s noth­ ing you can do about it . . . . See, I fol low his games on the I nternet. He's just practicing, he doesn't care. He's capable of losing thirty games i n a row. He plays against a strong computer. He's losing ga mes , and he's learning. Now when he sits and plays aga i nst a human , you don't h ave a chance . . . . Hikaru is playing these positions where you don't even know where you are . . . . He's the best chess player in the world, in my opinion. He's unbe­ lievable. I n my opinion, it's awful." When I spoke with H i ka ru's stepfather, S u n i l Weera m a ntry, I asked him i f he thought computers were changing the way chess players are t h i n k i ng. " I think so," S u n i l replied. "The computer will play more random struc-

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tures and more strange-looking formations i f it doesn't detect anything terribly w rong with the variation . A n d it goes so much aga i nst the conven­ tions of classical play." " It 's counterintu itive i n a way," I suggested. " Yes. Placing pieces on strange squares, and so o n , but it figures that it can't rea l ly be taken advantage of. And I 've seen i n fluence of that some­ times i n H i k a ru's play. Because you get used to it. That's why people often say that he plays like a computer . . . . It's just that he's seeing so much , he u ndersta nds so much. So the computer w i l l cha nge chess," S u n i l said. " T here's no question ." A longside such wunderk i nder as Denmark 's Magnus C a rlsen, Ukraine's Sergey K a rj a k i n , and A zerbaijan's Teimour Radjabov, Nakamura is a n iconic representative o f a new paradigm o f chess. Call i t cyberchess. Modern play i s not as preoccupied with basic strategic pri nciples as the game once was and is more focused on the concrete a n a lysis of specific positions. As John Watson outlines it i n his

2003

book Chess Strategy in Action, "Players

on all levels a re able to try out seemi ngly r isky, paradoxical, and ' u nprin­ cipled' moves and strategies on a computer i n order to con firm whether they a re unsound, playable , or strong. Contemporary play has thus been marked by much greater openness towards both positiona l and attack ing strategies that were previously considered anti-positiona l a nd/or unsound." 23 " People t h i n k that more and more positions a re playable," says Watson when I ask him about this c l a i m . "A nd that's because of the computers. Because that's the way they 're studying, they 're used to the fact that you si mply don't dismiss as much-you look at everything. S o I guess i n general you could say that pragmatism has just taken over chess, to a la rge degree. I f it work s , you play it." Cata lyzed by new tech nological adva nces , chess i s becomi n g more con­ crete and freer of conventional thought. It i s becomi n g radically empiric a l . " T he game itself has changed," noted A n atoly Bykhovsky, a R u s s i a n i nter­ national master and renowned chess trainer in his seventies, in a recent i nterview w ith M isha Savi nov. "It has become more concrete and tough, a n d contains fewer abstract ideas. Suspicious-look ing but deeply a n a lyzed positions a re played , and we see that there's something wrong with our perception , because they a re completely playable. You know, when you play aga inst a computer, it often seems that its pieces are badly coord i nated and lacking protection , but then it turns out that they i nteract splendid ly, only at some h igher level of perception. And young players a re lea r n i ng this k i n d of chess ." 24

Only at some higher level of perception. One gets the sense that the top

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young players , who grew up a n a lyzing with computers, are often seeing thi ngs on the boa rd-ways to position their piece s , tactical maneuvers that give them an edge-i n a way that their elders a re not. These perceptua l habits have t h e effect o f m a k i n g them tactical wizards w h o can outplay grandmasters twice their age . "The problem is that for my generation it's absolutely i mpossible nowadays to use any kind of experience now," said A lexei S h i rov, a Latvian grandmaster i n h i s mid-thirties, when asked in 2007 about the new breed of chess players . " It 's youngsters who have to teach us ches s , not the other way a round." 25 Those youngsters and the schooling they can extend to players twice thei r age were on people's minds i n 2007 and 200 8 , when Norway 's M agnus Ca rlsen bega n to beat the world's best players i n a string of el ite tour­ na ments , after having ach ieved the grandm aster title i n 2004 at the age of thi rteen . Students of the game are sti l l trying to grasp the precocity displ ayed by Ca rlsen and other players of his generation. " Every thing is speed ing up," Jonathan Rowson told me i n 200 8 , so a l o t o f our models of what used t o be a great chess player, o r what chess culture is, are i n a time-lag. Things are moving faster than our scripts and our language a re catching up with them. We don't really have the la nguage to make sense of a player l ike Magnus Carl sen-what he's doing, and how he got to be so good so fast. Because he's not the only one. He's the most shining, stel l a r star in a generation . . . . S o , how are computers affecting chess? We're j ust catching up with that now, we don't qu ite k now yet, but "a lot" is the answer.

Computers a re inspiring new modes of chess thought and perception , much as the i nvention of the movable-type printing press in the fi fteenth century generated new ways of th i n k i n g about la nguage and communica­ tion . I n play i s a kind of "pa radigm shift," to use a term from the social sciences, i n which new ways of conceptua l i z i ng, attending to, and ask­ ing questions about the dynamics of chess a re taking form-and in some respects, replaci ng-a n earlier worldview. Unusual moves that were once considered " ugly " or "ghastly" are i ncreasingly being appreciated for the specific chess work they do. I ndeed , it may be that in twenty or thi rty years the older, more classical ways of playing will be seen as obsolete, s i mplistic. Some players a re not h appy about this shift. A recurrent concern is that the k nowledge of the game that many computer-i n formed players are bringing to the board i s , at the a m ateur level at least, not very deep or comprehensive , because it rests on an understanding of a few positions that those players have a n a lyzed i n depth at home, a l lowing them to out­ play their opponents once those positions or ones s i m i l a r to them occur i n

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their games. T hey 've m astered certa i n bundles of i n formation , rather than developing a rich and comprehensive understanding of and appreciation for chess. " These days people play better, and understand less," Leonid Yudasin tells me. "This i s because most of the young pl ayers learn from the computer a n a lyses. I n many cases, you don't have to a nalyze deeply some tactical variation . You j u st have to ask M r. Fritz, or some other computer, and it shows you how to play that particular variation . . . . But people understand less about the logic and phi losophy of chess-say, a general way of harmony between pieces, combinations-major subjects l i ke these , they understand less." " It's not real chess," Predrag Traj kovic, a Serbia n grandmaster and chess trai ner, told me during one onl i ne conversation . " It's tu rbochess." " W hat's tu rboches s ? " I asked. " Turbochess is where the pl ayers h ave booked up on a lot of theory, where they 've i nvestigated a lot of forced lines. And once they know these wel l , it's possible to beat much stronger players. I hate this." Predrag went on to say that with turbochess, a person needed only to "study hard" and memorize a lot to obtain good results i n tournament play, whereas in an earlier era chess was "an art." The q u a l ms that m a ny h ave about the future of chess is remi n i scent of the a n x iety people feel when faced with new technological and cultu ral formation s . " Technology i s not just obj ects plus social organ i zation," reports A merican anthropologist M ichael Fischer. "It i s also powerfully invested with fantasies, aspi rations , hopes, a n x ieties, and fears." 26 T h e shock of the new, a n d t h e loss of the fa m i l i ar, can be u n nerving. O thers are more accepti ng of the new technologies. They find that chess has become a more advanced and exciting enterprise, and players a re a l lowed " to do incredibly creative things," as Viswanathan A n a n d put it. A few I 've spoken w ith say that those who decry the advent of computer­ i n formed chess are engaged in little more than " w h i n i ng," that they need to buck up and face the new cyberchess rea lities. An alternative readi n g i s t h a t s o m e a re mournful for t h e e n d of a certa i n k i nd of human ity-a modern, classical humanism-and a nticipating the emergence of a post­ human species. There's also the presenti ment that there w i l l come a d ay when, once everything is calcul ated out by computer programs and l ittle conti ngency and i ndeterm i nacy rema i n , the game will no longer be chess as we know it. O nce the game truly becomes "played out," at least at the h ighest levels, the play element w i l l be exhausted , and chess w i l l take on a postchess, postplay formation . Some take that date to be i n the foreseeable future. " C hess progra ms are our enem ies, they destroy the roma nce of

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chess," l a ments Levon A ron i a n . "They take away the beauty of the game. Everyth i n g can be calculated . But we sti l l have twenty yea r s , at least." 27 Modern chess: 1 8 5 8-zo3o.

O F CO M PU T E R S A N D H U M A N S

The air-conditioner hums along as I work through the positions. I use Fritz to help me evaluate the value of d i fferent moves. I make a move , see what Fritz recommends, m a ke another move , and aga i n watch the evaluation w i ndow to see what he "thinks" about it. O ne l i ne i n particular is a bril­ l i a nt rivulet of strik i n g moves and countermoves. A s I cascade a long it, my bra i n lights up. But then the thought comes to me: What i f my opponent i s work ing through these same l i n e s ? What i f he's also using a computer progra m i n prepa ring for o u r m atch ? I question m y decision t o play someth ing that he'll be expecting. I decide to stick with my plans, come what m ay. I'll try to prepare well and learn something i n the process. Computers have cast a long shadow over the consciousnesses of chess players. The reasoning of some has become increasi ngly computeresque. Take Larry Kaufm a n , a grandmaster and chess author with expertise in computer chess programs. Born i n 1947, Larry a rguably has had the lon­ gest i nvolvement w ith computer chess progra ms of a nybody i n the worl d , d a t i n g b a c k t o 1 9 67, w h e n h e was a student at M I T. M o s t recently he h a s b e e n a n i ntegra l member o f t h e progra m m i ng tea m for Rybka, t h e engine created by Vasik Rajlich, a Czech A merican i nternational master who now l ives i n Hu ngary. By

2007

Larry had become responsible for the entire

eva luation function of Rybka's progra m ; that is to say, he's the arbiter and general a rch itect of how Rybka evaluates chess positions . In tal k i n g w i t h L a r r y by phone o n e day, I asked h i m i f h i s work w i t h computers has changed how he thinks about chess . " I think it has," he said. I think I find mysel f evaluating a l i t t l e b i t more l i ke a computer wou l d , and I try, as much as practical, to emulate the computer when I play. I know I ca n't, but I do that !ll U Ch more than I wou ld have a long time ago . . . . In other words, when I'm trying to judge a position , maybe some years ago I would have j u st sort of thought to myself, Well, this feels like it 's p roba bly good fo r Wh ite. Whereas now I'll actu a l ly try to enu merate the pros and cons, and maybe even think a l ittle bit about the nu mbers involved in my work . It's much more concrete than it used to be, and less intuitive .

That k i n d of t h i n k i n g had paid d i v idend s , as Larry had been play i n g wel l l ately, i n clud ing c l i nching c l e a r fi r s t i n t h e z o o 8 U . S . S e n i o r Open.

Cyberchess

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I7I

"Actual ly, it's a bit strange, because I'm not a youngster," he said i n 200 8 . " But m y rating a t the moment is at a five -year high." W h i le Larry's deep fa m i l ia rity with computer eva luations has rendered his chess thinking exception a l ly concrete and computationa l ly inclined, other players also exhibit a s i m i l a r, i f less precise, nu merical sensibil ity. " T he way I t h i n k about the game i s very idea-based," Jesse K r a a i , an A merican grandm aster born i n 1972, told Chess Life recently. "I think a lot of kids see a Fritz pop-up box when they look at a position . T hey don't t h i n k i n words." 28 " That position is at least + o. 4o in White's favor," I said to Nolan once as we were an alyzing a position, with no computer i n sight. "At least + o. 4o, I tel l you , m aybe more ." I 've heard others d raw on a s i m i l a r code of digital exactitude . At times, a progra m stands in a player's subconscious l i ke an i mposing father figure, ready to j u mp on the slightest i n fraction of its values. "I could hear Fritz screa m i ng as I picked up the pawn," writes Rusudan Goletiani i n a n notating a g am e that w as i nstrumental i n h e r w i n n i n g the 2005 U . S . women's chess championship. 2 9 Sometimes it's as though the machines h ave a w i l l and consciousness of their own . Chess a n a lysis engines a re commonly depicted as either sil icon monsters or entities resembling deities that know more and can think faster than humans ever could. A god head , not humankind, i s now the measure of the ulti m ate c apabi l ities of computer chess progra m s , i n the sense that perfect play i s now the theoretically atta i nable goa l to be ai med for. I n a d i scussion i n 2008 with John Watson on h i s Webcast progra m Chess Talk, Vasik Rajlich had this to say about the future of chess progra ms: "And so at some point we're going to start hitting the l i m its of what can be done, of what's perfect pl ay. So, I don't k now, what kind of rating would God have ? Would he be rated 4000 points or 4500 ? I mean, there's going to be some point where that's it."30 God created man i n his i mage. M a n , responding in k i n d , i s creating mac h i nes that play chess l i ke God. The cybernetic forces seem actu a l ly more l i ke a pantheon these days, with the d i fferent deities-Junior, Rybka, Fritz, S h redder, H i a rcs-pos­ sessing distinct person a lities and relative strengths and foibles. It's d i fficult not to want to sum mon one of these superhuman forces and h ave it help i n one's worldly a ffairs. Lately players have faced knotty positions i n their games and found themselves thi nk i ng, What would Rybka o r Fritz do

here? What would they see that I'm not seeing? The oracle can provide us with the truth. I n societies around the world, people resort to cert a i n divinatory practices, s u c h as read ing t e a leave s , scrut i n i zing t h e fissures of

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a sheep's thigh bone, and parsing CAT scans, in thei r efforts to wa rd off suffering and misfortune. The practices enable them to "see" more i nto cu rrent c i rcumstances than thei r human facu lties a l low, thus making it possible for them to get a long in l i fe in more assured ways. Chess play­ ers a re no d i fferent. Computer chess progra ms are a means of perceptua l enhancement. They a re visuali zation-cognition machines t h a t enha nce the visual and analytical capacities of chess players . They do so i n ways that are a ltogether unprecedented for humans. Players at the top as wel l a re i ncreasi ngly relying on computer chess progra ms to lead them to the truth. Jonathan Rowson tells me, Even at the very highest levels , people a re deferring to the computer on a sys­ tematic basis. I t used to be that we wou ld have our own ide a s , and get the computer to check the more concrete deta i l s . But now i n all kinds of positions we're looking at the computer's assessment, and wondering what we've missed . It's no longer, " We 're the boss and we use this as a tool to help us get more judgment." The first port of call is what the computer thinks. And that's a l ittle sad, because something is being lost i n the process. But I think it's happening.

Just a few years back, a computer chess engine was a court phi losopher, giving advice to the king. Now it i s the k i ng. At the same time, players usually keep i n mind that they can not, and should not, operate the way the machines do when they 're embroi led i n thei r games. W h i le a computer program w i l l grab a pawn or enter massive complications i f it deems those continuations to be the best ones , humans w i l l pull up short; they know there can be a price to pay for putting every­ thing on the l i ne when one i s a flesh-and-blood being with l i m ited reserves of energy. A s Jonathan expl ains it, "I think we've sort of rea l i zed that we're not computers, and so even though we know it's all about what work s , rather t h a n what's logical or ration a l or can be justi fied on general prin­ ciples , we've sort of rea l i zed that we can't really operate i n the way that a machine does . I mean, we often go i nto the a n a lysis of a position and say, ' Wel l , this i s very computerl ike, it m ight work , but I wouldn't do it."' The upshot is that players a re coming to sense that there a re two domi­ nant ways of thinking about chess: the schematic mental ity common to humans, in which concepts , patterns, and narratives dominate; and the computation a l menta l ity figured by computers. Accord ingly, players often wield a dual consciousness in their chess efforts, thinking conceptually one moment, and then shifting to more concrete methods the next. One popu la r book publi shed i n 200 8 , C h a rles Henan's Forcing Chess Moves, encou rages players to improve their abi l ities at "brute-force calculation" by

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developing "computer eyes" when exa m i n ing concrete tactical position s . " Your computer eyes m u s t l e a r n t o shed h u m a n b i a s , " Hertan counsels. 1 1 Modify your consciousness, in other word s , so that it does not proceed the way a human consciousness typica l ly does. Professional players are also starting to conclude that the concrete , digital procedures of thought a re often more correct. Jonathan tel ls me, It's almost l ike we're becoming d ivided i n that way, because we sort of rea l i ze that the reality of chess-the digital nuts and bolts of the variations-doesn't correspond to our human heuristics and n a rrative s . There's a kind of sch ism there, because now when we play, we're no longer l i kely to believe our n ar­ ratives . We m ight say that we do, we m ight say while we're an alyzing, " O h , I t h i n k y o u have t o do t h i s here , t h i s is a critical moment, a n d it seemed a b i t i l logical t o p l a y in t h e center when y o u wea kened y o u r queenside," or whatever we m ight say. But there's also a part of us that knows, " H a n g on, you know I 'm going to go home in half an hour and put this i nto a computer, and it might just knock down everything I bel ieve ."

Pl ayers have begun to doubt their altogether human ways of making sense of the con figurations to be found on the chessboard . They've come to i ntuit that their very humanness i s their fa i l ing. Th rough their work with computers, chess players a re coming to know and experience themselves in a certain fa sh ion . I n chess c i rcles, at least, computers are casting i nto bold relief what it means to be human . Much as Judea - Christian peoples i n d i fferent h i storical epochs have come to under­ stand the nature of h u m a n k i nd i n rel ation to what they have ta ken the divine to be, so chess players a re finding that thei r work with computers is shaping what they take themselves to consist of and be capable of. When matched up against computers, humans a re ta ken to be creatures who a re at once flexible, creative , playfu l , resou rcefu l , fa llible, tool-using, relatively i ntell igent, i n formation-processing, mea n i n g-seeking, pattern recogn i z ­ ing, aesthetically i n c l i n e d , experience-informed, psychologically complex , socially responsive, intu itive, emotive, biology- based, fatigue-prone, self­ doubting, self-questioning, and faced with l i m itations-perhaps necessar­ ily so, because of what they can remember-a l l the while operating at d i fferent levels of consciousness. Computers, i n contrast, are exceptiona l ly good at orga n i z i ng i n formation and analyzing forced sequences of moves. But they do not "thi n k " i n the way that humans do. They do not recogn ize patterns i n intuitive ter m s , and they do not d raw creatively from their c i rcu mstances . Nor do they learn from past experience. They also do not feel h appy when they w i n or anguished when they lose. They do not blink when their opponents try to psych them out. They a re ind ifferent to the

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a lter-presence of their opponents and to what their ca retakers think of the m . T hey have no sense of self, no appreciation for beauty. "Computers don't have plans, they don't have ideas, phi losophy, aesthetic feel i ngs," says Levon A ron i a n . " U n l i ke humans they don't h ave a n inkling of how rooks, knights and pawns should be moved around the boa rd . " 32 Computers do not play chess per se, for they do not operate with i n a phenomenal l i fe­ world of pl ay, at least as humans know of it. All this i s to suggest that chess players, th rough thei r work with com­ puters, have come to define themselves and their computers through a set of i nterlock ing i mages. There's a binary d r i ft to these definition s , as befits a species (as structu ralist thinkers have docu mented) that tends to think i n oppositiona l categories, especi al ly when faced w ith something new, other, or threaten ing. These i m a geries tie i nto broader cultural pha ntasmago­ rias that evolve a round notions of man and mach ine, flesh and matter, consciousness and computation. Yet viewed from another perspective , it can be said that computer technologies have once and a lways been the product of human engineering, that there is no strict d ivide between people and their machines, and that the computational devices a re forever part of extensive matrices of thinking and acting, i n which the human can not easily be cleaved from the technological.

CY B O R G S , CH E AT I N G , A N D CH E AT I N G PA R A N O I A

I ndeed, it's when we put the two forces together that we get a new cyber­ netic system altogether. Much has been made in the past thirty years of the concept of cyborgs , i n science fiction l iterature and i n cultural stud­ ies. A cyborg (a contraction of cybernetic orga n ism) i s a self-regu lating i ntegration of artificial and natural systems. Cyborgs a re often depicted as i ntricate mergers of flesh and machine-as i s the case with the Terminator fi l m s or the Borg of Star Trek fa me-a nd in contemporary l i fe one does find some effective body and apparatus coupli ngs along these lines, such as cochlear i mplants, artificial pacemakers, and prosthetic l i m b s . In recent years, however, scholars have come to rea lize that to think of cyborgs as enta i l i ng only combinations of organic and synthetic parts nestled within a body would be overly si mpl istic. Many twenty-fi rst- century humans are a l ready w i red i nto complex cybernetic systems, such as the I nternet, computer processors, cell phones , and CPS-navigated automobiles. Under­ stood i n this l ight, it becomes clear that people are drawing upon tech­ nologies as humans h ave a lways done: to enhance thei r actions in and engagements with the world . As cognitive scientist A ndy C l a rk puts it, we

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a re "natural- born cyborgs" who d raw on an "openness to i n formation­ processing mergers" i n creative and productive ways. " It i s because we a re natural-born cyborgs ," C l a rk suggests, " forever ready to merge our mental activities with the operations of pen, paper, and electron ics , that we a re able to understand the world as we do." Put that way, it's clear that many chess players today are " human-technology symbionts" who d raw on the " m i nd-expanding technologies" ava i lable to them to play the game i n more i n formed ways. 33 Think of a human being as a complex, ever-dynamic i ntegration of m i n d , m atter, and technology engaged i n multivalent tasks of computational assessment and practical i nterpretation , and you have the chess player down the street from you , hammering out h i s open ing repertoi re on h i s l aptop computer. Even so, once that player is away from the computer and at the board h i mself, there a re moments when he can get to feel ing that compa red to the supposed accuracy and truth-seek ing potentia l of the computer progra m s , he doesn't measure u p , t h a t his o w n neural microprocessors c o u l d u s e an upgrade and he could profit from trading i n h i s cu rrent form for Homo

sapiens

2.0.

C omputers can make a person feel deficient: " I f only I could

t h i n k at times l i ke a computer, i f I only I had a database lodged d i rectly in my bra i n . I f only I had more energy, and d idn't get ti red so quick ly." Such thoughts come easily these days , for chess players and others a l i ke . We yearn for cognitive enha ncements, be it through designer drugs , genetic modi fications , or neurocogn itive rewi r i ng. Some competitive players faced with these sentiments h ave i n fac t d rawn on cyborg tech nologies i n problematic ways. That is, they 've cheated. In recent years a h a ndful of contestants i n tourna ments offering big cash prizes to the w i n ners of d i fferent class sections have been found sporting devices that appa rently connect them either to a computer d i rectly or to a n accompl ice who commun icates w i relessly the moves that a chess engine is recommending. This i s chess on cognitive steroid s . At the 2ooq World Open i n Ph i ladelphia, a player i n the Under

2000

section ran up a score of

seven w i n s and one draw, putting h i m i n contention for the hs,ooo prize for fi rst place. I n that pl ayer's last game, the tourna ment d i rector became suspicious of a device he had in one of h i s ears. When asked about it, the player said that it was a hearing aid. When the d i rector exa m i ned it, he found that it had an anten n a . O n it was written " Phon ito" a long with a Web address. T he d i rector resea rched the device on the I nternet and discovered that it was not a hearing aid but, rather, a " w i reless m i n i ature commun ication receiver." He forfeited the pl ayer and removed h i m from the tournament.

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At the same World Open another player n a med Eugene Va rshavsky, a " low master" competing in the Open section, a roused suspicions when he defeated the highest- rated grand master i n the tou rna ment, I lya S m i r i n , in a wild, u nconventional ga me. "I felt l i ke I was playing aga i n st a machine," a dazed Smirin told a d i rector a fter the game. Up to this point Va rshavsky had been wea ring a big blue bucket hat that d rooped low a round his ears during each of his ga mes, and had racked up an i mpressive score of 4 points out of 6. When he beat S m i r i n , people grew suspicious that he might be wearing under the hat an electronic device that was sign a l i n g good moves to play. The tourna ment d i rectors searched Va rshavsky and h i s hat, but did not find a nything. They did tel l him, however, that his hat wou ld h ave to rem a i n i n thei r office until h i s next game was over. Va rshavsky pl ayed h i s l a s t t w o games against grandmaster opponents w ithout h i s headpiece, a n d l o s t badly both t i m e s . After t h e tou rna ment, grandmaster L a r r y Christi a n ­ s e n took t h e l a s t twenty- five moves of t h e Va rshavsky- S m i r i n g a m e and r a n them th rough t h e chess engine c a l led Sh redder. He reportedly found that S h redder's moves matched those made by Va rshavksy. 34 Players i n a number of countries have recently been accused of using devices to receive help during their games, from handheld " Pocket Fritzes" consulted i n bathroom sta lls to cell phones that relay moves. The accusa­ tions a re justi fied at times. I n April 2008 , an untitled chess player from I ra n na med M. Sadatnaj a fi was deemed to have cheated at a tou rnament i n Duba i , Un ited A rab E m i rates. While playing aga i nst Li Chao, a C h i nese grandmaster, Sadatnaj a fi a l legedly used his mobile phone to receive text messages conta i n i ng instructions on h i s game. The messages were thought to have been sent from friends of his i n Iran. They were fol lowing the game on the I nternet as it was taking place, and sent him w i reless guidance. Sadatnaj a fi had made only ten moves when someone noticed that he was look ing i nto his mobile handset. On examining the handset, the tou rna­ ment d i rectors determined that he had received instructions i n Farsi . This was a case of distri buted cognition on a globa l , i l l icit scale. 35 At other times, the accusations rema i n only accusations. A fter Bulgarian grandmaster Veselin Topalov's i mpressive victory at the World Champion­ ship Tou rnament i n San Luis, A rgenti n a , 2005 , a couple of news a rticles reported that an " u n n amed participant" i n the tourna ment had accused him of receiving computer-prompted moves from one of his assistants. I n July 2oo6, S ergey Dolmatov, a Russian grandmaster and coach of the Russian men's chess tea m , said i n a n i nterview w ith a Russian newspaper, " What Topa lov i s doing on the boa rd these days, i s beyond human abili­ ties. And I a m sure that a n i nterference from outside i s taking place ."36 A

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story s o o n spread t h a t Topa lov h a d m a naged t o h ave a computer chip i mplanted i n his bra i n . " It 's true," a n acquai ntance told me when asked about this. " I 've heard from people i n Bulgaria who know about t h i s . " T h a t rumor t i e s i nto a broader soci a l i m agina ry, conveyed i n fiction and fi l m s , wherein humans have cybernetic technologies lodged i n their flesh. I n William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer, the narrative speaks of a socket, i mplanted beh i n d the ear, that accepts computer chips, allowing d i rect neural access to computer memory. Rumor fol lows fiction. When Topa lov faced Kramnik i n a match for the world chess champion­ ship i n the fa l l of 2006, Topalov's man ager, Silvio Danai lov, complained to the match organizers and the press after the fourth game that, while play­ ing, K r a m n i k was making repeated visits to the bathroom in his private rest area, the only place that was not under audio or video su rvei l l a nce. Danai lov c a l led the frequency of the breaks "strange, i f not suspicious." The insi nuation was that K r a m n i k m ight be drawing upon computer tech­ nologies when i n the bathroom. A brou haha erupted when the Appea ls Comm ittee decided to close the private bathrooms of both player s , and K r a m n i k , awa iting a reversal of the Appeals Comm ittee's decision , refused to play the fi fth game of the match . Both sides eventually agreed to con­ tinue with the match, which K r a m n i k went on to w i n . M i dway th rough the match, D a n a i lov issued a press release identifying what it called "coi n ­ cidence statistics," showing t h e h i g h percentage of t i m e s t h a t K r a m n i k played a move t h a t would be recommended b y Fritz 9 . 1 7 Most grandmasters and chess fa n s supported K r a m n i k in the dispute, finding D a n a i lov's accusations unjusti fied and sla nderous. (Some think that the insi nuations m ight h ave been payback for the denouncements of Topa lov the year before.) A fa i r conclusion is that K r a m n i k did not cheat during the match, nor did Topa lov i n San Luis. Their play i n both situa­ tions was a ltogether human i n cha racter. The accusations can be chalked up to j e a lousy at another's success, strong- a rmed match tactics, or the human need to expl a i n the potent abil ities of another, which i ndeed can appear superhu man at t i mes. D u r i ng the Cold Wa r era, strong pl ayers were someti mes suspected of using devious techniques to ga i n an edge. Some of M i k h a i l Ta l 's opponents thought he was able to conjure up a hypnotic effect over them at the board . During h i s match w i t h Fischer i n 1972, B o r i s Spassky's assistants expressed concern about a possible " i n fl.uence" on Spassky " w ith the help of electron­ ics and chemical substa nces." Fischer's chair was X- rayed and taken apart. Nothing unusual was found but a small screwdriver and two dead fl ies. I n t h e 1978 world cha mpionship match between A n atoly K a rpov and V i ktor

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Korchnoi in Baguio C ity, i n the P h i l ippines , both sides accused the other c a mp of engaging i n actions geared towa rd helping their pl ayer triu mph , from messages delivered in yogurt cups to parapsychologists sitting i n the audience. Korchnoi chal lenged K a rpov again for the world cha mpionship i n 1 9 8 1 , this time i n Merano, Ita ly. Korchnoi, who lost bad ly, i nsisted that "strange forces" were at work and had "no doubt" that servings of yogu rt eaten by K a rpov during the game were d rugged . "This match was a great achievement of Soviet chemi stry," he said. 38 A new era brings new suspicion s . Pl ayers a re not worried about para­ psychological techn iques or mind-confusing electronic gadgets these days so much as they fea r that their opponents might be resorting to computer assista nce (or, i n the case of Kasparov's loss to D eep Blue i n 2007, that humans were coming to the aid of his computer opponent) . What surfaces at ti mes i s a kind of cheating paranoia i n which any player w ith rema rk­ able results in a match or tournament risks being c a l led a cheater. "Has it come to this, that a player who has a rem a rkably good result in a tourna­ ment i s i m mediately suspected of cheating?" asks the New York Times's Dylan Loeb McClain in reporting the news from a tou rna ment in France i n December 2007. During the tou rnament, A n n a Rudolf, a twenty-year­ old master from Hunga ry, was accused by three Latvian players of receiv­ ing transmi ssions to her lip ba l m tube from somebody with a computer. Rudolf, who was play i n g stel l a r chess , was getting up from her ga mes frequently and wandering i n and out of the playing hall. This raised the suspicion of some. In her n i nth-round game, Rudolf met up with one of her accusers, who refused to shake her hand. When she asked him why he would not do so, he replied, " You don't play fa ir." The game came to an end when a fl ustered Rudolf blundered in an equal position. "I ended up i n tears a n d not because o f the result itself, but the way they d i d it," she told a n i nterviewer. When asked about the concerns expressed over her " l i p ­ balm technology," Rudolf h a d this t o say : " I u s u a l l y went away from the boa rd when it wasn't my turn to move : I l i ke to go out to the fresh air and also to wash my face. Moreover, I played most of my games on the stage, broadcasted , so I d idn't h ave to sit at the board to see my position . And yes , the l i p b a l m w a s a lways with m e . K i d s , bewa re, Rybka is i n it! "39 These days , the act of walking a round often during one's game can induce suspicion . A friend of mine told me that he was accused of cheat­ i n g at the 2007 Foxwoods Open , a prize-rich tou r n a ment held at the Foxwoods Resort Casino i n Ledyard, Connecticut, while play i n g his fi rst­ round game. "I was playing this guy rated a round 1 500, not very strong," he said .

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1 79

He sacrificed a piece , and it was an i nteresting game. I a lways get up from the board a lot during the game, partly because of nerve s . And I smoke cigarette s . I l i ke t o walk a round and l o o k at t h e other games . I kept getting u p , every t i m e a fter I m a d e my move . Sometimes I would g o t o t h e far e n d of a lobby, a n d [stay] out of t h e w a y there, because I didn't w a n t [ m y employer] to s e e t h a t I had started smoking aga i n . And when I was going outside to smoke , a couple of ti mes I saw my opponent standing there, watching me. And I thought, Okay, tha t 's kind of fu nny. H a l fway through the game one of the tournament d i rec­ tors, who I happen to know, came up to me, and said, " H ave you been getting up from your game a lot ? " " Yea h , of course," I said. "I a lways get up and walk a round . " " Well, your opponent accused you of cheating. He said that you're acting very suspicious, getting up a lot." I said, " S o ? I 'm a llowed to do that." And he said, " Well, I just want to let you know." I said, " Okay." So the rest of the game I stayed at the board . But it really threw me off. I was really an gry, and determi ned to destroy him [my opponent] . Eventu a l ly I beat him. He came over to look at my games a couple of ti mes later i n the tour n a ment. But because I was staying at the board more , it was pretty clear that I wasn't cheating."

Sti l l , the accusations unnerved him. " It's l i ke being cal led a mu rderer. You r reputation i s at stake ." One plot i s predictable: Player A gets up a lot during a tou rna ment game and walks a round, ostensibly to think or smoke ciga rettes or chat with friends , while Player B rem ai ns at the board; A defeats B with strong play; a fter the ga me, B accuses A of using computer technologies while away from the chessboard . Player B, or supporters of Player B, venture to support their accusations by c l a i m i ng that Player A's moves during the game m atch up, i n suspiciously accu rate ways , with the moves recommended by the best computer analysis engines. That's what happened at the 2009 Aeroflot Open, held i n Moscow in late February. In the sixth round, Shakh riyar M a medya rov, a grandmaster from A zerba ijan and the tourna ment's top seed, lost to Igor Kurnosov, a lower-rated Russian grandmaster, in twenty­ one sharp moves. M a medya rov fi led a n official compl a i nt after the game, in s i nuating that his opponent had profited from computer guidance, and withdrew from the event . " D uring the game," M a medya rov w rote i n his protest, " my opponent went out of the playing h a l l after each move , took his coat and w ithdrew h i mself on the toilet. A fter suspicion of u n fa i r play on move 14 I offered a draw, he refused . We quickly pl ayed

II

moves, on

the 1 2th move I played a move which confused my opponent. The next moves from him were given as fi rst choice by Rybka , wh ich quickly a llowed h i m to win the ga me."40 I n responding to these charges, Kurnosov admitted to leaving the board and playing h a l l on several occasion s, but only to go to the smoking area

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or to wash his face with cold water, a l l the while contemplating the game position w ithout look ing at the board. Once news of the accusation tore a round the I nternet, most commentators came to Ku rnosov's defense, sug­ gesti n g that M a medya rov's claims were u n founded and pointing out that computer programs regu la rly agree with the moves of the w i n n i ng side in sharp games. Yet such strife adds to the a n x iety that nettles professional pl ayers these days. Jonathan Rowson exchanged e-mail messages with me a few weeks a fter the controversy broke , writing i n one, The recent M a medya rov cheating controversy is particul a rly stri k i ng because the accusation feels a lmost completely groundless to me, and this sort of thing could have a very corrosive impact on chess cu lture at all levels. I think it is a pa rticu l a rly sad affl iction for chess players, because we a re partly built to think of how our opponents a re trying to cheat u s , and therefore to find their activi­ ties suspicious more genera l ly. Alas, there a re now correlations ( i . e . , when sev­ eral good moves correspond to the first choice of engines) to provide spurious "evidence" for such d a rk imaginings. To humanize the point, if Fischer were a young player today, I doubt he would have scaled the heights , because he would probably have been too preoccupied w ith such fears.

I t 's easy to think that someth ing is a foot, that strange forces a re at work . "At some point I even i magined that my opponent was receiving outside help," writes Ukrainian grandmaster Pavel Elja nov i n commenting candidly on a 2007 tou rnament game of his, i n which his opponent was playing quickly and strongly. "I think that many players will have had games when s i m i l a r i rrational thoughts came i nto thei r head ! " 41 "The notion of witchcraft expl ai ns unfortunate events ," runs an anthro­ pological axiom. 42 I n some societies, every death i s attributed by the sur­ viving fa m i ly members to acts of w itchcraft com m itted by someone i n a nother clan or v i l l age . I can i magine a future society of chess pl ayers i n which each i mpressive victory i s attributed, b y at least some others , to technological sorcery.

P R E - P O S T HUM A N , S T I L L

It's late i n the a fternoon. The shades a re still dow n . I continue to work th rough the l i nes I 've been tracing out with Fritz's help. I consider the posi­ tion on the screen and try out some moves. A k n ight j u mp to the b4 squa re gives Black a - 0 . 25 edge in the position . A queen transfer to the k i ngside, a - 0 . 4 2 adva ntage . It's a game of numerical values. Fritz could keep going, but I need a brea k . Enough cyberchess for now,

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enough eyeballing a computer screen. Ti me for a walk. I turn off the a i r ­ conditioner, rol l up t h e w i ndow shades, h e a d down sta irs. As I step out­ side the building and stroll dow n a sidewa l k , I'm struck by the brisk and vivid world to be encountered . There are people and trees, shadows and sunl ight. A round me i s a world of depth and vita lity, a l l of it i n three d i mensions.

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The fatigue factor K i m Qvistorff, a t a l l , fa ir-haired m a n with a neatly tr immed mustache, is a s k i l led player who delights i n attacking h a mpered k i ngsides. Born i n Copenhagen, Denmark, i n

1959,

Kim learned to play chess. when he

was three years old, and began playing in tou rna ments at the age of four. Because his arms had trouble reaching the fa r side of the chessboard, he had to h ave two telephone books placed on top of his cha i r to bring h i m closer t o t h e pieces. As he h a d n o t y e t learned h o w t o read or write, an adult had to record his moves for him. He rec a l l s , " I couldn't understand why there was a guy next to me a l l the time, because no one else had that." Kim played successfully in tourna ments in Denmark through his youth and early twenties, propelled by strong calculation skills, a fierce competitive­ ness, and con fidence born of experience. "I think up until I was twenty- five years old I never sat in front of a chessboard without playing to win, without thinking I was going to win," he says . "And it didn't matter who I sat in front of. I always assumed I was going to win." One of his triumphs, a scintil lat­ ing ki ngside attack, was published in a Danish newspaper, annotated by the great Bent Larsen . K i m stopped playing competitively in his mid-twenties to focus on his studies and his work . He married, moved to the States, settled in New York , built a career as a financial planner, and had a son . When his son Steven was old enough to learn the game, Kim started attending clubs and competing in tourna ments aga i n . "I still love playing chess," he says . K i m is resourceful at the board. O nce he gets control of a position , he's determ i ned to w i n it. When he was you nger, endgame play and calculation were the strongest pa rts of his game. I could a lways calculate further than most people. And I think it's one of those things that you develop very early, so i f you start very ea rly, your sense of com­ binations and how fa r you can calculate [can be qu ite strong] . I could really calculate fa r when I was a k i d . I know that now because I can't do it anymore. It's a combination of two things, I think. First of all, when you get older, you rea l i ze that you can't calculate six, seven moves out from the actual position. It's frustrating of course when you know you were able to do it at one point, but that's just the way it is. The fatigue factor also becomes a n issue when you get older, and it's very frus­ trating to deal with. When you're young, you don't understand that there is such a thing. But when you get older, you get physically tired. Once that happens, then the combinations especially, they simply go away, you can't calculate that far.

Like others his age and older, K i m has learned to make adjustments. He tries to avoid stepping into hai r-raising complications that requi re the

precise and i magi n ative calculation of multiple variations. " You know you have these complicated open position s , where there's so many possibil ities of move s ? Once you've done that two, three ti mes-thinking that you can sti l l do what you used to be able to do-you rea l i ze that it just doesn't work . You lower your expectation level. It's a m atter of getting wiser in the way you play."

CHAPTER 8

He'd operated on an a l most permanent adrenaline high, a byproduct of youth .and proficiency, j acked i nto a custom cyberspace deck . -William Gibson,

M a rch

Neuromancer

1 9 , 2 0 0 7.

Twenty m i n utes before midn ight, and if I know what's

good for me, I ' l l be head ing to bed soon, after a long, blustery Saturday. I go i nto my study to shut down the computer, which has been idling on standby. Like an a lcohol ic, I can't resist the l i quor in the cabinet. I log on to the I C C , the I nternet Chess Club, an online chess server where members play games with each other, ter m i n a l to term i n a l . Just a couple of quick ga mes , and then I'll go to sleep.

GGS

Shoeless, clad i n sweatpants and a pul lover sweater, I settle i nto the leather mesh-back swivel chair in front of the desk and reach for the mouse pad to my right. A fter a couple of clicks, the server appears on my computer scree n , a long with a melodic bell-tone that signals my entry. I bring up the " S eek G raph" w i ndow, where the icons of players or computers looking for a game are a rranged on a grid; the time control proposed and the rat­ ing of the player a re the two coord i n ates. I check out the handles of some of the lower-rated players-k n ightmover, swansong, Fran k S , neurofuzz , ProfessorChaos, DEAT H Z O O M-but thei r names don't c a l l out to me, and I don't see anyone with a h igher rating who is look ing for the k i nd of game I want. 1 I use the " S eek a Game" command. A c i rcle signaling my request pops up on the upper left side of the Seek Graph w i ndow. I move the cu rsor over the c i rcle, making these words appea r : "tabiya

2 1 79

seeks Blitz

3 o

un rated I 8oo-23oo." I ( Tabiya ) , rated 2 1 79 , am seek ing to play an u n rated, three - m inute blitz ga me w ith no addition a l time i ncrements aga i nst some­ one rated between 1 8oo and 2300. Once aga i n I 'm cruising cyberspace , looking for a faceless mate. Ten seconds later a small box pops up with a "bloop" sound i n the upper left-hand corner of the screen , with these server-generated word s : Yo u have b e e n challe nged . . .

Ok iedoke ( 2 2 3 6 ) chal lenges you to a game u nrated Blitz ti me'3 inc'o Accept

Decline

A pl ayer n a med Okiedoke , who i s rated 2236, wants to take me up on my offer. I fa i ntly rec a l l playing him a couple of weeks back. After a bunch of games , I sent the instant message , "Thanks for the games," and Okiedoke replied, "Thanks for kicking my butt." But that could have been someone else. I accep t O k iedoke's challenge. A virtual chessboard pops up on the screen, to the left of two clocks and a n electron ic score sheet. We each h ave three m i nutes to play all of our move s . I f either of our clocks runs down to zero, that person loses, even i f he's set to check mate h i s opponent on the next move . T h ree-mi nute games are u s u a l ly the fa stest t i me con­ trols I go for. The true speed freaks delight i n bullet chess, in which each side has one m i n ute to m a ke all of its moves. I 've tried it, but I 've found that fren zied pace to be ridiculous: I end up tossing pieces a round or r u n n i ng out of time by the twenty-seventh move. T h ree m i nutes means a hurried pace as wel l , but it's enough t i me to play a m i n i ma l ly meani ngful game. Okiedoke has W h ite and makes his fi rst move . My own clock starts automatica l ly. I counter with a move of my own, using my mouse to point, click, d rag, release. Once I set the piece on its new square, my clock stops and my opponent's starts aga i n . Each move we make appears on the ever­ lengthening score sheet to the right of the chessboard. I don't see my oppo ­ nent or h e a r or sense h i s presence. T h e i nterface a t h a n d is prima rily one between man and mach ine, u n l i ke the face-to-face contact that comes with over-the-board play. At work i s a cybernetic i nterplay of neural nets , eye movements, hand gestures, machine technologies , and pixel- based i mages. "Thus technology has subj ected the human sensorium to a complex kind of tra i n i ng," German Jewish thinker Walter Benj a m i n w rote i n the l ate 1930s i n spea king of pedestrians navigating the city streets and tra ffic signals of

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urban modern ity. 2 A n a n a logous kind of sensory tra i n i ng holds for garners piloting the i ntersections of virtual chess. I make my initial moves i n less than a second each. We get i nto the posi­ tion ; Ok iedoke knows h i s stuff, he's got a sl ight edge . He's playing better than i n our previous encounter. We exchange bishops, but I respond the wrong way, leaving me vulnerable to a n attack . S u re enough , O k iedoke employs a neat bishop sacri fice that opens up my k i ngside. He soon has a mating net l i ned up, and I 'm done in fou rteen moves . I su rrender by click­ ing on the "resign" button. Below the board appear these words: Game 1 9 2 0 . (ok iedoke vs. tabiya) tabiya resigns}

1 -o .

Black resigns Game was not rated . No rating adjustment.

I'm dead, but I rei ncarnate i nstantly-much l i ke the protagon ists in video games who, once k i l led, promptly regenerate and continue to combat onslaughts of terrorists or a l ien invaders. Vi rtual deaths and l ives a re easy to come by. I click "Rematch . " O k iedoke accepts and we're back at it, with colors reversed . The tech no-ritual repeats. I make a move, the electronic signal of which d a rts from my computer th rough a phone extension cord to a DSL modem and then out of the apartment and beyond the building th rough broadband w i res i nto the vast ether of cyberspace to wherever Ok iedoke sits, be it Tokyo, Texa s , or Tal l a hassee. Okiedoke sees the move transpi re on the graph ical i nterface progra m establ ished on h i s own computer screen n i nety m i l l iseconds aft er my index fi nger cl icked on the mouse nestled . under my right hand. Okiedoke's move fl its back to me. The rapidity of our moves suits the speed of the technology. I hear my partner, Tracy, moving about, getting ready for bed. She's not keen on my playing late at night. She k nows the effects: w i red thoughts , restless n ights . She stands by the door, sees the digita l i zed pl ay. I sense her presence but don't ack nowledge it. My guess i s that she wants to ask me about something, but she knows that meaningful talk i s futile while I 'm entrenched i n battle; I don't l i ke to be interrupted when a game i s on the l i n e . " D o you need the car tomorrow morn i n g ? " she'll ask. Yet si nce " tomorrow " enta i l s a rea l m of time foreign to the one i n which I'm envel­ oped and any words cramp my chess thoughts, I wave her off soundlessly. S he's not fond of such gestures. She d r i fts away. This i s chess as reclusive cyber-frenzy, a sticky knot of neurology, musculature, and technology.

Okiedoke maintains my attention. We're exchanging pawns and pieces. The game is even as we enter an endgame, but then he wins a paw n . Seconds remai n . I move fast, Ok iedoke's extra pawn giving him an edge . I try to shift the cursor as quickly as I c a n , but my a r m , wrist, and fi nger don't cooperate and I lose precious m icroseconds. My time runs out, o.oo.o, as I attempt my sixty-sixth move . Ok iedoke has on ly o:oo.3 show i ng on his clock-three tenths of a second left before my own time expi red-yet he would h ave won the game. I often lose points i n the fi n a l fra ntic seconds of these arms races, outdrawn by mouse-sli nging opponents . I sit back. We've just completed a six- m i nute clash, with 1 3 1 moves com­ bined-a n average of one every 2 .73 seconds . Playing at this pace req u i res a quick eye , a deft hand. No lengthy a n a lyses here, no deep thinks. Just i ntu ition and on-the- spot c a lculations. Two seconds i s usually enough to size up a position and act upon it. One more with Ok iedoke . T h i s time I handle the openi n g correctly. It's a nyone 's game. We're navigating complex tactical sequences with brisk moves. Suddenly h i s k n ight i s trapped-there's no way to defend it-and he resigns. He doesn't ask for a rematch. "Thanks for the games," I type. A response appears i n the chat box below the chessboard : " Okiedoke says: ggs . " G ood ga mes. Tabiya says: hope to catch you aga i n sometime Okiedoke says: yup

End of conversation . S o it goes on the I C C .

LU DIC L O O P S

The I nternet Chess Club, o r I C C , i s one o f several popu l a r I nternet chess servers where players can log i n and play games, catch a recorded lecture, or watch i n real time the real-world tou rna ment games of the top players. The club has 3o,ooo members, with r ,soo to 2 , 6oo of them logged on at any moment. A m i l l ion ga mes a week are played on the server, by players who reside i n town s and cities a round the world . " Hello entire planet of chess players! A i n't the ICC someth ing else ! " gushes one member on h i s b i o page . The popularity of t h i s and other servers illustrates the ways i n which the I nternet has become a n i ntegra l part of players' excursions i n chess. Origi n a l ly known as the I nternet Chess Server, the ICC took on its cu rrent

n a me i n

r995,

when its head progra mmer decided to transform it i nto a

commercial site and cha rge yearly membership fee s . It's no accident that the development of the server has occurred i n an age of rapid globa liza­ tion , with the "speed ing up of the flows of capita l , people, good s , images and ideas across the world ," as one anth ropology text puts it. It's not a fluke that its modes and qualities m i rror the I nternet's emphasis on " i m me ­ diacy, simulta neity, conti ngency, subjectiv ity, disposabil ity, a n d , above a l l , speed . " And it's n o t b y cha nce that i t s development echoes the evolution o f the World Wide Web i n genera l , i n which t h e "deloca lizing and i ntercon­ nective" properties of both the I nternet and online chess have a great deal to offer a Bulgarian grand master who wants to chal lenge h i s friends, an astrophysicist who works out of a science lab i n Mexico City and plays chess during his lunch break, or a thi rteen-year-old girl i n Pasadena who logs i n after she gets out of school for the day. 3 "These days a lot of kids play on the I n ternet 24/7," a friend tel l s me . " I C C , how did we exist without i t ? " E l i zabeth Vicary excl a i m s with a laugh when asked about the server one day. " It's great for multiple reasons," she conti nues . " It's great because you can play chess i n your u nderwear at three i n the morni ng-you know, i f you wake up and you can't sleep. It's great because everyo n e is on I C C . So if you need to contact anyone, you can find them on ICC , you can ask someone who knows who they a re . . . . So I think it's i mportant to the chess commun ity as a chess commun ity. And it's a very conven ient way to play chess . " Internet chess is m a d e for t h e l i kes of D a n iel Pomera ntz, t h e young man I spoke with while playing at the World Open . D a n iel l ived for several years in Montrea l , where he was study ing i n a master's progra m i n computer science at McGill Un iversity. A n a m i able guy who enjoys playing chess and a n a lyzing his games, D a n iel found h i mself i n a city with only one serious chess club to speak of and few tou rna ments during the year. He was able to keep his ga me sharp by playing on the ICC . " G iven where I a m now, that's pretty much where I play exclusively," he told me one day. " I don't get a chance to play much i n person, so o n l i ne is the best way to play." Dan iel usually plays what are known as "sta ndard games" on I C C . "They're, like, fi fteen or twenty m inutes, so they 're not classic, but they 're often pretty reasonable games," he expl a i ned. "A nd also the computer keeps track of what moves you pl ay, so i n the end you can look back and go over it, if it was a n i nteresting, tactical game, and see what was goi ng o n . " M o s t of those w h o l o g on t o t h e I C C do n o t h ave t h e patience and seriousness of i ntent that D a n iel has, and end up play i n g blitz games more than anything else. I joined the ICC one frosty Su nday morning. I had

planned to visit the M a rshall Chess Club that day and participate in a daylong tou rna ment, but I woke up feeling l a zy. As I lay in bed , trying to decide whether to make a wintry trek down to the city, I happened upon the idea of joining the ICC and playing serious games online i n stead. " O f course! W h y d i d n ' t I t h i n k of t h a t earlier?" I s a i d t o myself. " I can get some good games in, ga i n experience from the comfort of my home, and all for very l ittle money." I signed up an hour later, a fter breakfast, paid the six ty­ dol l a r yearly fee , chose a handle, and joi ned i n a couple of thi rty- m i nute ga mes. I pl ayed a dozen th ree-mi nute blitz games, had some lunch, and then felt compelled to play more quick games . Each bout was a nugget of pleasure. I soon picked up the gist of the cyberculture terms bandied about and the etiquette of online play. That play requ i red renegotiations of the bodily a rrangements of over-the-board chess , new uses of eyes and hands, bra i n and body, making for a new corporeal subjectivity. By the end of the afternoon, my pupils had grown ti red of monitoring the rapid s k i r mishes on the computer screen and I was l ight-headed, my thoughts pixi lated . I had to go for a walk to clear my m i nd. S i nce t h a t fateful day I 've played som e thirty "slow " game s on the ICC , and thousands of blitz games. My tendencies a re typic a l . A quick look at some statistics on the server suggest that games with time controls of five mi nutes or less outnumber "standard" games, fi fteen m i nutes or more, by a count of eighteen to one. Most of those standard, "slow" ga mes proceed with time controls of fi fteen or twenty m i nutes per player. The compu­ tational ease of the server and the velocity of its transmissions make the mouse-and- eye play so crisp, so snappy, and so much fun that the setup calls for, demands even , quick play. If you own a Maserati , it's h a rd not to be seduced by its covenant of pure speed . I 've also come to wonder if the rush to blitz chess reflects the slant in many societies today toward the con­ sumption of expedient, ultrasti mulating experiences. Fast foo d , express h ighways, fast-paced music videos, i nstant messaging, speed dating, speed d i a l ing, and blitz chess a re elements of a cultural theme. " Speed i s the form of ecstasy the tech nical revolution has bestowed on m a n ," opines. novel ist Milan Kundera . 4 M a ny tea r th rough game after ga me. One person I played h a d logged r 8 o,ooo ga mes since j o i n i ng. A nother, r so,ooo. "I can never play enough

chess," asserts one player with

25 ,000

contests under his belt. " Ye s , it can

be addictive," Daniel told me. "One thing I try to avoid doing is once I start losing, I try not to be, like, ' O kay, I lost a couple, I h ave to w i n ,' and before I know it I 've lost fou r more . . . . Definitely you can be prone to go i nto a slump and then get a l ittle addicted, to where you're just moving

your mouse i n d i fferent ways . Because then you're not really moving piece s , you're just moving something on t h e screen ." " T he more speed i ncreases, the faster freedom decreases ," suggests French theorist Paul V i ri l i o. 5 A merican grandmaster Jesse Kraai tel l s me that when the chess servers fi rst appeared in the 1990s, they kept a running count of how often members were logged on to the m , and each member could see his own stars on h i s profile page . " T hey would tel l you what percentage of your l i fe you had spent [on the server] , since you started­ ' O h , m a n , I 've given 30 percent of my l i fe to this! '-a nd it was just obscene . Because when it fi rst started, chess players were losing their minds. I guess '9 7 was when I fi rst discovered it, and that was a big thing-I think I lost a year of my l i fe playing blitz chess . . . . It was the fi rst time you could play kind of fa mou s , i nteresting people , and you could do it all day long." These days Jesse doesn't play on the I nternet at a l l . He finds it poi ntless , waste­ ful . I n his work for the Web site chesslecture .com, where he posts video lectures on d iverse chess subjects, he has received e-mails from subscribers asking him to prepa re a lecture on how to stop playing blitz chess. " It's very strange that they 're asking me for someth ing l i ke therapy, l i ke an anti- addiction course," he says. " T hey 're recogn izing the problem of its superficial ity, i f you like, and they 're not able to overcome it themselves. And I'll basically do a lecture on anythi ng-I just don't k now where to start on that. What am I supposed to say: ' D on't do it! It's bad' ? " T h e compulsion t o play game a fter game resembles the devotion video game players have for their shoot- 'em-up-or-be- shot-dead-you rself pas­ times. The i mpulse i s s i m i l a r to that fa m i l i a r to enthusiasts of the online version of Scrabble, which, " l ike a mpheta m i nes or video ga mes, seems to i nduce a state of fiend ish hyperfocus i n susceptible subjects," as l iter­ ary critic Judith Thurman d iscovered when facing her own " r u i n ation" at the hap ds of late-n ight wordpl ay. Even more analogous are the derang­ ing thrills of blitz Scrabble, four-minute-a-player j ousts that netted author Nora Ephron for a season: "I was becoming more and more scattered, more d i stracted , more u n focused ; I was exhibiting all the symptoms of term i n a l attention deficit d isorder." K i n d red as wel l a re the subl i m e fixa­ tions of casino d igital ga mbling, i n which, as anth ropologist Natasha D ow Schu l l deta i l s , gamblers who can play up to n i n e hundred hands an hour at push-button slot machines rel ish "extreme states of subj ective absorption i n play." The cleverly designed technology of the machines enables these bettors to enter i nto what they call "the zone," a d i ssociated subjective state i n which they proceed alone, u n interrupted , swiftly, in control of their efforts, and in sync with their instrument of chance. " Zombies" is what

the gambling industry has dubbed those gamblers who sit for hours on end before casino slot machines, mindlessly plunking coins into the slots, with little or no regard for how they're faring cashwise. "Playing is quick and easy. It is the sound of the coins falling, the music and the hubbub," says one recovering player, a man from France who in 200 4 sued his local casino for contributing to his addiction. "When you are in front of the machine you are like a zombie. There is no skill or logic to it. You are kept in this constant state of expectation that you might win." Give modern subjects who desire play realms and dissociation from their worldly lives speedy, mesmerizing technologies, and you get garners enmeshed in repetitive, hyp­ notic fugues.6 Online chess promotes recursive loops of fixed alertness. The repeti­ tive movements, the focused attentiveness, the easy slide into game after game can induce trancelike states that compare to those found among the participants of ritual ceremonies around the world. In Nepal, shamans provoke trances for themselves and others by sustaining a driving, inces­ sant drumbeat and intoning sacred chants through nightlong ritual heal­ ing work. Their purposes are different from those who spend their nights tracking chess icons around a virtual chessboard, but the psychophysi­ ological effects are similar: a state of consciousness distinct from normal, waking life, zoned in to the demands at hand. If we had a neurophenom­ enology up to the task, we could map out the biochemical substrates of the processes in play here, from the plateaus of revved-up alertness to the pulsing drive to rip through game after game. The playing can galvanize a form of spirit possession in which a mortal soul gets overcome by a goblin of ludic quickness. Addictive it can be. In writing on the phenomenology of drug addic­ tion, pharmacographer David Lenson notes that "the word's etymology points to

addictus-the

past participle of the Latin verb

addicere

(to say

or pronounce, to decree or bind)-which suggests that the user has lost active control of language and thus of consciousness itself, that she or he is already 'spoken for,' bound and decreed. Instead of

saying,

one

is said.

The addict is changed from a subject to an object; at least one aspect of the user's consciousness becomes passive." Much the same dictation ropes in online blitz players. While playing they become spoken for, bound and devoted to the activity at hand. It can be hard to stop, to disconnect from the ludic loops. Once a person manages to cut things off, it still can be difficult to resist logging on to the site again and mainlining another fix of games. Passion piqued, the player is played by the game. It toys with him, owns him. "Playing blitz on the Internet is incredibly addictive," writes

English grandmaster Danny Gormally in a

New in Chess

essay called

"Diary of an ICC Addict." Gormally speaks of being hooked on daylong infusions of bullet chess. "I would describe the typical ICC addict's experi­ ence as follows: after downloading the software and commencing play, the user experiences a serotonin cascade in the pre-frontal lobe of his brain similar to a drug which could be described as psychotropic. This leads to more and more use, as the addict chases this high which he finds increas­ ingly difficult to replicate in his humdrum everyday existence."7 Narcotics are the metaphor of choice. It seems such a natural fit: the clammy need for a quick fix, the high that bites back, the shame of it all. Biologists would deem such conduct a "behavioral addiction" akin to those of compulsive gambling, shopping, or overeating.8 As they see it, each of these addictions involves a habit that "hijacks" the brain circuits evolved to reward survival-enhancing behavior such as eating and sex. The habits release dopamine into the brain, giving the habitues a high not unlike the plateaus of pleasure and arousal tripped by cocaine or morphine. In time, the efforts can derange the brain reward circuits, making it difficult for a person to stop things cold. For most, online chess is mildly addictive. It's not a hitting-bottom, lose-your-job-and-family addiction. It's situationally addictive.

Akrasia,

Greek for "incontinence of the will," a state of acting against one's better judgment, is often involved. I can go weeks without having the urge to play. Some days and nights I'm not into it at all. It's too fast and furious a possibility. But once I'm on, if the conditions are right and blitz lust takes hold, I can be on for hours, chasing three-minute games, bound and spoken for. Many face similar temptations. Nolan has a friend who grew . fond of playing one-minute games on the ICC and racked up 12,6oo of them over a two-year stretch, all in an effort to reach a 2200 rating. Once he did that, he gave it up cold, in part because Nolan talked him into doing so. When he and Nolan dropped by for a visit one day a year after he quit, I asked him if he wanted to play a couple of games online. Nolan cut me off, saying, "That's like offering a drug addict heroin! 'You want some?' " Nolan himself is ambivalent about playing on ICC. "Yeah, I like playing online," he tells me. "It's a different form of addiction, because if you want to play, you can sit there for hours. Play and play and play and play. And if you lose you can get a new game immediately. . . . All the games are like candy, they're fast food. You play one game, you play the next, you play one game, you play the next. They're all fast games, even though there's no reason for that. "

Others speak of their "love-hate" relationship with online play. Some quit, only to return months later. Others try to curtail the time they spend online. Evan Rabin, a college student and expert-level chess player from Greenwich Village, has been playing on the ICC for years. Evan plays in a lot of tournaments at the Marshall Chess Club, and in bigger tournaments in the Northeast. He also logs on to the ICC to play blitz games and chat with friends. "I can go on for a minute and be on for two hours," he told me. "I try to limit it, but I used to actually play a lot more. Now I play maybe a few hours a week. It takes up a lot of time, and I don't think it's actually good for your chess. .. . When I play on ICC I can't really sit for standard games. I just play three- and five-minute games, which is not so good. When I play on ICC I just want to get a lot of games in. I use it a lot now to chat with friends." It's when they lose that many want most to keep playing. "While tak­ ing a break from work, I went online to play a couple of blitz games in preparation for tonight's event," recounts James Stripes in his chess blog, Chess Skills, in a 2009 post called "Blitz Addiction." "I lost the first, badly. The second was worse. After three losses in a row, I knew I was in trouble. That's how the addiction works: losses mean more play. The game plays second fiddle to the struggle for rating, for pride, for something."9 For me, the danger lies most in logging on at night, before I go to bed, when going to shut down the computer. "That's a dangerous thing to do," said one player when I mentioned this to him. "Logging on at night, that is, before going to sleep. A dangerous thing to do." In November 2007 I wrote, "Me, playing late last night; tired to begin with. Playing poorly, hanging queens in two straight games. But wanting to play more, to win a few well played games, before I logged off. I finished, finally, at r:3o am. Mind revved up until 3 am. This is my brain on blitz. Took some melatonin, then fell asleep. Tired and worn out the next day. Angry at myself for ruining my sleep pattern." I could have jotted that on twenty different occasions. The late-night play wreaks havoc with my neurons, disturbs my sleep. Yet such miseries are balanced out by more promising engagements. "Played a few games last night, before I went to bed. Lost the first one, then won the next four. I was

crafting

something. It's like picking up a violin and playing a few

sweet sounds before falling asleep." "Played a couple of quick games early in the afternoon, after reading for several hours. It struck me as a kind of re-centering, when I can take a break, and re-set my thoughts, before mov­ ing on to something else."

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VIRTUAL PLAY What happens when chess play moves away from face-to-face engagements into connections more remote and "virtual"? You can get more games in, day or night, but the social and sensory dimensions of playing are distinct. One aspect of online chess that vexes many is its faceless, disembodied quality. "I don't want to play against someone when I can't see his face," says one man in explaining why he declines to play online. When asked why this is, he answers, "Computer chess is missing, I don't know, a

real connection?"

corpo­

Polly Wright, a veteran player who competes in several

over-the-board tournaments a week, tells me she prefers the texture and feel of pieces made of wood. She says, I like having the pieces in my hand. It's a tactile thing, along with the three dimensions, and you just don't get that on the Internet. Playing with a computer doesn't appeal to me because the pieces are just drawings, just diagrams.... And I constantly hang pieces when I play on ICC , because I'm not seeing things the same way. So it's a spatial thing for me. But also, when you're playing on the Internet, you don't know who you're playing. There's a whole psychology of being face-to-face that you lose on the Internet. There's something about moving the pieces, there's something very satisfying about putting a piece on a square, and going, "This is killing." And you don't get to relish their facial expression, if they have one.And then it's interesting if they don't react.Because I love watching people, and you can't do that on the Internet. For Polly and others, Internet chess lacks the bodily engagements with one's opponent and the chessboard and pieces that a person can count on with over-the-board play. The vital aura of that flesh-and-blood encounter is lost when the game goes tele-electronic.Jean-Paul Sartre once suggested that human imagination possesses an "essential poverty," in part because the "flesh" or "intimate texture" of mental images is not as rich and as meaningful as the objects we perceive in the world.10 Some chess players find a similar impoverishment inherent in online play, as moving screen­ bound pieces with a cursor does not carry the same fleshly sensateness that touching and grasping chess pieces in their hands does. Others are not fazed by that intangibility at all, perhaps because any chessboard is, from the get-go, a virtual play-form of shifting signifiers. Whatever one's sensory preferences, an air of artifice and insubstantiality is at work. Although a person is engaged in a game with a living opponent, the virtual technolo­ gies involved can promote the sense that the game is a simulacrum of an actual chess game. There's not the same "fullness of being" ( Sartre, again) that comes with over-the-board play. For many, it comes down to a play

between presence and absence, two themes that have dominated philo­ sophical thought in the Western tradition for more than two millennia now. While the direct action of a chess game takes place within the magic circle of the chessboard, and while players often find themselves transported away from their immediate environments while playing, the experiential aspects of specific gaming encounters count for a lot. All play is virtual, in that all play forms involve "make-believe" arrangements founded on imagi­ native processes,but some forms of play are more virtual than others.With online chess, you can't see your opponent or talk with him directly. You usually know nothing about him, where he lives or what he's about, or if he is a he, she, or

ze.

Often there are few or no words exchanged during or after

games. Impersonal is a word people use to describe the encounters. There's little of the shared meaning-making, none of the quiet but significant inter­ action rituals that come with over-the-board chess games. You interact more with the computer than with your opponent, in a jazzy techno-ritual. There's no embodied, intersubjective co-presence; no voice, gestures, or eye contact. No verbal exchanges help to defuse the pain of a tough loss. The healthy alterity that comes from contending with another person face-to­ face is morphed into a pale and vague encounter with a faint other. Internet chess does not lend itself to rich narrative experiences in the way that over-the-board play does so readily.Dale Sharp, the master-level player who lives in Peekskill, New York, once spoke to me of the dramas of competitive chess. "You don't get that while playing on the Net," he added. "You don't get that flesh-and-blood person sitting right across from you." For many, playing online is not a richly social, communicative experience, as is often the case when they're playing with friends at clubs or at home. As I wrote in ·my fieldnotes, "Nolan came over this afternoon, to analyze some positions. We then played some blitz games, for an hour or so. A lot of fun. Afterward, I felt richer, more engaged, as is often the case when I hang out with friends I enjoy spending time with. How different from when I play on-line on my own, when there's often a lingering sense of loneliness, isolation." Unless you're playing against friends, your online opponents remain phantasms. Often nothing is said after a game is finished. You move on to the next game, or the next opponent. When I mentioned these sentiments to Jonathan Rowson, the Scottish grandmaster and psychologist,he agreed with them."And the reason is ..." he said, and then proffered an answer: I think we like talking about chess.There are interesting things to talk about­ seeing what happened in the game, and what your opponent thinks happened,

and then having that little argy-bargy about who did what to whom, and why. And without that, something is lost. Just the simple silent change in rating [while playing on the Internet], and the next game starting, doesn't give you the meaning that you get from a game where you have a script about what hap­ pened.And I think it's simply that, as a rule, we're happier around other people. Also, we're made to feel that what we're doing makes sense, and we're part of a community that endorses it somehow. It's not just a game. What we value about the game is that it's sort of a way of connecting with other people as well. You don't really get that online. You get some of it.It's not really the same.You don't see the smile when you suggest a creative move, or that kind of thing.

Upon hearing all this, a twenty-one-year-old student of mine tells me that the scene depicted reminds her of the amorous rites of "hooking up " practiced by men and women of her generation, whereby individuals will not date or have girlfriends or boyfriends so much as conjoin for an evening at a time before going their separate ways. "Relationships for us are blitz relationships," she tells me. "They're so devoid of meaning and feeling. And the technology is a big part of it. People just text-message one another, to say whether or not they're going to show up, so there's no sense of com­ mitment on anyone's part." Hooking up is to going steady as online blitz chess is to classical over-the-board play. All this speaks to the indirect and distal forms of communication common to contemporary American society. "Communication is increasingly 'virtu­ alized' and in asynchronous time," remarks Bradd Shore, an anthropolo­ gist who studies American culture. "Much of the coordination of activity in everyday life is no longer face-to-face but,rather,is negotiated through forms of indirect communication such as calendars, pagers, telephones, voicemail, cell phones, e-mail messages, and the like." 11 While remote communication can facilitate interpersonal connections, it can also bring distanced and frag­ mentary ties.Virtual classrooms, virtual dating, virtual gaming, and virtual gambling entail mechanics of digital correspondence that "connect " people who are, more often than not, sitting in rooms by themselves. The social changes afoot are at once technological, demographic, and architectural in nature. New media and computer technologies are rendering matters more simulative. Privatized spaces have come to supplant public places,and people are spending more time by themselves. Such an impoverished social scene is reminiscent of Walter Benjamin's 1935 essay on the work of art in an age of mechanical reproduction, and his account of how direct experience becomes devalued when technological mediations dominate social relations. With chess in an age of electro-digital transmission, the fact that some

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I97

cyberpunks send nasty messages after losing a game, or while playing, can add to the sense of distance. Instant messages-or tells, as they are called-appear out of the cyberblue in the chat box below the virtual game board. They usually come in the form of stock phrases like "Thanks for the game," "Thx," "Gracias," or "Hi from Buffalo, NY." But they can also be insulting. Some of the more vitriolic comments I've received through the years include these missives: You know absolutely nothing about chess. You're not as good as you think you are. Moron. Lucky Bitch!!!!!!! I am the boss here! Thanks for the game, kid. Your play is uninspired. Just a lucky blitztricker. Just another ICC cheater. Everyone gets "smack talk" like this now and again, and, worse, warranted or not. "You should see the comments I've gotten! " says Elizabeth Vicary after reading the preceding inventory. Her handle identifies her as female, and she has received a disturbing number of comments that reek of blatant sexual abuse: "XXXXing Bitch! ! " The number of miscreants whom she has "censored" and so summarily prevented from communicating with her again is extensive. The taunts can leave a sour taste for hours afterward. "It's crazy how rude some players are online! " Daniel tells me. When I asked Evan Rabin about such messages, he said people did this with him "once in a while." "I've learned not to care," he said. "I mean, sometimes if people are annoying I won't play them, or I'll censor them. It doesn't really matter to me." "Keep cool. It's only a game," says one member on his ICC bio page. Yet it's easy to get peeved at an unknown opponent. Fabiano Caruana, a young grandmaster who moved from New York to Italy, spoke of this in a 2008 interview in

Chess Life.

"But when you play chess and your opponent

wins," he said, "it's like, 'Is he smarter than me?' Because it's a mind game and it gets-you start to hate your opponent-it can be very dangerous, I can easily hate my opponents, especially if I don't see them. That's why ICC . . . I don't even see them, and I want to kill them." 12 For many, playing on the ICC is like cruising down an interstate: from the safe anonymity of one's computer it's easy to flip someone off. Members regularly put others

on their "censor" and "no play" lists after deciding they don't want to have anything more to do with them. The electronic feel of the interface shapes the competitive dynamics. "You're playing on a two-dimensional board," says Nolan; "you can't see the person, so there's a detachment from the immediate competitive ele­ ment." A majority of players uses online chess servers as a training ground or playroom in which to try out new ideas, work on openings, and get in some practice games. The real chess takes place in the "real" world. For that reason, few fret about their online ratings.Also, while playing online, many are often doing other things as well-checking e-mail, surfing the Web, chatting on the phone."People don't take it so seriously," an acquain­ tance says of online play. " So it's difficult to take it seriously oneself." All this, combined with the technologies involved and the anonymity of the contests,can promote an air of artifice and simulation, making online play the chess equivalent of cybersex. The advent of online chess servers is also coinciding with the decline of neighborhood chess clubs. "The Internet sucks! " cried Polly Wright in a posting on her Internet blog, Castling Queenside, in November 2007. "Not really," she continued. "I love the Internet, but at the same time I hate what has happened to chess clubs that have lost players to Internet chess."u Polly wrote that entry, " Small Chess Club Blues," in the wake of a dismal turnout for a club tournament she was directing at the Bob Peretz Chess Club in White Plains, New York, despite a thousand-dollar bounty in cash prizes. Who wants to go out on a cold winter's night when you can get in some games from the comfort of your home computer?But with that change something is lost, as chess servers cannot replace the sense of com­ munity that local chess clubs offer. Cyberforums like the ICC might serve certain functions of a community, but any such community is at best an atomized one, with its detached participants facing off against phantasms of virtual presence. Like others, I find myself both appreciative of and disenchanted with the possibilities offered by online play. Some days I'm jacked into playing for hours. But I also understand well those who caution us to avoid the "unreal, lonely, and meaningless world" that the Internet seductively offers (as American philosopher Hubert Dreyfus casts it).14 I would not want online chess to be my sole means of engaging with other chess players. It's good for a quick fix, and like others I value being able to log on at any time of the day, play some decent games, and try out new strategies. I have to agree with Dale Sharp, who has ventured into online play from his home in Peekskill, New York. "You know," he told me, "the world with Internet

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chess is better than the world without Internet chess. It hasn't diminished it." And yet his next words made sense as well. "It has diminished it in the sense that people don't go as much to live tournaments, and that's bad. And it's bad that few people play slow games. I know a lot of people who wouldn't even think of playing-! mean, a slow game on the Internet is a fifteen-minute game." Internet chess playrooms are at once highly expedient and socially ane­ mic. Their technologies contribute to a paradoxical mix of connectivity and isolation. Years from now, however, the rhetoric of lack and differ­ ence invoked here in speaking of online chess play might strike some as reactionary and historically situated, signaling a nostalgic longing for an earlier age of pure presence and nonvirtual connection.

JUST A COU PLE MORE GAMES It's quiet now. The wind snaps against the brick edges of the building. Tracy must have gone to bed. I'll be there soon as well, after a couple more games. Having parted ways with Okiedoke, I look for another blitz partner. I lean back in the chair, drape my feet on the desk, sip from a glass of water. A new circle appears. KennethT, rated 2r6r, is looking to play a three­ minute unrated game. I respond, a board appears. KennethT aims for a Modern defense; then a Hippopotamus, a rare, deep-in-the-mud creature that possesses surprising agility. I take my feet off the desk and sit upright to focus better. KennethT's queenside is decomposing. Soon I'm chasing his king, which is running away, check, check, check, until the king runs out of retreat squares. I mate him with ten seconds left on my clock. If death in this modern era can be defined as "electro-cerebral silence," then rapid chess is a far cry from that.15 I play, one after another, Fleshface, BrucieW, KeyboardSam, Garbage­ man, and en passanL I notice the time: 1 2: 47

A.M.

I know I should stop.

Just a couple more games. I post another seek. Next I'm paired with Pragueplayer, rated 2189. We play five games. We split the first four, while in the fifth Pragueplayer gets a winning position as he runs out of time. And so have I; sleep beckons. Praguepiayer asks for a rematch, but I decline. It's good to end with a win. "Thanks for the games," I type out. "Thank you." "Hope to catch you again sometime." "U too."

2.00

I

2.4/7

on

the ICC

I take a look at my history. A column of pluses and minuses, wins and losses, is stacked up twenty games deep, though I have only faint memories of what happened during those games. Alone in my room, I 've whizzed through six hundred moves against fellow blitz zealots during the past two hours, with little conversation between us and with no sense of who or where they are. I feel at once connected and apart. It's 1:43 in the morning. I log off the server, shut down the computer, throw on my sleeping clothes, step into darkness. As I lie in bed, blankets pulled around me, my brain is revved, neurons all ablaze, endorphins and testosterone presumably tripped. Sleep is just a dream now.

Why, I ask myself, did I spend the last two hours playing meaningless blitz? Then again, at least I'm not wired into playing online until two­ thirty or three in the morning, which I've done some nights, only to wake up drowsy and strung out the next day. My senses are utterly alert, which is not what I want. As I stare into the dark, my pulse is in tune with the moves I've been making. I think about why I'm smitten with blitz chess. I give thought to whether I 'm being seduced by speed, if my life is revved to a blistering pace, and the ways in which so many lives and engagements these days are speeding up. I think about an article I came across, in which a journalist was talking about how some television commercials show a new image every 1.5 seconds on average. I compare those rapid slide shows to the pace of blitz games. I wonder how similar playing chess online is to the computerized simula­ tions of warfare used by the military to train soldiers, and I consider how modern chess, like the electronic battlefields of modern warfare, is becom­ ing increasingly removed from flesh-and-blood encounters. I think about a book I read on the psychology of the Internet, and the terms mentioned in it, like "Internet addiction" and "compulsive Internet use"; I wonder if these labels apply to people I know. I think about the positions that Pragueplayer and I were contesting, what the right moves are. At some point, about 2:30, I fall asleep.

I

201

"You have to be there in the moment" "I don't really tell people I'm a chess player," says Abby Marshall, a wom­ en's FIDE master, of her life in a Virginia high school where she is soon to enter the eleventh grade, "because it wouldn't make sense to them. It's hard to understand.To them, chess is like monopoly or checkers." It's just a game. "Yeah. Like going to tournaments-it wouldn't make sense. So I prefer not to talk about it that much." Abby has a jaunty, optimistic air about her that has served her well at the chessboard. She has successfully competed in local and national tour­ neys since she was a young girl. She took up the game in her kindergarten years, before she was big enough to sit at the board, and she became an increasingly dangerous player while at Indianola Alternative Elementary School in Columbus, Ohio. The school encouraged its students to play chess,and the team traveled to many competitions.It was cool to be on the chess team, one reason being that the school didn't have a sports program. Mark Morss, the school's master-level coach, sensed Abby's potential early on and began giving her free lessons three times a week. "I guess I was lucky to grow up in a chess-tolerant environment," Abby says of her time in Columbus. In 2005, Abby moved with her family to Warwick, Virginia, where she began attending a school in a community where there is little chess to speak of. Having no schoolmates to share or study the game with, she has had to become more independent in her endeavors. The nearest chess club is forty miles from her home, making the payoff of attending minimal. "And there are no girls." "It's a really skewed ratio," says Abby of the proportion of males to females in scholastic chess and competitive chess more widely. "There's not really many girls that play." While it's not always easy to feel comfortable in a male-dominated sport, Abby takes it in stride. One benefit to being outnumbered is that it's a cinch to befriend other female players. "I like it because it's easy to meet the other girls," she explains. "Because if you're part of a small minority, instantly you have ten friends. A lot of my friends in the chess world are girls." Some of them are the schoolmates she knew while living in Ohio. "I've never had any hostility just because I'm a girl, so that's been good," Abby says. She has picked up on some stereotypic assumptions, however. "I guess what I don't like is that people always assume that the girl's the weaker player. Even when I was in Ohio, and I was one of the top players, at the state championships or whatever, people always assumed I was the

202

1

underdog. And I don't like that. It's kind of annoying. If it's Round

I

and

I'm on Board 3 and I'm playing someone much weaker than me, people always assume that because I'm a girl, I'm the weaker player. ...People say things that are kind of condescending." Abby has competed in state and national championships, as well as international tourneys in Turkey and China. In August 2009 she won the Denker Tournament of High School Champions-the first female to do so. Two months later she was ranked twelfth among all American women. She hopes to become an international master, and would welcome the opportu­ nity to play on a U.S. Women's Olympiad team.Being a professional player doesn't interest her. "I don't like chess that much to spend my whole life doing it. I might like to teach chess, though." Abby is known to have the poised calm of a seasoned competitor. "I usually don't go crazy, or self-destruct," she says when asked about this. "Because if I lose, it sucks, but I'm not going to get really depressed." She's at her best in tactics-rich, attacking positions. "I like to play wide-open positions, with a lot of tactics. It's kind of the way I learned how to play." She likes the "intensity " of chess. "Unlike in basketball or whatever, when you get stressed out, you can keep moving and playing.But here, you have to learn to deal with that kind of pressure .... It's also an escape from normal life." "I like winning," she says. "You get a lot of attention, and you get satis­ faction from playing a good game." Abby plays blitz chess with friends and on the ICC, though she doesn't play online for longer than ten minutes at a stretch. "It just gets boring. There's something about having someone sitting across from you [with an over-the-board game].When you lose to someone in a national tournament game, you have to shake that person's hand, you have to be there in the moment. But if you lose online, you can turn off the computer and go do something else."

Endgame Nothing by which all human passion and hope and folly can be mirrored and then proved, ever was just a game. Move. -Wi l l i a m Fau l k ner, " K n ight's G a m bit"

Summer 2009. Jakob Stockel is a kindly man with a slim,athletic build and silver-gray hair whose passion for chess defies the fact that he's now in his eighth decade. Jakob can be found most Fridays at the Max Pavey Chess Club in Briarcliff Manor, New York. He's usually the first to arrive and the last to leave. While playing casual games he sustains a running commentary: "The man says 'check.' ... The man says 'check.' ..." I drove Jakob home from the club late one summer Friday. A wave of thunderstorms had hit the area. He had just finished playing a radiant game in a club championship against Dale Sharp, a master. He lost the game after missing the correct continuation in the fifth hour of play, just before midnight.To have beaten Dale, who outranked him by five hundred rating points, would have been the upset of the year. To have come close to doing so but failed in the end was crushing. I asked him why he liked to play chess."Ah, I love it. I just love it," he answered. Jakob told me, as we passed through rain-soaked streets, that he learned to play as a boy in Yugoslavia, while he and his family were interned in a Serbian labor camp at the end of World War I I. He continued to play after his family escaped to Austria two years later, and then immigrated to the United States in 1950. Jakob settled in New York, where he married and had children and grandchildren and has run a liquor store in Pleasantville for decades. In hearing Jakob talk, I realized that chess had been, for more than sixty

2.0 3

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years, an integral part of his life. The game had been balm and refuge to him during terrible times. I met Jakob at the club the following Friday. "Remember when you asked me why I like to play chess?" he asked. "Sure." "It's because it's such a challenge! When you get such a good position against a strong player,like I did in my game last week, you feel really good."

A GREAT GOOD PLACE

I see Jakob most Fridays at the club, along with other members. Most of us arrive by seven-thirty. We set up aluminum banquet tables and chairs in the middle of an open, rectangular room with hardwood floors· and dig out from a storage chest the club's plastic chess sets, weathered vinyl boards, and clocks. We're content most weeks to play casual, "skittles" games against each other, with or without clocks, or blitz games. Winning or losing doesn't matter much. Most of us are in our forties or older, and we don't have a lot to prove at the board. When we've had enough, which is usually around midnight, we return the clocks and chess sets to the chest, lock up the place, and drive off in separate directions. The Max Pavey Chess Club, founded in 1954, convenes on Friday nights at a recreation center in Briarcliff Manor, a well-heeled town close to the Hudson River. The town of Ossining, with its namesake maximum-secu­ rity prison, Sing Sing Correctional Facility, is a few miles to the west. The club is named after American master and medical doctor Max Pavey, who lived in Westchester County in the later years of his life, before he died in 1957 of leukemia. The illness apparently resulted from radiation poisoning

that Pavey suffered working with radioactive materials while employed by the United States government. Generations of players have attended the club since its inception. A core group of adult players who live in neighboring towns comes to the club each week. I've been attending for seven years now. Like others, I've had the pleasure of carving friendships out of my visits there. It's worth the forty-mile round-trip drive. I've come to think of the Max Pavey club as a "great good place." Sociologist Ray Oldenburg uses this term in writing about those locales in American society-cafes, coffee shops, bars, community centers-"third places" where people can gather outside the home or the workplace and mingle in relaxed ways with others. Alongside such places are the site­ specific activities that enable people to gather for purposes formal or infor-

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mal: bowling leagues, fantasy football associations, book clubs. Visit any chess club and you'll meet firemen and lawyers, bakers and nursery school teachers, and you'll end up conversing with folks from Belarus, Boston, or Trinidad. The interactions are direct, face-to-face, and not "virtual." That's significant, in light of the gradual demise of public gathering places in the United States and elsewhere. As political scientist Robert Putnam contends in his 2000 book

Bowling Alo ne,

over the past few decades

Americans have come to spend less time involved in collective leisure activi­ ties and in civic engagement more generally.1 Leisure time has become a more private affair for a number of reasons, from pressures of time and money to generational changes to the rise of electronic entertainment such as television and the Internet. People "schmooze " less and observe activi­ ties more than they engage in them directly, making for fewer face-to-face interactions all around. Chess clubs in the New York area are not immune from these trends; anecdotal evidence suggests that participation in them has weakened over the years. But regulars still attend week after week. We come for the chess, and we come for the company of others. The tempered sociability appears especially suited for American men, many of whom can be reserved around other men when it comes to revealing aspects of their personal lives. The chessboard gives us something to talk about, to laugh or anguish over, besides ourselves directly. The mood usually is light, relaxed, and far from workish. Club members may be either chatty or taciturn, but we are there with others, engaging in our passion for the game. The intellectual engagement is appreciated. We're like amateur jazz musicians who get together on weekends to jam. The ritualistic quality of chess makes it easy to engage with other chess players: we set up the pieces and get going, no small talk required. Even the optical dimensions play a part; most club-goers train their eyes on the boards in front of them, with only occasional,modest glances into the eyes of others.Many casual games end with a few friendly words exchanged; then the pieces are set up anew and silence returns until the game ends, exciting another rally of words and glances. An evening's participation consists of a chain of "interaction rituals " centered on casual chess games. Lifelong friendships can grow out of these encounters. Chess, like music or cigarettes, is a tool of sociality.

D YNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM

In Ingmar Bergman's film

Fanny and Alexander,

a theater manager gives

his annual Christmastime speech to those involved in the theater. He says to those gathered around him,

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Endgame

My only talent, if you can call it that in my case, is that I love this little world inside the thick walls of this playhouse. And I'm fond of the people who work in this little world. Outside is the big world, and sometimes the little world suc­ ceeds in reflecting the big one, so that we understand it better. Or perhaps we give the people who come here a chance to forget for a while, for a few short moments ... for a few short moments the harsh world outside. Our theater is a little room of orderliness, routine, care, and love. It sounds a lot like chess. Yet while a person doesn't need a lot of expert knowledge to delight in theater or music, that's not the case when it comes to chess. You don't need to be an expert in harmonic changes to treasure a jazz masterpiece like Coleman Hawkins's

Body and Soul,

but you do need to know more than

how the pieces move to appreciate what's going on in a high-quality chess game. It takes a while before you can start to hear the music of chess, and longer still before you can play a few decent notes of it yourself. As Nolan puts it, "It's really hard to understand what's going on in chess until you become good at it." But once you do, the board lights up with meaning and history and clever queen moves that can make your head spin. The more you immerse yourself in the game, the more you get out of it. Since so much of this is lost on the casual observer, the game's intrigues go unnoticed by the general public. Certain myths recur, as writers and filmmakers alike recycle stock images. Chess players are cast as brainy nerds, as idiot savants teetering on the edge of madness, or as social misfits whose only solace in life comes through pushing plastic pieces around.The lived realities, though, are more subtle and robust than the stereotypes might suggest, and the motives for engaging them varied. No person I've spoken with has given a single, all-consuming motive for wanting to play chess, and no two spelled out precisely the same reasons. Bundles of diverse forces get different players to the board.There are many reasons to play or think or be passionately devoted to chess-from the sweet agony of competitive play to the game's rich history-or to find that it matters in the world today. But there's more to the story than that, as many chess players also express a nagging ambivalence. Chess spawns both passion and anxiety. Some tire of the game's competitive culture, or they grow wary of the pain of losing, particularly as they age, and find that they cannot put together combina­ tions of moves as well as they once did. Others come to lament the fact that the time, energy, and resources they've devoted to it are never matched by any significant material gains or social rewards. Professional players quit competing to look for greener incomes in other endeavors, be it poker,

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hedge funds, or teaching chess. Amateurs turn to hobbies less taxing or find that chess is too much of a "time sink." Some conclude that there's more to life than just chess. Chess, or life: it often comes down to a tense interplay between these two realms. In a short film about Marcel Duchamp by avant-garde filmmaker Hans Richter, Richter asks the artist turned chess player, "Why chess, Mr.Duchamp?" "Why not, Mr. Richter?" Duchamp answers. "Do you think that life is so important and chess is not?"2 Pose Duchamp's defiant question to any chess player, and his answer will say a lot about how his involvements with the game tie into his life in general. Some players dabble in chess an evening or so each week, and live rich lives beyond that. Others are like modern-day monks whose ascetic regimens of dedication, humility, and mindful practices mark them as different from their more worldly neighbors. Yet the monks know that it's those regimens that elevate their lives above the mundane. Others struggle to strike a balance between the life of the game and the game of life. A few lose their way and blunder away relationships while charting the complications of life beyond the chessboard. Many players oscillate between seasons of competitive chess and hard-edged study of the game, and stretches of time in which the game is a hobby they indulge in now and then. These strains and oscillations parallel the concerns of modern subjects more generally, for we are, by and large, an uncertain, manifold, self-conscious, passion-vexed lot. Many are searching for meaning and connection in our lives, for efforts to feel passionately about, while know­ ing that we ourselves are the makers of those meanings and the architects of those passions. Those who stick with the game do so because they find that its plea­ sures and benefits keep them riveted. In giving thought to this matter, I'm reminded of an observation that Siegbert Tarrasch, a renowned German player, made in the early 1930S, a few years before he died in 1934 at the age of seventy-one. "I have always a slight feeling of pity for the man who has no knowledge of chess," the doctor wrote in

The Game of Chess,

"just as

I would pity the man who has remained ignorant of love. Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy."3 I too have found that chess can make women and men happy-at least while they're at the chessboard. That was the case for me, for several heady years; so much so that even after I had decided to write a book on the game and told friends and col­ leagues of my plan, I delayed getting started with the actual writing. Chess was so utterly interesting that I continued to prefer playing and studying it

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than writing about it.At the same time, the more chess defined my ways of thinking, both at and beyond the chessboard, the more suspicious I became of language. Compared to the precision and accuracy to be found on the chessboard, words-which had once been trusted intimates of mine-had become all too vague, all too unreliable and inaccurate.How could anyone rely on such a poor vehicle to get at the truth and beauty of chess? Try to . portray through words any single moment of chess, of players battling it out at a sweaty chess club, or of a deft positional middlegame strategy, and we're left with a swirl of interpretations, a sheen of emblems. But parse what's going on at the board itself, in actual chess terms, and we can reach clear and lasting truths. Or so I thought then. Language had become for me the antithesis of chess, paralyzing any thoughts I had of writing about the game. Something shifted in July 2007, and the words started to come. An enchantment faded once I started to write out my thoughts on the game. I swung out of the five-year reverie in which I had been immersed and looked around to see that there was a world beyond the chessboard. The play of life, language, and people became more interesting to me than the maneuvers of chess pieces. My friend Khan stopped by my place the other day, a few days before he was to compete in the Foxwoods Open, held each April at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. Khan himself had just started playing com­ petitively again after a yearlong break from the game, and he was hoping to win some tournament cash (he won $2,400). We scrimmaged through a couple of blitz games, and then examined some game positions we thought he might encounter that weekend. From a bookshelf I grabbed a manual on the Griinfeld Defense, and we began to trace out the lines of battle in one tactics-rich variation. I was struck by how intricately twisted the many continuations were, and the hours of thought that could be put into their analysis. I would have leaped into that task a few years back. That after­ noon, I wasn't much into it. Chess does not quicken my pulse as it once did. The sublime involutions of the game remain, but the deep, soulful music I once heard is fading. These days I hesitate to pour time into chess. The tug of life is stron­ ger. Its rumpled richness offers muddy streets and a friend's laughter and Spanish songs played on conga drums in Tompkins Square Park. I feel I would be missing out if I were to spend long weekends in clubs or tourna­ ment halls, minding the geometry of knights and bishops. Chess doesn't seem beautiful enough to waste my life on. My wariness of the maddening seductions of the game, my unwillingness to put in the hard work required

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to advance my playing skills, the fact that as I age it becomes more difficult to play as well as I might otherwise, and my lack of enthusiasm for the competitive furies keep me from joining Khan and others at tournaments like Foxwoods. Dynamic

equilibrium is a term chess writers use in speak­

ing of a game position in which the strengths and weaknesses inherent in each side's configuration of pieces are altogether equal, in a charged way, to those of the opposing forces. I'm trying to hit on a dynamic equilibrium between chess and life, between a love for the game and a craving for life. That's the current oscillation, at least: I think a lot about chess, but those thoughts relate less to the game itself than to the lives of chess players. And so these days I play casual games at local chess clubs and in homes with friends on the occasional weekend, as well as blitz games against anonymous opponents online, but I rarely compete in tournaments and I seldom pick up a chess book or analyze positions. I'm like a lot of mid­ dle-aged amateur players, that is. While the game was an all-consuming affection for me a few years back, it's now a side variation in the broader repertory of my life. Passion has a life course of its own. I've since shifted my focus to life more generally, to my life and those of others, to my life in relation to others, trying to delve deeper into the intricacies of the world, and I think that's the right move for me right now. Still, I miss the way the game once enthralled me, how it inspired my efforts in life. I miss the thrill of thinking through positions, figuring things out. At times, I find myself mourning for a mood that has been lost, for that gleaming world of knights and bishops-safe, pure, joyous, intense. I'm not sure I could get that back, even if I wanted to. "The true paradises are paradises we have lost," said Marcel Proust. Yet who can say what the next year or three will bring? "Fortunately," John Watson said recently, "chess players are so addicted that they always predict they're going to stay further away from the game than they do."4

MIRRORED AND T HEN PRO VED

Something intensely human shapes people's involvements with the game. "Chess is life," many have proposed.This is usually said in reference to the idea that the play of the pieces on the board reflects the play of forces and actors in the world, "mirrored and then proved," as Faulkner wrote. For me, the observation holds the most truth in terms of the human dramas that surround the game. Chess reflects how people long for meaning and pur­ pose in their lives,how we want to live intensely, craft something of beauty, test ourselves against others, and achieve a sense of mastery in our endeav-

2 ro

I

Endgame

ors. Chess speaks to the place of ritual and cultural forms in our lives, and how we seek rites, devices, or magical charms to keep anxiety at bay. It illustrates the ways that people act creatively and agentively, and how we try to rework the grounds of our lives through practical efforts that can be magical in effect. Chess play shows how we are indeed a genus of

ludens,

Homo

for children and adults delight i n play (as d o many other animals)

and welcome the chance to immerse themselves in an imaginative realm that transcends the everyday. It reveals the ways that such immersions can be both enriching and troubling; while they offer people alternative modes of being and consciousness, they also lead some to find more intensity and clarity in those ways of being than in their everyday lives and relationships, to such a degree that they end up venturing into ludic flights from life. Our attraction to the game shows how we want to share something of interest together, and to situate ourselves in a greater history of human effort. It reveals how many try to fashion themselves into better, wiser beings in the world. It attests to the social dimensions of people's lives, from the need to connect with others to the competitive impulses and status wrangling that emerge whenever people gather in a room. Chess practice points to the ways people are embedded in complex systems of thought and action, and the ways we draw from new technologies to enhance our efforts in the world, while those same technologies are forever shaping how we think, act, play, feel, perceive, and relate to others. Indeed, while there might be something quintessentially human in people's engagements with chess, we need to keep in mind that humankind is itself endlessly changing, and as the elements of humanness change, so do the energies and import of a play form like chess. What does the future hold for chess? What modalities of play, ritual, time, narrative, consciousness, and sociality will be involved? The game is ever-changing. It's becoming quicker, more intense, more demanding. Kids these days teethe on cyberchess, and the deftest of them lap up grandmas­ ter titles in their early teens. The databases are getting bulkier by the day. The pace of the game is speeding up. Ever-faster time controls tick away. Information flits from one country to another on an electronic impulse. It's a question how total, and how intense, the total intensification of the game can get, and how cyborgian the next generations of chess players will be. Computer technologies are radically altering the dynamics of the game. They are shaping how chess players configure the human, and they have made cybercheating and cheating paranoia scary realities. They are also pointing to a possible future in which chess becomes "played out " and so evolves into a postplay, postchess formation wherein chess is no

Endgame

I

2II

longer chess, at least as we moderns have known it. Neighborhood chess clubs are losing members to the convenience of online play, while Internet chess forums are making chess more virtual than ever and reconfiguring what it means to play with others. Chess has also become more global and diasporic, with the top talents scattered about the world. Still, chess remains just a blip on the collective consciousness of many societies. We're smack in an era of video games and television fluff, where the most sought-after activities are not necessarily deep thinks and patient strategizing. As David Letterman once quipped, "There just isn't enough televised chess." In North America, at least, chess will never be as popular as football or films or even yoga. But many are turning to chess, perhaps because it offers something that video games and the Internet do not. Hip­ hop artists rap on the game, and each year schools add its study to their curricula. With chess we play with form, abide in complexity, encounter others, craft a world. "Chess is fascinating," says Boris Salman, a software developer and chess enthusiast from Moscow who lives with his family in Seattle, Wash­ ington. "My wife doesn't understand. With chess, you're creating some­ thing, making something. It's a world."

2I2

I

A lesson in nonattachment, if ever there was one One Saturday, while watching two young boys play at a chess club, I noticed that one boy's queen was threatened by his opponent's bishop. The boy ignored the threat in making his next move. "Aren't you worried that he can take your queen?" I asked. "No," he said. "Why is that?" "Because if he takes it, then I won't have to worry about it anymore."

A PP E N D I X O N E

Note on Chess Annotation

The standard way to record chess moves is with algebraic notation. To the uninitiated this can read like an obscure code, but it's actually quite easy to follow once one gets the hang of it. Each square on the chessboard is identified with a unique pair of a letter and a number, such as q, d5, e7, and f5. The letters, from

a

to

h,

cor­

respond to the eight different vertical files found on the chessboard, as viewed from the White side of the board. The numbers, from I to 8, relate to the eight horizontal ranks (figure 6). For example, the c-file includes all the squares from ci to c8. The first rank includes all the squares from a I to hi, the second rank all the squares from a2 to h2, and so on. In figure 7, the q, d5, e7, and f5 squares are marked, while the a-file and the third rank are identified by arrows; To record a move, one writes a symbol for which piece moves: K for king, Q for queen, B for bishop, R for rook, and N for knight. Then one notes the square to which that piece has moved. For example, if at the start of a game the player with the White pieces brings his kingside knight to the f3 square, the move would be annotated as

I.

Nf3. If the player with the

Black pieces now moves his queenside knight to the c6 square, the annota­ tion of the game to this point would be

I.

Nf3 Nc6 (figure 8). In that case

Black's move is written after White's. But when only Black's move is noted, an ellipsis is used, for instance, I ... Nc6 (as in "Black played I ... Nc6 after White played I. Nf3 "). When a pawn moves, one does not write any symbol for it, just the

2 IJ

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

a FIGURE

b

c

d

6. The files (a-h) a n d ra n k s

e

(r-8)

g

h

of a chessboard

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

a FIGURE

b

c

d

e

g

7· The chessboard with the q, d 5 , e7, a n d £5 squares

m a rked and a rrows i n d i c a t i n g the a-file and the t h i rd r a n k

h

a FIGURE

a FIGURE

b

8.

c

d

e

g

h

g

h

The board after r. Nf3 Nc6

b

c

d

e

9· The board after r. q C5 2. Nf3 e6 3· d4

2r6

I

Note on Chess A n notation

square it moves to.Thus a game that begins with 1. q c5 means that White has moved his e-pawn to the e 4 square on his first move and Black has coun­ tered by moving his c-pawn to the c5 square.Now play might continue with 2. Nf3 e6 3· d 4 -resulting in the position shown in figure 9 · Black could now capture White's pawn o n d 4 with his own pawn o n c5. The annotation for that move in the current game would be 3 ... cxd 4. The

x

means "captures " or "takes." White could in turn capture Black's

pawn on d 4 by moving his knight from f3 to d 4, which would be annotated 4· Nxd 4. The record for this game so far would thus be, I. q C5

2. Nf3 e6 3· d 4 cxd 4 4· Nxd 4 Three further procedures round off the methods of notation. First, the annotation for castling on the kingside is it is

o-o-o.

o-o,

while for queenside castling

Second, if a move puts the opponent's king into check, the nota­

tion of the move is accompanied with a plus sign, such as 32. Bxf7 +. If the move mates the opponent's king, a number symbol accompanies the move, such as 27 ... Rc r #. Third, if two pieces of the same kind (knight, bishop, rook) can move to the same square, then the file from which the piece is moving is added to the annotation. For example, if Black had a knight on the b8 square and one on the f6 square, and moved the knight on b8 to d7, then the notation for that would be ... Nbd7 (because ... Nd7 alone would be unclear).

A PP E N D I X T W O

" Life is touch-move "

What, precisely, comes of chess play, outside of learning and mastering the game itself? What skills or sensibilities transfer from the realm of chess to life in general? It's difficult to say for sure, as any such transference is diffuse and inexact at best, and we're still in need of good, in-depth, longitudinal research that conclusively examines if and how chess informs people's ways of thinking, perceiving, and being more generally.The most trenchant data are to be found in the observations of veteran chess instruc­ tors. While these educators admittedly have a vested interest in talking up the benefits of chess among children, what they have to say is worth noting. As their teachers and coaches believe, chess offers a great deal to young people who are serious about learning the game. Chess helps children and adolescents to think logically, to evaluate information, to "plot," and to plan. "What you're teaching is systematic thinking," Jim Santorelli told me. Chess also helps a person to focus and concentrate better, to be "on task," to learn how to define a problem and address it. "In chess, in con­ trast to math," explained Jim's coworker Sunil Weeramantry, who teaches at Hunter Elementary School in Manhattan, among other places, "you have to create and phrase and define the problem first, and that comes from an understanding of the different elements in a position." The geom­ etry of the game helps young children develop their visual-spatial abilities, perceive relations in space, and think in visual terms. "If you're teaching the game of chess," Jim observed, "then what you're doing is introducing a

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visually intensive game to children long before their visual-spatial ability is fully developed, and in that sense it accelerates that maturation process." Chess teaches children to slow down, to take their time in thinking through angles, in a world that increasingly zips along at video-image speed. "Chess is very good for kids, " said Leonid Yudasin, who gives les­ sons in schools and chess clubs in Brooklyn and Manhattan, "because one of the problems with kids today is that they're very smart with computers, and with very fast video games, and because of that, kids see the world much faster, generally, but much less deep. It goes so fast! Look at all the modern television in America. You don't have time to think.... But chess gives people a good chance to be smarter, to think well and quietly-to meditate mentally." Rusudan Goletiani finds much the same with her students at the West­ chester Chess Academy in Rye, New York, where she and Mike Amori instruct children from both affluent and lower-income neighborhoods in the ways of tournament chess. They show them the etiquette of sitting down and shaking hands with opponents, and they teach them how to endure the stress of playing a tournament game, with the clock ticking and people watching. "We have so many different kinds of kids, " Rusa told me. Some kids have attention problems, some can't sit still. But that's why it's great to play chess, because it disciplines them so much. They are forced for ninety minutes to sit down.They try to go somewhere else, but we bring them back. We push them a little, but I think it helps them, and they do better in school because chess teaches you so many good things. You concentrate better, your attention gets better, your thinking gets better overall. You get discipline ... especially the kids that have trouble concentrating, especially those kids.When they come here it's not easy, but after eight weeks even we can see the progress. They slow down and they get better. It's hard work, but it pays off. Chess induces calm, patience, focus. The game adds to a person's sense of responsibility in life. It can build character and instill a sense of "honor, " to use Jonathan Rowson's term. "Life is touch-move " is the motto of the Westchester Chess Academy, printed on T-shirts and given out to members. "Isn't that a cool motto?" Mike Amori asked me. "Basically, if you ask me in a nutshell, life is touch­ move." ( If you touch a piece, you have to follow through with that action and move it. You can't take it back. So take care in how you act in chess, and in life.) Mike continued, And there is the fact that most of the kids around here have enough money where there aren't money issues at home, there's not a poverty issue, so that the level of resistance in their lives-they're overloaded, don't get me wrong,

"Life is touch-move "

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they're working their tails off-but when they hit a wall with something, there's a lot of other choices and they can kind of go around it.And you've found that when you stick it out and play chess, especially tournament chess, those kinds of lessons of teaching yourself to be resilient and living by the consequences of your actions, in chess it comes to you in a hurry and it's ruthless. I mean, as a chess player, when you make a mistake, you are going to get punished for it. And there is basically no excuse ... And I like the fact that there's a certain coldness to that-and I consider myself to be a warm person, especially with kids-but I like the fact that they get exposed to this idea that it's your work. You know, no one is interfering with your work here, but it's touch-move. And for whatever reason, you didn't find the right move here and you end up losing the game because. They see the connection. It is a way for a kid to stand up, work hard, and see the results of that work in black and white, right in front of them.And almost every life lesson a parent wants to throw at their kid, the game is going to throw them the same ones.

The benefits of an education in chess thinking are palpably evident at Intermediate School 3 1 8, a junior high school in Brooklyn. That's where Elizabeth Vicary teaches chess to children ages eleven to fifteen years old, in sixth to eighth grade.I S 3 1 8 is in the federal Title I program, which pro­ vides money for schools that have many students from low-income fami­ lies. The student poverty rate is more than 70 percent, and more than 90 percent of the students are of Latino, black, or Asian/Pacific descent. The school stands one block from the elevated M line in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, across the street from a school-run public garden. Security personnel stand watch by the building's entrance. Chess trophies line the main hallway of the school's first floor, next to victory banners and posters of enlarged newspaper articles about its chess teams. These icons celebrate the chess program's successes and the school's pride in that program. "It reaches kids that are not always easy to reach at times," says Elizabeth.The program provides "a community of learning." Elizabeth runs her classes much the way any of the other classes taught in the building are run, except that her subject is not math or English, but chess. The curriculum includes lessons on chess openings, middlegame strategy, and endgame knowledge; reviews of homework assigned on tacti­ cal puzzles; training games; and sessions of Chess Jeopardy. The classes take place in room 319, a sunlit classroom that houses sixteen two-person desks with chessboards fastened to their surfaces; four computers for stu­ dent use; a bookcase library of chess books; a file box holding all of the stu­ dents' work; digital chess clocks (often suspected of being explosive devices by airport security personnel); drawings of all the chess world champions (this pantheon replaced a lineup of the U.S.presidents posted by a previous

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instructor); a computer printout, updated weekly, of the I S 318 top-rated players; and a multitude of posters remarking on select chess matters, from explanations of chess terms ("Initiative, "

"Zugzwang" )

to quotations ("I

failed to make the chess team because of my height " -Woody Allen). A chess club convenes at the end of each school day, with twenty-plus stu­ dents playing rated games and blitz tournaments. Most of Elizabeth's students are boys.Usually only one or two girls are in a class, suggesting that most of the school's girls gravitate toward other sub­ jects. Among the chess students each year are a number of well-informed, tournament-seasoned players. Many of the students in the advanced class put in an average of twenty hours a week on chess. Some work twenty-five hours a week on their game. They study chess during their lunch periods and at home in the evenings and on weekends. Their efforts have been paying off, individually and collectively, with the school's teams notching impressive victories in national championships over the past ten years. Coached by Elizabeth and John Galvin, a chess-playing assistant principal and the school's chess coordinator, the teams have defeated some of the more prestigious chess teams in the country, including Manhattan's Hunter Elementary School and Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School. The gains of the school's chess program go far beyond the trophies and accolades.Elizabeth finds that chess demonstrates to her students the value of thinking. "The idea that thinking gets you something is not obvious to all kids, " especially children in underprivileged communities, who tend to get less attention paid to them in early childhood. "If you're in a class of thirty and you do a really good job on your English paper, what are the chances that the teacher even notices? Not much. With chess, the kids want to win, because everyone wants to win. You have to think, and if you make a mistake, you lose. And so there is just such an obvious, immediate emo­ tional reward to thinking, and I think that's absent in almost every other way in those kids' lives." Chess boosts the confidence of many students, especially those who are not good readers or might not have done well in other subjects but come to excel at the chessboard."You have to be a good reader to be good at school, " says Elizabeth. "If you're not a good reader, you're bad at everything. But with chess you don't have to read at all. And so it's especially useful for the academic self-confidence of E SL kids, and kids who for whatever reason aren't superb readers in junior high school­ they haven't been read to, they don't like reading, there aren't books in the house, whatever it is." Elizabeth adds, And for a lot of the kids, they've never been smart before. And they're like, "Wow.That's awesome! " . . . It's about confidence, and it's about making aca-

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demia o r making intellectualism seem relevant. I also think it's very nice that kids learn early on that you can be friends around an intellectual interest.... For some kids it's a social network, it's good socially. Junior high school is a rough place socially, and it's very emotional. Kids are very emotional at that age. And if you don't have friends it 's really, really hard, especially for girls­ but for everybody, I'm sure. And because we go on so many trips, and because they see so much of each other at my school, and because chess meets so often, for a lot of them it provides a social environment where they're accepted. As Elizabeth understands it, there's a window of opportunity for chil­ dren, a developmental interval in which they can "develop the ability to think through very difficult problems, or to think very deeply or to think in abstract ways-to think quickly and imaginatively or diffusely or in different ways. " While students in junior high schools are at "the very end " of that window, the public school system doesn't address the development of those cognitive skills well. "This isn't a general smashing of the school system," Elizabeth says. "I believe in the public school system, which is why I work here.But there's some things that are just not possible in a class of thirty kids. And chess does present them with problems of a difficulty they don't get elsewhere." The chess program is helping its students to gain cultural and intellectual capital by giving them social and cognitive skills that can aid them appreciably once they step into other educational settings and, beyond that, into any life and work environments that come their way. Serious chess play offers "equipment for living," much the way great imaginative writing does (as literary theorist Kenneth Burke argued in the 19 40s).1 The game provides tools for thinking, sense-making, relating. A double education is in force: while children are learning how to play the game, they're also gathering how to carry on in life. This is especially the case when their chess instructors try, through their pedagogy, to instanti­ ate a "transfer " of skills acquired through chess to domains of life more generally. If this happens, children can learn about the consequences of actions in the world, the value of hard work and personal responsibility, and the benefits of patient thought. They learn how to deal better with conflict and defeat, and they can come to appreciate better the existential presence and demands of the other. The tutelage can be at once cognitive, perceptual, and moral in scope. And the fact that chess is a game makes the inculcation of these lessons go relatively smoothly and playfully. Chess, someone realized years ago, is a "gymnasium of the mind."2 Chess can facilitate an intuitive, gut-based understanding by experi­ ence. It can instill a measure of

phronesis,

to draw on a word that Jesse

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Kraai, an American grandmaster in his mid-thirties, likes to use in speak­ ing of the methods of decision-making in chess and in life. Jesse grew up in New Mexico and started playing chess seriously "late, " when he was in the seventh grade. He played through high school, col­ lege, and graduate school, and became an increasingly strong player during those years, without coaches showing him the way. "Jesse has dominated the New Mexico chess scene for some time now, " another New Mexican player tells me. In 2001, he received

a

doctorate in philosophy from the

University of Heidelberg. He taught philosophy at St. John's College in Santa Fe for several years, but then left the academic world in 2002. He has devoted much of his time and energy to chess since. In 2007 he achieved the title of grandmaster, the first American-born player to do so in a decade. Jesse currently lives in California, with few expenses chewing into his modest income as a chess player and instructor. One reason he left aca­ demia to focus on chess full-time is that he finds that the chess world offers more objective criteria for evaluating a person's performance. He explains, "Perhaps the biggest thing is that my experience with chess, even though it's not economically viable, is ... something in which one's performance is rather objectively gauged, and it's not based on factors that seem super­ fluous, as might be found, say, in the academic world, such as your reputa­ tion, or how you dress, or who you know.... To my mind, that's the key advantage that chess has over other areas. There isn't any room for fooling oneself." No one can bullshit for long at the chessboard. Jesse's training as a philosopher informs his approach to chess and how he thinks about the game. He speaks in clear and measured terms about the conceptual and cognitive features of the game. He has discerned that chess shares many of the same "mathetic " elements, the same quantitative ways of thinking, that music and math embody, and he has been trying to get a conceptual handle on those shared elements, despite the fact that "it's very hard to talk about what that mathetic is." Jesse works hard outside the tournament hall, carefully dissecting the games he has played in order to examine the motivations and thought processes that inform how he makes decisions while at the board.That's where, for him, the concept of

phro nesis comes into play. Phronesis is an ancient

Greek word, employed by Aristotle, among

other Greek thinkers.It's usually translated into English as "practical wis­ dom " or "prudence." But Jesse draws from the writings of Thucydides, a Greek historian who lived in the fifth century

B.c.,

in using the word in

ways that go far beyond what we normally think about as "prudence."

Phronesis

is a knowledge that is derived from experiences in various situ-

" L i fe is touch-move "

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2 23

ations. In particular, it's an awareness of the factors that shape how deci­ sions are made. "Phronesis is a term that Thucydides uses in his account of the Peloponnesian War," Jesse explains to me. To his mind, it's this word that means a kind of understanding by experience, an experience which isn't necessarily intellectual, but which is more gut-based, or something in your breast.In particular, in chess, and I think in life, you can talk about certain situations where someone who has reflected on how he acts in certain situations , and has reflected on what his gut reaction is , and where he made mistakes, and if he's becoming sensitive to where the mistakes hap­ pen, then that's a kind of phro nesis. To my mind, you can achieve that through chess, and you can think about that in life; But really, I think, there's a lot of players who don't accomplish that, because they don't go over their games. I don't think it's just playing chess.You have to have some experience in thinking about how you come to decisions. Here again, experience is what you do with what happens to you. Much the same holds for life. Many make decisions on the fly, without carefully considering their consequences, and once those decisions are made, those same people tend not to examine the thought processes that went into them. But if a person does in fact just that, if she reflects patiently and critically on how her thoughts proceed, then in time a certain experience­ based practical wisdom can emerge-a phronetic sensibility, if you will. Chess offers a lucid example of this process. . "There's an analogy you might find helpful," Jesse says: You can think of the person's mind as like a well, and you can drop something into this well. Some people's minds , in fact most people's minds, whatever you toss into the well, it doesn't actually have much time before it hits the bottom, because the reaction is so fast, and the judgment is formed before this thing has time to drop to the bottom and gather some thoughts about it. One thing that chess definitely does is create a deeper well, where if you are to become better, you have to realize that you can't form a fast judgment about the position, that you have to. let the stone drop, and reflect on that stone from various perspectives before you start establishing quick judgments about what's going on. Everyday life is more unpredictable and variable than a chess game, as Jesse knows, but practical wisdom is deeply in demand there as well. "You know," he says, "I would like to ascribe decisions I've made in life to chess, but to do that in some kind of clear-cut way is difficult. But there's certain times where I see people around me making very strange decisions, which have a lot to do with not being able to foresee the consequences of their actions and the interrelatedness of their decisions." Life is touch-move.

Notes

ON E. BLITZKRIEG BOP

Epigraph: Che Guevara, speaking with Ludek Pachman , a Czech-German grand­ master, Cuba, 1964. It is related in Pachman 's Checkmate in Prague: The Memoirs of a Grandmaster (Macmillan , 197 s ) , pp.67-68. r . Charlie McCormick, "Chess Nuts, " Narrative Reflections, January 30, 2009, http://narrativereflections/blogspot.com/zoo9/o1 /chess-nuts.html. 2. Fischer quoted in Frank Brady, Bobby Fischer: Profile of a Prodigy (Dover, 1989) , p. rs. 3 · Pierre Bourdieu's thoughts on the concept of illusio can be found in a number of writings, most notably Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action (Stanford University Press, 1998) ; and Pascalian Meditations (Stanford University Press, zooo). For uses of the concept of illusio by anthropologists, see Ghassan Hage, '"Comes a Time We Are All Enthusiasm': Understanding Palestinian Suicide Bombers in Times of Exighophobia, " Public Culture rs (2003) : 6s-89, and Michael Jackson , Existential A n thropology (Berghahn Books, zoos). 4 · Bourdieu, Pascalian M editations, p.2 2 2 . S · Stuart Rachels, "The Reviled Art, " i n Philosophy Looks at Chess, edited by Benjamin Hale (Open Court, zoo8) , p. 1 27. 6. Michel Foucault, Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault, edited by Luther Martin, Huck Gutman , and Patrick Hutton ( University of Mas­ sachusetts Press, 198 8 ) , p. r 8. 7· GZA quoted in "Wu Tang Clan-GZ A's Chess Obsession, " contactmusic .com, January I S , 200 8 , WWW.COntactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/gzas% zochess % zoobsession_1os63 24. 8. GZA quoted in Dylan Loeb McClain , "Where Hip-Hop, Martial Arts and Chess Meet, " New York Times, October 2 1 , 2007. 9· Erving Coffman , Encounte rs: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction 22S

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Notes to Pages 1 3-22

( Bobbs-Merrill Educational Publishing, 196 1 ) , p. r 8. Several writings on play inform my reflections on the play dimensions of chess, most notably Johan Huiz­ inga, Homo ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture ( Beacon Press, 1950 [orig. 193 8]) ; Hans-G eorg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 2nd rev. ed. (Crossroad, 1991 ) ; Bradd Shore , Culture in Mind: Cognitio n, Culture, and the Problem of Meaning (Oxford University Press, 1996 ) ; Brian Sutton-Smith, The A m b iguity of Play ( Harvard University Press, 1997) ; Thomas Henricks, Play Reconsidered: Sociological Perspectives o n Human Expression ( University of Illinois Press, 2006 ) ; and Stuart Brown, Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul (Avery, 2009). ro. Richard Schechner, The Future of R itual ( Routledge, 1993) , p.42. r r. The phrase socialized trance comes from Erving Goffman, who notes, "Talk creates for the participant a world and a reality that has other participants in it.Joint spontaneous involvement is a unio mystico, a socialized trance " ( Erving Goffman, Interaction Ritual [ Doubleday, 1967], p. u 3).Huizinga, Homo ludens, pp.2-3. 1 2. Huizinga, Homo ludens, p. 37· 1 3 · Henricks, Play Reconsidered, p. r r. 1 4. Gada mer, Truth and Method, pp. ro5-6. 15. W.H. Auden, "Poetry as a Game of Knowledge , " in The Modern Tradi­ tio n: Backgrounds of Modern Literature, edited by Richard Ellmann and Charles Feidelson (Oxford University Press, 1965) , p. 209. r 6. Sherry Ortner, Life and Death o n Mt. Everest: Sherpas and Himalayan Mountaineering ( Princeton University Press, 1999) , p. 23. 1 7. Pertti Saariluoma, Chess Players " Thinking: A Cognitive Psychological Approach ( Routledge, 1995) , pp. 1 7 8-89. r 8. Gadamer, Truth and Method, p. ro6. 19. Huizinga, Homo ludens, p. ro. Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play, pp. 8 5-86. Irina Krush quoted in Paul Hoffman, King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the Wo rld 's Most Dangerous Game ( Hyperion, 2007 ) , p. 205. 20. Simone Wei! , G ra vity and Grace ( University of Nebraska Press, 1997 ) , p . 1 70. 2r. Reuben Fine , The Psychology of the Chess Player (Dover, 195 6 ) , p. 1 5 . 22. Jerome Bruner, " Nature and Uses o f Immaturity, " i n Play: Its Role in Development and Evolutio n, edited b y Jerome Bruner, Alison Jolly, and Kathy Silva ( Basic Books, 197 6 ) , p. 3 1 .Schechner, The Future of Ritual, p.4 2. 23 . Mikhail Tal, as related by G enna Sosonko, R ussian Silhouettes ( New in Chess, 2oo r ) , p. 21. 24. Mikhail Botvinnik, in an interview with Genna Sosonko, New in Chess ( 198 8 , no. 5): r 8. 25. Thierry Wendling, Ethnologie des joueurs d 'echecs ( Presses Universitaires de France , 2002) , p. 1 75. Author's translation of the original French. 26. Loic Wacquant, Body and Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer (Oxford University Press, 2oo6 ) , p.97· 27. T.S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton, " The Four Quartets. 28. Kelly Atkins, www.chessville.com.The comment on "blitz and rapid chess " is from James Stripes, Chess Skills, December 1 2, 200 8 , http://chessskill.blogspot .com/2oo8/r 2/utter-chaos.html.

Notes to Pages 23-42

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29. Dan Hei sman, "Understanding Improvement and Elements of Chess Strength," Novice Nook, 200 I , www.chesscafe.com/text/heismano2.pdf.

TWO. NOTES ON A SWIN DLE

Epigraph: Paolo Maurensig, The Luneburg Variations, translated by Jon Rothschild (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, I 997) , pp. 8o-8 1. 1. Jay Bonin quoted by Don Van Natta Jr., "Pawn of a Sort, to a Life Spent in Strategizing; Pinnacle of Grandmaster Eludes Career Chess Player," New Yo rk Times, October 6, I99 5 · 2 . See Roger Caillois, Man, Play, a n d Animals (The Free Press, I 9 6 I ). 3 · Friedrich Nietzsche quoted in Mihai Spariosu, Dio nysus Reborn: Play and the Aesthetic Dimension in Modern Philosophical and Scientific Discourse (Cor­ nell University Press , I 9 8 9 ) , p. 47· From Nietzsche's Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks, translated by M.Cowen. 4· Alexander Alekhine, preface to Frederic Lazard, Mes p roblemes et etudes

d 'echecs ( Librairie de "Ia Strategie," I 9 29). 5· My thinking here is informed by the writings of French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas (most notably his book Totality and Infinity: A n Essay o n

Exterio rity [Springer, I 9 8o]) , as well a s C .Jason Throop's discussion o f Levinas's ideas in his book Suffering and Sentiment: Explo ring the Vicissitudes of Pain and Experience in Yap ( University o f California Press , 20IO). 6. Alfred Schutz, "Making Music Together: A Study in Social Relationship, "

Collected Papers, vol. 2: Studies in Social Theo ry, edited by Arvid Brodersen (Martinus Nijhoff, I964) , pp. I 5 9-78. 7· Alfred Schutz, Collected Papers, vol. I: The Problem in Social Reality, edited by Maurice Natanson (Martinus Nijhoff, I 9 62) , p. 203. 8. Thierry Wendling, Ethnologie des joueurs d 'echecs ( Presses Universitaires de France, 2002). 9 · David Shenk, The Immo rtal Game ( Doubleday, 2006 ) , p.69. IO. "Beautiful problems" is a phrase of Marcel Duchamp's. I 1. George Steiner, Fields of Fo rce ( Viking, I974). Internet sources attribute the phrase "every move played" to Bruce A. Moon. I 2. See especially Bateson's book Steps to an Ecology of Mind ( Ballantine, I 9 72). Bateson's idea of "a dance of interfaces " is noted in Noel Charlton, Under­ standing Grego ry Bateson: Mind, Beauty, and the Sacred Earth (SUNY Press, 200 8 ) , p. 38. I 3 . Aleksander Wojtkiewicz quoted in Paul Hoffman, King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World 's Most Dange rous Game ( Hyperion, 2007) , p. I 89. 1 4 · Marcel Duchamp, from a I 9 6 I interview quoted in David Hooper and Ken­ neth Whyld, The Oxford Companion to Chess, 211d ed. ( Oxford University Press, I992), p. 1 1 6. I 5 . Reuben Fine, The Psychology of the Chess Player ( D over, I 9 6 7 ) , p. 48. I 6. Catherine Bell, R itual: Perspectives and Dimensions (Oxford University Press, 1 9 9 7 ) , p. I 6 I . Fischer quoted in Frank Brady, Bobby Fischer: Profile of a Prodigy ( D over, I989), p. 258.Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess ( Blooms­ bury USA, 2007).

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Notes to Pages 43-60

1 7. Claude Levi-Strauss, The Savage Mind, translated by John Weightman ( Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1 9 6 6 ) , p. 23. Here I am drawing directly from comments that Michael Jackson makes in his book Minima Eth nographica: Intersubjectivity and the A nth ropological Project ( University of Chicago Press, 1 9 9 8 ) , p. 3 1. r 8. My thinking and language here echo those of Tilottama Rajan, who notes, "magic is the term Sartre uses to describe emotion as a short-circuit in which the subject, by a form of simulation, reconstitutes a difficult world on its own terms"; Deconstruction and the Remainde rs of Phenomenology ( Stanford University Press, 2000) , p. 278. 19. Jackson, Minima Ethn ographica, p. 3 0. 20. Michael Jackson, Existential A nthropology ( Berghahn Books, 2008) , p. ro6. 2 1. D. W. Winnicott, Playing and Reality ( Routledge, 197 1 ) , p. 65. 22. Leonid Yudasin, Tisyacheletniii miph shahmat (Moscow, 2004). 23. Leonid Yudasin quoted in Michael Jeffreys, "Yudasin, Becerra Tie at LA International," Chess Life (January 2004) : 19. 2 4. Tony Bilton et al. , Introductory Sociology, 3rd ed. ( Palgrave Macmillan, 1996), p. 663. 25. Benita Luckmann, "The Small Life Worlds of Modern Man," Social Research 4 ( 1970) : 5 8
T H R E E . PSYC H - O U T

Epigraph: Binet quoted in Maurice Ashley, Chess for Success (Random House, 200 5 ) , p. 65. r . David Pillemer, Momentous Events, Vivid Memo ries ( Harvard University Press, 1 9 9 8 ) , p. 3 ·

2 . Friedrich Nietzsche, A Genealogy o f Morals ( Random House, 1967 [orig. 1 8 87)), p. 6r. 3· Abram Khasin quoted in Genna Sosonko, "If It's Necessary," New in Chess (2008, no. 3 ) : 74 · 4· Petar Trifunovic quoted by Andy Soltis in an article in Chess Life (July 2007) : 10. Frederick Jameson, Postmodernism; or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Duke University Press, 1992) , p. ro. 5 · In speaking of these different kinds of players, Hoffmann was referring to terms established by Russian grandmaster Yuri Averbakh. Averbakh spoke of these categories at a lecture at the Marshall Chess Club in June 2oo8; see Joseph Calisi, "Averbakh Speaks at the Marshall," USCF.org, June 5, 200 8 , http: //main . uschess.org/content/view/848 r I46 3/. 6. Asa Hoffmann, Chess Gladiator ( International Chess Enterprises, 1996). 7· The titles of grandmaster, international master, and FIDE master are awarded by the world chess organization FIDE , based on ratings achieved and favorable results in tournaments. 8. Lev Alburt quoted by John Donaldson, Mechanics ' Institute Chess Room Newsletter 4 4 8 (June 10, 2009) , w ww.chessclub.org/News.php ?n=448. Jennifer

Notes to Pages 6o-76

229

Shahade, Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport ( Siles Press, 20o5) , p.65. 9· David Bronstein and Georgii Smolyan attribute the phrase arith metic repu­

tation to Mikhail Tal in their book Chess in the Eighties ( Pergamon Press, 1982), p.9· ro. Elizabeth Vicary, "King's Gambit, Writing, Polgar, Rating Snobbery, Row­ son, Fear, " September r 6 , 2007, http://lizzyknowsall.blogspot.comhoo7/o9/kings -gambit-writing-polgar-rating.html. I r. Indeed, in light of this attitude, as I write this book I find myself anticipat­ ing at least some of its readers saying something like, "This guy's rated only 2000, on a good day.What does he know about chess? " It will happen. 1 2. Jonathan Rowson quoted in Aaron Summerscale and Claire Summerscale, Interview with a G randmaster ( Everyman, 2001 ) , p.93 · 1 3 . Jonathan Rowson, The Seven Deadly Chess Sins (Gambit Publications, 2000). 1 4. Jonathan Rowson, Chess fo r Zebras: Thinking D iffe ren tly about Black and White ( Gambit Publications, 2005). 1 5 . Aldous Huxley, Texts and Pretexts (Chatto & Windus, 1949 [orig. 193 2] ) , p. 5 · r 6. Sergey Makarichev quoted i n Garry Kasparov, Garry Kasparov o n My G reat Predecessors, part IV: Fischer ( Everyman Chess, 200 5 ) , p.404. 1 7. Svetozar Gligoric , I Play against Pieces ( Batsford, 2002) ; Fischer quoted in Frank Brady, Bobby Fischer: Profile of a Prodigy ( D over, 1989) , p.2 27. r 8. Mikhail Tal, The Life and Games of M ikhail Tal ( Everyman, 1997 ) , p. 1 23. 19. Alexander Kotov quoted in Dmitry Plisetsky and Sergey Voronkov, Rus­ sians versus Fischer ( Everyman Chess, 2005) , pp. 2 28-29. 20. Julian Hodgson's comments are quoted in Summerscale and Summerscale,

Interview with a G randmaster, p.93 · 2 1 . Viswanathan Anand, "Chess Is Like Acting, " chessbase.com, October r , 200 8 , English translation of an interview in Der Spiegel, "Schach ist Schauspiele­ rei , " spiegelonline.com, September 29, 2008. 22. Kevin Groark, "Social Opacity and the D ynamics of Empathic In-Sight among the Tzotzil Maya of Chiapas, Mexico, " Ethos 36 (20o8) : 4 27-48. My dis­ cussion of empathy in chess is informed by the special issue of Ethos, "Whatever Happened to Empathy ? " edited by Douglass Hollan and C. Jason Throop, 3 6 , no.4 (2008). 23. Mark Taimanov quoted in Kasparov, Garry Kasparov o n My G reat Prede­ cessors, part IV: Fischer, p. 363. 24. Elie Agur, Fischer: His Approach to Chess ( Everyman Chess, 1992) , p.2 4 1 . Bobby Fischer, Chess Life (October 1963) : 2 3 8.Cited i n Agur, Fischer, p .27 1. 25. Roger Frie, Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity in Modern Philosophy and Psychoanalysis ( Rowman and Littlefield, 1997) , p. 208. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, In Praise of Philosophy and Other Essays ( Northwestern University Press, 1964) , p. 82. 26. Mikhail Botvinnik, Botvinnik: 100 Selected Papers ( Dover, 196o) , p. 267. 27. Rubinstein quoted in John Donaldson and Nikolay Minev, A k iba Rubin­ stein: The Later Years ( International Chess Enterprises, 1995) , p.9·

23 0

I

Notes to Pages 76-92

28. Bertrand Russell, "The Study of Mathematics," in Mysticism and Logic,

and Other Essays ( Longmans, Green, 1 9 1 8 ) , p. 47· 29. David Bronstein quoted in Anthony Saidy, "Bronstein: I Played Chess for My Dad's Jailers," Chess Life ( December 2007) : 26.Vasily Smyslov, Smyslov 's 125 Selected Games (Cadogan Chess, 1 9 8 3 ) , p. 3 · 30. Plato, Symposium, quoted in Annie Dillard, The Writing Life ( Harper Peren­ nial, 1990), p. 23. 3 1. Marcel Duchamp quoted in Anne d' Harnoncourt, "Introduction," Marcel Duchamp ( Prestel, 1989), p. 39· 3 2. Emanuel Lasker, Lasker's Manual of Chess ( D over, 1960 [orig. 1 9 3 2]), p.41. 33· Claude Levi-Strauss, The Savage Mind ( University of Chicago Press, 19 62) , p. 3 2· Floyd Patterson quoted i n Gay Talese, "The Loser," The Gay Talese Reader ( Walker, 200 3 ) , p.67.Robert Hubner quoted in Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, The Day Kasparov Quit and Other Chess Interviews ( New in Chess, 200 6 ) , p. uo. J.C. H allman notes that he recalls a chess writer who makes the point about the ritual of resigning being virtually unique to chess, in his book The Chess A rtist: Genius, Obsession , and the Wo rld 's Oldest Game (Thomas Dunne Books, 20 03) , p. 4·

FOU R . S V E SH N I KOV I N T R I G U E S

Epigraph: Fischer quoted in Andrew Soltis, Bobby Fischer Rediscovered (Batsford, 2003) , p. I I . r . The Sveshnikov Sicilian, also known as the Chelyabinsk Variation in Russia and Europe, usually arises on the board after the opening moves r. q c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3 · d4 cxd 4 4· Nxd 4 Nf6 5· Nc3 e5. In the diagrammed position, White has responded with the main continuation, 6. Ndb5. 2. Related by Genna Sosonko in Garry Kasparov, Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, part r: Revolution in the 70s ( Everyman Chess, 2007) , p. 3 6 4. 3 · Related by Evgeny Sveshnikov, The Sicilian Pelikan (Collier Books, 1 9 8 9 ) , pp. I5-I6. 4· Gennadi Timoshchenko quoted in Kasparov, Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, part r : Revolution in the 7os, p. 4 4 · 5 · Jan Timman, "Revolution i n the 7os," N e w in Chess (2007, no. 4) : 9 5 · Kas­ parov, Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, part 1 : Revolution in the 70s, p. 79· Kasparov calls the defense the Chelyabinsk Variation. 6. Yuri Yakovich, The Complete Sveshnikov (Gambit Publications, 2002) , p.241. 7· See , for instance, Edwin Hutchins, Cognition in the Wild (MIT Press, 1 9 9 5 ) ; Edwin Hutchins and Tove Klausen, "Distributed Cognition in a n Airline Cock­ pit," in Y. Engestrom and D. Middleton, eds., Cognition and Commu nication at Wo rk (Cambridge University Press, 1996 ) , pp.1 5-3 4; and Ronald Giere and Barton Moffatt, "Distributed Cognition: Where the Cognitive and the Social Merge," Social Studies of Science 3 3 (2003 ) : 1 -ro. 8. Virginia Woolf, The Letters of Virginia Wo olf, vol. r: r888-r9 I 2 , edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann ( Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1 9 7 5 ) , p. 3 5 6. 9· Genna Sosonko, The Reliable Past ( New in Chess, 200 3 ) , p.7 1.Ari Ziegler's explanation is found in the introduction to his Chessbase DV D, Fritz Trainer Open­

ing: The French Defence.

Notes to Pages 9 3-n 8

23 r

I O. Fischer's rel)larks are related by Larry Evans, Chess Catechism ( Simon and Schuster, 1 9 70) , p.9 1 . I I. Pal Benko and Jeremy Silman, Pal Benko: M y Life, Games, and Composi­

tio ns ( Siles Press, 2004) , p.2 3 3. 1 2. Paul Rabinow, Essays on the A nthropology of Reason ( Princeton Univer­ sity Press, 1 9 9 6 ) , p. I } . I } . Igor Zaitsev quoted i n Kasparov, Garry Kasparov o n Modern Chess, part I : Revolution in the 7os, p.3 5 8.Eugene Znosko-Borovsky, The Middle Game in Chess ( Kirk, 2008) , p.vii. I 4. Mark Dvoretsky quoted in Kasparov, Garry Kasparov o n Modern Chess, part I: Revolution in the 70s, p. 379·

F I V E . S O N OF S O R R O W

Epigraph: H .G . Wells, Certain Personal Matters (Cornell University Press, 2009) , p. I 40. r . The club, now the Bob Peretz Chess Club, has since moved on to a location

in White Plains, New York. 2. John Nunn, Graham Burgess, John Emms, and Joe Gallager, Nu n n 's Chess

Openings (Gambit, Everyman, 1999), p.9 1 . 3 · Carsten Hansen, Checkpoint column, chesscafe.com, January 2 , 2008. 4 · Edward Casey, Imagining: A Phenomenological Study ( Indiana University Press, 20oo) , p. 7 3 · Brian Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play ( Harvard Univer­ sity Press, I 9 9 7 ) , p. 6o.Oliver Sacks, An A n thropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxi­ cal Tales ( Knopf, 1 9 9 5 ) , p. 5 7· Maurice Merleau- Ponty, The Phenomenology of Perception ( Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1 962) , p. x. 5 · Charles Goodwin, " Professional Vision, " American A nthropologist 96 ( I994) : 6o6-33. 6. Oliver Sacks , Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain ( Vintage, 200 8 ) , PP· so-- s r .

7· Frank Brady, Bobby Fischer: Profile of a Prodigy ( D over, 1 9 8 9 ) , p. I 64. 8. John Nunn, The Benoni fo r the Tournament Player ( Batsford, I 9 8 2 ) , p.v. 9· Mikhail Botvinnik quoted in "Exeter Chess Club: Trawled from the ' Net, " www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/Trawl/Botvinnik.html.. IO. The term variation p rocessing comes from Jonathan Tisdall, Improve You r Chess N o w (Cadogan Chess, I 9 9 7) , p .I 4. I I. Jerome Bruner, Actual Minds, Possible Worlds (Cambridge University Press, I 9 8 6 ) , p.26. I 2. " Vladimir K ramnik : 'I Have Lent Anand the Crown,"' chessbase.com, November 2, 2007. I}. Ruslan Kashtanov quoted in a 2007 interview with Misha Savinov, Misha

Interviews . . . , www.chesscafe.com/text/misha46.pdf. I 4. Anatoly Karpov quoted in an interview with Dagobert Kohlmeyer on chessbase.com, January I 7, 2004. I S . The information on Csikszentmihalyi's internment in the prison camp comes from two sources: a 2003 entry on him in the UXL E ncyclopedia of Wo rld

232

I

Notes to Pages I I 8-r 3 6

Biography, and an article by Richard Flaste in the New Yo rk Times titled "The Power of Concentration," October 8, 19 89. 1 6. Csikszentmihalyi quoted in John Geirland, "Go with the flow," Wired 4, no.9 (September 199 6 ) : 1 6o--6 r. 1 7. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi , Flo w: The Psychology of Optimal Experience ( H arper and Row, 199 1 ) , p. 49 · 1 8. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Beyond Boredom and A nxiety: Experiencing

Flow in Wo rk and Play (Jossey-Bass, 1 9 7 5 ) , pp.65, 67. 1 9. Csikszentmihalyi, Beyond Boredom and A nxiety, p. 68. 2 0. See, for instance, H.].R. Murray, A Histo ry of Chess ( Benjamin Press, 1 9 1 3 ) , p. 1 5 9 · 2 1 . "Workshop of meaning-making" is from Bradd Shore, "Spiritual Work, Memory Work: Revival and Recollection at Salem Camp Meeting," Ethos 3 6 (wo 8 ) : 98-1 19 at 98. For "collaborative imagining," see Keith Murphy, "Collab­ orative Imagining: The Interactive Use of Gestures, Talk, and Graphic Representa­ tion in Architectural Practice," Semiotica 1 5 6 ( 2 005) : I I 3-45 · 2 2. Bruce Kapferer, The Feast of the Sorcerer: Practices of Consciousness and Po wer ( University of Chicago Press, 1997), pp. 9 4 , 1 8 3. On "spirit loss," see, for instance, Robert Desjarlais, Body and Emotio n: The Aesthetics of Illness and Healing in the Nepal Himalayas ( University o f Pennsylvania Press, 1992).

S I X . A M B I VA L E N C E

Epigraph: Vladimir Nabokov, The Defense ( New Y ork: Vintage, 1990) , p. 1 62. r. See, for instance, Victor Turner, The R itual Process (Aldine Press, 1969) , where Turner favorably uses the phrase irrefragable genuineness of mutuality, which comes from Marrin Buber. 2. Alessandro Fallasi , Time Out of Time: Essays on the Festival ( University of New Mexico Press, 1967). Dorothy Noyes, "Group," Journal of American Folk­ lore 1 08 ( 1 9 9 5 ) : 4 49-7 8. 3· Zviad Izoria, in an interview with Misha Savinov, Misha Interviews . . , chesscafe.com, March 1 0, 2 006. 4· Vadim Milov quoted in Elizabeth Vicary, "Milov, Shulman Win Windy City," Chess Life (August 2 007) : 3 4· David Bronstein quoted in Anthony Saidy, "Bron­ stein: I Played Chess for My Dad's Jailers," Chess Life (December 2 007) : 26. .

5· Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra ( Penguin, 1 9 6 1 ) , p.9 1 . 6 . C.J.S. Purdy, C . ]. S. Purdy 's Fine Art of Chess A n n o tation and Other Thoughts, vol. 3 , edited by Ralph Tykodi (Thinkers' Press, 2 002) , p. 193. 7· Jonathan Levitt and David Friedgood, Secrets of Spectacular Chess ( Henry Holt, 1 9 9 5 ) , p. 1 7. 8. Bobby Fischer, as related in Christine Toomey, "Bobby Fischer's Final Manoeu­ vre," The Sunday Times, April 2 0, 2 008. 9· David Bronstein quoted in William Hanston, The Kings of Chess ( H arper and Row, 1 9 8 5 ) , p. 1 4 1. 1 0. Hikaru Nakamura, in an interview with Howard Goldowsky, "A Conversa­ tion with Hikaru Nakamura and His Stepfather Sunil Weeramantry," www.the chessdrum.net/newsbriefs/2 004/NB_documents/H Nakamura(Goldowsky).htm.

Notes to Pages 1 3 7-1 45

23 3

I I . Viswanathan Anand, "Chess I s Like Acting, " chessbase.com, October 1 , 2008, English translation o f an interview i n D e r Spiegel, "Schach ist Schauspiele­ rei, " spiegelonline.com, September 29, 2008. 1 2. See Konrad Lorenz, "Ritualized Fighting, " in The Natural History of Aggression, edited by J.D. Carthy and F.J. Ebling (Academic Press, 1964), pp. 39-50. 13. Nigel Short quoted in Paul Hoffman, King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and

the World 's Most Dangerous Game ( Hyperion Books, 2007) , p.3 4 6.Alan Dundes, "Into the Endzone for a Touchdown: A Psychoanalytic Consideration of American Football, " Western Folklore 37 ( 1 9 7 8 ) : 75-88. After the publication of this essay, Dundes reportedly received several death threats from football fans. 1 4 · Hoffman, King's Gambit, pp.8 5-86.Kasparov quoted in Dominic Lawson, End Game: Kasparov vs. Short ( Harmony, 1 9 9 4 ) , p. 19. 15. Ian Mullen and Moe Moss, Blunders and Brillian cies ( Pergamon Press, 1990) , p. 8. 1 6. Judit Polgar quoted in Jennifer Shahade, Chess Bitch: Women in the Ulti­ mate Intellectual Sport ( Siles Press, 2005 ) , p. 8 8. 1 7. Lajos Pcirtisch, New in Chess ( 19 8 9 , no. 8 ) : 3 4 · Fischer quoted in Chess Life 19 ( 1 9 64) : 5 9 · 1 8. Simon Baron-Cohen, Emma Ashwin, Chris Ashwin, Teresa Tavassoli, and Bhismadev Chakrabarti, "Talent in Autism: Hyper-Systemizing, Hyper-Attention to Detail, and Sensory Hypersensitivity, " in A u tism and Talent: Philosophical Tra nsactio ns of the R oyal Society, B, 27, vol. 364, no. 1 5 2 2 (2009) : 1 3 7 7-83. See also "Genius Locus: Autism and Extraordinary Ability, " The Economist, April r 6 , 2009. 1 9. Jennifer Shahade quoted in Hoffman, K ing's Gam bit, p. 204. 20. Paul Edwards, The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America ( M IT Press, 1 9 9 6 ) , pp. 1 7o-72.The phrase holding power comes from Sherry Turkle, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, 2nd ed. (MIT Press, 200 5 ) , pp. 1 3-1 4. 2 1 . Edwards, The Closed Wo rld, p. 1 72. The expression hard mastery comes from Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet ( Simon and Schuster, 1997). 2 2. George Steiner, Fields of Force: Fischer and Spassky at Reykjavik ( Viking, 1 9 74), pp. 67-68. 23. Stefan Zweig, The Royal Game and Other Sto ries ( Harmony Books, 1 9 8 1 ) , p. 8 . It's worth noting, however, the continuation o f this passage: " ...and never­ theless demonstrably more durable in its true nature and existence than any books or creative works? Isn't it the only game that belongs to all peoples and all times? And who knows whether God put it on earth to kill boredom, to sharpen the wits or to lift the spirits? Where is its beginning and where its end? " 2 4 . Genna Sosonko, "Hein, " New in Chess ( 2004 , no. 7) : 6 8-69.J.H. Donner, The King: Chess Pieces ( New in Chess, 2006 ) , p. 3 8 1. 25. Alexey Korotylev, in an interview with Misha Savinov, Misha Inter­ views ... , chesscafe.com.Nigel Davies, "The Fight for ds , " http://tigerchess.nigel davies.net/Artico1 6.htm. Rafael Vaganian quoted in Genna Sosonko, The Reliable Past ( New in Chess, 2005) , p.77·

23 4

Notes to Pages 1 47-165

26. Details on Morphy's life are drawn from David Lawson, "Paul Morphy, "

Wo rld Chess Champions, edited by E.G. Winter ( Pergamon Press, 1 9 8 1 ) , pp. 1 72 8 , and C.A. Buck, Paul Mo rphy: His Later Life ( Will. H. Lyons, I9o2). 27. Steiner, Fields afForce, p.68.Hanston quoted in David Edmonds and John Eidinow, Bobby Fischer Goes to War ( H arper Perennial, 2004) , p. 78.

SEVEN. CYBERCHESS

Epigraph: Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, in The Portable Nietzsche, edited by Walter Kaufman ( Viking, I 9 68 ) , p. 227. I. Garry Kasparov quoted in an interview with Mig Greengard on chessbase .com, March 20, 2005. 2. Svetozar Gligoric, K ing's Indian Defense: Mar del Plata Variation ( Bats­ ford, 2002) , p. I 2. 3 · Michael Fischer, "Culture and Cultural Analysis as Experimental Systems , " Cultural A n thropology 22 (2007) : I-6 4. 4· Garry Kasparov quoted in W.M.Ferguson, "The Way We Live Now : Ques­ tions for Garry Kasparov; Check This, " New York Tim es; September 2 2 , 2002. 5· Vladimir Kramnik, in an interview with Ugo Dossi, "Art , Chess, Beauty, and Depth, " December 2 2 , 2005, www.kramnik.com/english/interviews/getinterview .aspx?id'75. 6. Chrilly Doninger quoted in Tom Mueller, "Your Move: How Computer Chess Programs Are Changing the Game, " The New Yorker ( December I 2 , 2005) : 67. 7· Kasparov quoted in Dirk Jan Ten Geuzendam, "Kasparov's Ninth Falls on Deaf Ears with Topalov, " New in Chess (2005, no. 3 ) : 25. 8. Igor Stohl, Garry Kasparo v 's Greatest Games, vol.2 ( Gambit, 2006 ) , p. 3 3 6. 9· Dirk Jan Ten Geuzendam, "The Day Kasparov Quit , " New in Chess (2005, no. 3 ) : I ?. Kasparov quoted in Steven Levy, "The Brain's Last Stand, " Newsweek 1 29 ( I 9 9 7) : 56. 10. Frederic Friedel, "Kramnik on Health, Plans-and Computers, " chessbase .com, March I 3 , 2006. I I . Levon Aronian quoted in Christian Schwager and Markus Lotter, "Ich habe so vie! Blur im Kopf," Berliner Zeitung, ww w.berlinonline.de, November I 5 , 2008.English translation o n chessbase.com, "I Have a Lot o f Blood i n My Brain, " November 20, 2008. I 2. Karin Knorr Cetina, Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowl­ edge ( Harvard University Press, I999). I 3. Vladimir Kramnik quote in Friedel, "Kramnik on Health." I 4. Topalov quoted in Dirk Jan Ten Geuzendam, "Viva Vishy, " New in Chess (2007, no. 7): 22. Mark D voretsky quoted in Garry Kasparov, Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, part 1: Revolution in the 70s ( Everyman Chess, 2007) , p. 379· I 5 . Bobby Fischer quoted in Chessbase News, January 3 1 , 2002. r 6. Alexei Shirov quoted in an article by Macauley Peterson, "Get Ready for the Next Generation, " Chess Life (June 2007) : r 6. 1 7. Sergey Karjakin quoted in an article by Macauley Peterson, "Get Ready for the Next Generation, " Chess Life (June 2007) : 19. r 8. Viswanathan Anand, in an interview posted by Mig Greengard, The Daily

Notes to Pages I 66-I 7 8

23 5

Dirt Chess Blog, April 30, 2007."Database kids " is what British grandmaster Tony Miles used to call representatives of the younger generation, as noted in Genna Sosonko, The Reliable Past ( New in Chess, 2003) , p. I 9. I 9 . Mig Greengard, "Nakamura Rocking the Rocks, " The Daily Dirt Chess

Blog, www.chessninja.com, January 3 I , 2008. 20. Hikaru Nakamura quoted in an interview with Jennifer Shahade, Chess

Life (September zooi). 2 1 . Hikaru Nakamura quoted in an interview with Howard Goldowsky, "A Conversation w ith H ikaru Nakamura and His Stepfather, Sunil Weeramantry, " The Skittles Roo m , chesscafe.com. 2 2 . Hikaru Nakamura quoted in an interview with Lynda R ichardson, "He Could Be the Next Bobby Fischer (without the Quirks) , " New York Times, April 3 , 2005. 23. John Watson, Chess Strategy in Action (Gambit, 200 3 ) , p. 9· 2 4. Anaroly Bykhovsky quoted in an interview with Misha Savinov, Misha · Inte rviews ... , chesscafe.com, 2007. 25. Alexei Shirov quoted in Peterson, "Get Ready for the Next Generation, " p. I 6. 26. Michael Fischer, Emergent Forms of Life and the A nthropological Voice (Duke University Press, 200 3 ) , p. 3 42. 27. Levon Aronian quoted in Schwager and Lotter, "Ich habe so viel Blur." 28. Jesse Kraai quoted in an interview with Jennifer Shahade, "IM Jesse Kraai Joins the Elite, " Chess Life (July 2007) : 25. 29. Rusudan Goleriani, notes on a 2005 U.S. Women's Chess Championship game, New in Chess (zoos , no. I ) : 28. 3 0. Vasik Rajlich interviewed on Chess Talk with IM John Watso n, Octo­ ber 7, zoo8 , http ://webcast.chessclub.com/preview/Watsonhoo8_ I o_o7/Watson _preview.hrml. 3 1 . Charles Herran, Fo rcing Chess Mo ves ( New in Chess, 200 8 ) , p. I I. 3 2. Levon Aronian quoted in Schwager and Lotter, "Ich habe so viel Blur." 3 3 · Andy Clark, Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future

of Human In telligence (Oxford University Press, 2003) , pp. 3 , 5, 6, 7· 3 4· Details on the 2006 World Open and the Varshavksy affair are drawn from two articles in Chess Life: Jerry Hanke, "Kamsky Wins, bur 'Cat' Makes News " ( October zoo6 ) : I 8-z6; and Jon Jacobs, "Blockading Chess Cheaters " (March 2007) : I 8-23. 35· See K.R. Nayar, "Chess Cheating Chess Player Loses Mobile Phone Gam­ bit, " Gulf News, April I 6 , 2oo8, www.gulfnews.com/sporr/Chessho205867.html. 3 6. Sergey Dolmatov quoted in Bobby Ang, "Chess Piece: Beyond Human Ability? " indochess.com, August q, zoo6. 3 7· " Silvio Danilov Accuses Kramnik of Using Fritz 9 , " chessbase.com, Octo­ ber 4, 2006. 3 8. Spassky's assistants quoted in Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecesso rs, vol. 4: Bobby Fischer ( Everyman Chess, 2004) , pp.458-59.Vikror Korchnoi quoted in Andrew Soltis, Soviet Chess I9I 7-I99 I (McFarland, I 9 9 9 ) , p. 3 64. 39· Dylan Loeb McClain, "Latvians Say Foe Got Signals from Her Tube of Lip Balm, " New York Times, January q, 2008. Anna Rudolf's account is drawn

236

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Notes to Pages 1 79- 199

from "Interview with Anna Rudolf: Lip Balm Supercomputer," chessdom.com, January zoo8. 40. "Top Seed Mamedyarov Withdraws from Aeroflot Open," chessbase.com, February 23 , 2009. 4 1. Pavel Eljanov, "The Winner's Tale," New in Chess (2007, no.2) : 49· 42. E.E. Evans- Pritchard, Witchcraft, Magic, and Oracles among the A zande (Oxford University Press, 1 9 7 6 ) , p. r S.

E I G H T.

2 4 /7

ON THE ICC

Epigraph: William Gibson, Neuromancer (Ace Books, 1 9 S4) , p. 5 · r . The "handle" names given for all players on the Internet are pseudonyms. 2. Walter Benjamin, Illuminations (Schocken Books, 1 9 6 8 ) , p. 1 75. The essay was written in 1 9 3 5 . 3 · "Speeding up": Jonathan Xavier Inda and Renata Rosaldo, The A nth ropol­ ogy of Globalization ( Blackwell, 2003 ) , p.9 · "Immediacy, simultaneity": Nicholas Carr, The Big Switch: Rewiring the Wo rld, from Edison to Coogle ( W.W. Nor­ ton, zooS ) , p. 228. "Delocali zing and interconnective": Nikolas Rose, The Politics

of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Po wer, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-first Century ( Princeton University Press, 200 6 ) , p.48. 4 · Milan Kundera, Slo wness ( Harper Perennial, 1997), p.2. 5 · Paul Virilio, Speed and Politics (Semiotext(e) , 1 9 8 6 ) , p. 1 4 2. 6. The texts cited in this paragraph are Judith Thurman, "Spreading the Word," The New Yo rke r (January 1 9 , 2009) : z6-J I ; Nora Ephron, "Addicted to L-U-V," New Yo rk Times, May 1 3 , 2007; Natasha Dow Schull, "Digital Gambling: The Coincidence of Desire and Design," A n nals, American Academy of Political and Social Science 5 9 7 (January zoos) : 6s-8 r ; Rosie Goldsmith, "French Casino H it by Lawsuit," bbcnews.com, August 4 , 2004. 7· David Lenson, On Drugs ( University of Minnesota Press, 1 9 9 5 ) , p. 3 5 · Danny Gormally, "D iary of an ICC Addict," New in Chess (zooS, no. 4) : 70. 8. See, for instance, Constance Holden, '"Behavioral' Addictions: Do They Exist ? " Science 294 ( November 2, zoo r ) : 9 S o-S2. 9 · James Stripes, "Blitz Addiction," Chess Skills, January r s , zoo9, http:!/ chessskill.blogspot.com/zoo9/o r /blirz-addiction.html. ro. Jean-Paul Sartre, The Psychology of Imagination ( Philosophical Library, I 9 4 S ) , p. 21 2. r r. Bradd Shore, "Spiritual Work, Memory Work: Revival and Recollection at Salem Camp Meeting," Ethos 3 6 (zooS ) : 9 S-r 19 at r o 6. 1 2. Fabiano Caruana quoted in Macauley Peterson, "Fabulous Fabiano," Chess

Life (January zooS) : 3 3 · 1 3 . Polly Wright, "Small Chess Club Blues," Castling Queen Side, Novem­ ber z r , 2007, http://castlingqueenside.blogspot.com. 1 4. Hubert Dreyfus, On the Internet ( Routledge, zoo r ) , p. S9. r s. Christopher Cherry, "Are Near-Death Experiences Really Suggestive of Life after Death? " in Beyond Death: Theological and Philosophical Reflections on Life after Death, edited by Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Christopher Lewis (St.Martins Press, 1 9 9 5 ) , p p. 1 45-63 at r s 6.

Notes to Pages 203-221

I

23 7

ENDGAME

Epigraph: William Faulkner, "Knight's Gambit, " in Knight 's Gambit (Vintage, 1978 ) , p. ! 69. r . Ray Oldenburg, The G reat Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlo rs, General Stores, Bars, Hangouts, and How They Get You through the Day ( Paragon, 198 1). Robert Putnam, Bowling Alo ne: The Collapse and Revival of American Community ( Simon and Schuster, 2000). 2. This exchange is quoted in Hans Ree, The Human Comedy of Chess ( Rus­

sell Enterprises, 1999), p. 3 1 8. 3 · Siegbert Tarrasch, The Game of Chess ( Hays Publishing, 1994 [orig. 193 1 ) ) . 4 · John Watson said this in an interview with Jonathan Rowson o n Chess Talk, iccchess.fm, April 7, 2009.

APPENDIX TWO.

"

L I F E IS TOUCH-MOVE"

r . Kenneth Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form ( University of California Press, 194 1 ).

2. Peter Pratt, Studies of Chess ( London, 1 8 0 3 ) , p.iii.

Glossary

A T T A C K A sustained assault o n a n opponent's king o r some other target. B I S H O P A piece that is moved on diagonals of one color. A light-squared bishop

operates on the lighter squares, while a dark-squared bishop moves on the darker squares. B L A C K The player who moves the darker-colored pieces. B L I N D F O L D C H E S S Chess played without sight of the board. B L I T Z Chess played under very fast time constraints, usually five minutes or less per player. B L U N D E R A very poor move, often leading to the loss of material or to a disad­

vantageous position. B U L L E T C H E S S A form of blitz chess in which each player has one minute per

game. B Y E A bye is a tournament round in which a player does not have a game.Usually it is required by the presence of an odd number of players, so that not everyone can play in a round. A bye is normally scored as a win (r point). In many Swiss

system tournaments, however, a player can request a bye for any round, and it is scored as a Yz -point draw. c A L c u L A T 1 o N The concrete analysis and evaluation of specific sequences of moves. c A s T L 1 N G A combined move of the king and one of the rooks: the king is moved two squares along the first rank toward the rook, which is then placed on the square just crossed by the king. Castling can be conducted on either the king­ side or the queenside.Players usually castle early in the game, to provide shelter for their king and to bring their rook to the center files. c E N T E R PAW N s The pawns stationed on the two central files; the d- and e-pawns, for both White and Black. c H E C K A position in which a king can be captured with the opponent's next move. C H E C K M A T E Or "mate, " a position in which the king cannot be moved out of check; to make a move that brings about such a position.The object of the game is to checkmate one's opponent.Once a player is checkmated, he has lost the game.

23 9

240

Glossary

C H E S S C L O C K A double push-button clock that keeps track of the time each

player spends on a game. After making a move, a player stops his clock.This action automatically starts his opponent's clock. C L O S E D P O S I T I O N A type of position in which few pawns or pieces have been removed from the board, making for a "closed " pawn formation (limiting one's opponent's access to the other pieces).Closed positions, which are often distin­ guished from open positions, often require strategic finesse to play effectively. C O M B I N A T I O N A tactical sequence of forcing moves with a specific goal. Combinations often involve the sacrifice of a piece. C O U N T E R A T T A C K An attack mounted by a player in a defensive position. c o u N T E R P L A Y Active maneuvering by a player who is defending or under attack. D I A G O N A L A diagonal row of squares.The diagonals from the squares ar to h8,

and from h r to a8, are known as the long diagonals. D O U B L E A T T A C K A simultaneous attack against two separate targets: these may

be enemy pieces, or squares an opponent needs to defend. D O U B L E D PAW N S Two pawns of the same color on the same file. D R Aw A result in which neither player is expected to win.A draw may come about

by agreement between the players, by stalemate, or by repetition of moves. In tournaments, draws are usually awarded '!z points, as compared to 1 point for a win and 0 for a loss. E I G H T H R A N K The rank at the far end of the board, as seen from each player's point of view.The eighth rank is the rank on which the opponent's pieces stand at the start of a game. It is also the rank where a pawn must land if it is to be promoted to a piece. E N D G A M E Or ending.The last phase of the game, when there are few pieces left on the board. E X C H A N G E S A C R I F I C E . A sacrifice in which a player surrenders a rook while the opposing player loses a knight or a bishop. E X P E R T A player with a USCF rating between 2000 and 2199; the category just below master. F I A N C H E T T O The placement of a White bishop at p or b2, or a Black bishop at g7 or b7. The word is a diminutive of the Italian, fianco, "a flank." F I D E The Federation lnternationale des E checs, an international organization that connects national chess federations around the world and acts as the gov­ erning body of international chess competition. F I D E M A S T E R The title of FIDE master is awarded by F I D E , the International Federation of Chess. FIDE masters usually have a FIDE rating between 2300 and 2400. F I L E A vertical row of eight squares running from White's end of the board to

Black's. There are eight files on a chessboard, identified by means of the file symbol; the first file from White's left is the a- file, followed by the b-file. The last file on White's right is the h-file. F I S H Slang for a weak chess player. F O R K A direct and simultaneous attack on two or more of an opponent's pieces by one piece. F R I T Z A popular computer chess program published by Chessbase. G A M B I T An opening in which one player offers to give up a pawn or a piece in the

Glossary

241

expectation o f gaining a compensatory positional advantage for the material relinquished. G R A N D M A S T E R ( G M ) An exceptionally strong player. The title of grandmaster is awarded by F I D E , the International Federation of Chess. Grandmasters usu­ ally have a FIDE rating of 2500 or higher. I C C The Internet Chess Club, an online chess server. I N D I A N D E F E N S E S Defenses against White's first move of I . d4 that are char­ acterized by the move I . . . Nf6. Popular Indian defenses include the King's

Indian Defense, the Nimzo-Indian Defense, and the Queen's Indian Defense. I N I T I A T I V E The power to make threats against one's opponent's position or pieces. I N T E R N A T I O N A L M A S T E R ( I M ) A very strong player. The title of international

master is awarded by F I D E , the International Federation of Chess. Interna­ tional masters usually have a FIDE rating of 2400 or higher. K I B I T Z To offer informal comments or advice, usually unsolicited, on an ongoing game. The word kibitzer, one who kibitzes, stems via Yiddish from kiebitz (German) , a peewit. K I N G The king can be moved to any adjoining square that is not attacked by an enemy piece or pawn. As the goal of a game is to checkmate the opponent's

king, the king is the most important piece. But because of its limited mobility, it is not the strongest piece. K I N G S I D E The half of the board wh·ere the king starts the game (from the e-file to

the h-file) . From the White player's point of view, it is to the right. From Black's point of view, it is to the left. K N I G H T A piece that moves in an L shape. The knight is the only piece that can jump over pawns or other pieces. A knight is usually fashioned in the shape of a horse's head. K N I G H T ' s T O U R A series of moves of a chess knight that visits all squares on an

empty board and, moving according to the rules of chess, must visit each square exactly once. M A R S H A L L C H E S S C L U B A long-established chess club in Manhattan, named after American player Frank Marshall. M A s T E R A strong player. In the United States, a player who achieves a rating over

2200 is awarded the title of master. A life master is a player who competes in more than three hundred games while maintaining a rating over 2200. A senior master is a player with a U SCF rating over 2400. M A T C H A contest between two individuals, or else a team match. M A T E See checkmate. M A T E R I A L All the pieces and pawns on the board except the kings. To have a

material advantage is to have the greater total value of pieces. M A T I N G N E T An arrangement of pawns and pieces around a king in such a way that checkmate is threatened. M I D D L E G A M E The phase of the game that follows the opening. O P E N I N G The first phase of the game. An opening often refers to specific sequences

of opening moves. O P E N P O S I T I O N A position in which there are many open files and diagonals, resulting from the trade-off of several pawns, especially those on the four cen-

242

G lossary

tral files. Open positions, which are often distinguished from closed positions, usually lead to games with a lot of tactical play because the open lines allow for more options in possible piece moves. O P E N T O U R N A M E N T A tournament in which anyone can participate, provided they have paid the appropriate entrance fees. PA S S E D P A W N A pawn that has no enemy pawns on the same or an adjoining file standing on the ranks ahead. As its path toward its promotion square on the eighth rank is free of other pawns , a passed pawn is often an important asset. PAw N The chessman of the smallest size and value.Each player has eight pawns at the beginning of the game, all of them positioned on the second rank. PAW N P R O M O T I O N The exchange of a pawn that has reached the eighth rank for a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. PAw N s T R u c T u R E An arrangement of pawns, often arising out of the opening. P I E C E Specifically, a queen, rook, bishop, knight, or king; a pawn is not techni­

cally a piece.Pieces also refers to the chessmen in general. P I N A situation in which a bishop, rook, or queen holds down an opponent's piece. The piece that is pinned cannot move without producing an attack on

another piece or square. P O S I T I O N The disposition of pieces and pawns , of one or both colors, at any stage

of a game. P O S I T I O N A L P L A Y Maneuvers made with the aim of improving a player's posi­ tion, as distinct from tactical play leading to mate or gain of material. A posi­

tional error is a mistake that can lead to a disadvantageous position. P O S T M O R T E M The analysis and discussion of a game after it has been concluded. Q u E E N A major piece that may be moved along the ranks and files like the rook

and along the diagonals like the bishop.The queen is the most powerful piece. Q U E E N S I D E The half of the board where the queen starts the game (from the a-file to the d-file).From the White player's point of view, it is to the left. From

Black's point of view, it is to the right. R A N K A horizontal row of eight adjoining squares running from one side of the board to the other.There are eight rows on a chessboard.A rank is customarily

defined in relation to the player. From the perspective of the player with the White pieces, the rank closest to him is the first rank, followed by the second rank, and so on, up to the eighth rank. R A T I N G ( s ) Numerical values used to rank chess players.The rating system of the United States Chess Federation is as follows: 2 4 0 0 and a b o v e , S e n i o r M a ster 220o-2 399, M a ster 2ooo-2 1 99, Expert I 8 0 o- 1 999, C l a s s A I 6ao-I 799, C l a s s B I 40o-1 599, C l a s s C I 2oo-1 399, C l a s s D Iooo-I 1 99, C l a s s E

1 99 a n d below, Class J

Glossary

243

R E S I G N To concede defeat without playing on to checkmate. R O O K A piece that is moved in straight lines, along ranks and files.The rook is the

most powerful piece after the queen. It is usually shaped like a tower or castle. R O O K E N D G A M E An endgame with king, rooks (or a rook), and sometimes pawns. A double-rook endgame is one in which both sides have two rooks. R O U N D - R O B I N A tournament system in which each player plays every other player participating in the tournament, usually either once or twice. R Y B K A A computer chess program, first released in 2005. S A C R I F I C E A move that gives up material (a pawn or a piece) to gain a tactical or

positional advantage. S C O R E S H E E T A printed form on which the moves of a game are written. S I C I L I A N D E F E N S E A popular defense to White's first move of r. e4, character­

ized by the response r .. . cs, in which Black's c-pawn is advanced two squares forward. s K E w E R An attack by one piece against two enemy pieces in a line, in which the more valuable piece is in front of the piece of lesser value.The opponent is com­ pelled to move the more valuable piece to avoid its capture, thereby exposing the less valuable piece, which can then be captured. S K I T T L E S Casual or friendly games, often played quickly, with or without a clock. S O V I E T S C H O O L O F C H E S S An orientation to chess play, study, and training developed in the Soviet Union from the 1930s through the r98os. s T A L E M A T E A position in which a player whose turn it is to move is neither in

check nor able to make a move. Stalemate ends the game, which is then drawn. S T R A T E G Y The planning and conduct of long-term objectives during a game. S W I S S S Y S T E M A frequently used system to organize pairings for a tournament. In the first round of a Swiss System, players are ranked by rating, and then the

top player is paired with the player just under the halfway mark. The second player is paired against the next player under the halfway mark, and so forth. Players who win their games receive r point, those who draw receive Yz point, and losers receive no points. All players then proceed to the next and subse­ quent rounds, with players being paired in each round against opponents with the same or similar scores. T A C T I C S Short-term maneuvers, often of a forcing nature. T H E O R Y The consensual understanding, often noted in chess literature, of effec­ tive ways to play opening systems. Often referred to as well as "opening theory." T I M E - D E L A Y C L O C K A chess clock that gives both players a main thinking

time-eighty-five minutes per game, for instance-plus a fixed time for every move, usually five seconds. The countdown of the main time starts only after the fixed time has been used. When it becomes a player's turn to move, the clock waits for the delay period before starting to subtract from the player's remaining time. For example, if the delay is five seconds, the clock waits for five seconds before counting down.If the player moves within the delay period, no time is subtracted from his remaining time.The main reason that time-delay clocks are used in tournament games is that, with a sudden-death time limit, all moves must be completed in the specified time or the player loses. With a five-second delay added at each move, the player always has at least that much time to make a move.

244

G lossa ry

T O U C H - M O V E A rule in force in serious chess games in which a player who inten­ tionally touches a piece while it his turn must move that piece, if there is a legal

move to be made. Likewise, if a player touches one of his opponent's pieces, he must capture it if the piece can be captured. u s c F The United States Chess Federation.The USCF assigns national titles, orga­ nizes national tournaments, and awards titles to players. vA R I A T I o N Any alternative line of play, especially one that could occur in the opening phase of the game. V I S U A L I Z A T I O N The process of mentally picturing sequences of potential chess moves. w H I T E The player who moves the lighter-colored pieces.White always makes the first move in a game. In a tournament, the colors are usually assigned by the tournament director. W O R L D C H A M P I O N Official title given to the top player in the world, as decided by match or tournament play. The official world championship is generally regarded to have begun in r 8 8 6 , when the two leading players in the world, William Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, played a match that Steinitz won. ( Paul Morphy is considered the unofficial world champion before Steinitz.) From Steinitz on the world champions were W i l l i a m Steinitz 1 8 8 6- 1 8 94 , Austria E m a nuel Lasker 1 894- 1 92 1 , Germany Jose R a u l Capablanca 1 92 1 - 1 927, Cuba A lexander Alekhine 1 927- 1 935, 1 937- 1 946, R u s s i a / France Max Euwe 1 935-1 937, Netherl a n d s M i k h a i l Bot v i n n i k 1 94 8 - 1 95 7, 1 95 8- 1 960, 1 961 - 1 963, U S S R ( Russia) Va sily Smyslov 1 95 7- 1 95 8 , USSR (Russia) M i k h a i l Ta l 1 96o-1 961 , USSR ( latvia) Tigran Petro s i a n 1 963-1969, U S S R (A rmenia) Boris Spassky 1 969- 1 97 2 , U S S R ( Russia) Robert J. Fischer 1 97 2- 1 97 5 , Un ited States A natoly K a rpov 1 975-198 5 , U S S R (Russia) G a rry K a sparov 1 98 5 - 1 993, U S S R ( Ru s s i a )

Since 1 9 9 3 the world championship has been clouded by disagreements. It began with a conflict between FIDE and a newly formed organization, the Pro­ fessional Chess Association, founded by Garry Kasparov. Kasparov continued to defend his title in matches, while FIDE set up its own schedule of matches and tournaments.Many consider Vladimir Kramnik of Russia to have been the true world champion from 2 o o o , when he defeated Garry Kasparov in a match, until 2008, when he lost a match to Viswanathan Anand.Anand, who was also the FIDE world champion, then became the undisputed world champion. W O R L D O P E N A large open tournament held each year in Philadelphia, around the Fourth of July Weekend.

Acknowledgments

This book draws from ethnographic research I conducted in the United States and abroad from 2002 to 2009. As suits the multimedia, intercon­ nected age in which we live, it draws upon a number of resources, including conversations in person, by phone, and via the Internet; interviews and games posted on the Internet; chess books and DVDs; online newspapers and journals; and blogs and Web sites. Several of these blogs and sites have been of great use, including chessbase.com, chesscafe.com, chessclub .com, iccchess.fm, chesshistory.com, chessvibes.com, uschess.org, and Iizzy knowsall.blogspot.com. The research and writing of the book were sup­ ported by Sarah Lawrence College, most notably through the Alice Stone Hehman Chair in Comparative and International Studies, the Ziesing Fund for Research in the Social Sciences, and the Faculty Publication Fund. I also thank the many people who helped with this project. A number of chess players, authors, and teachers were kind enough to talk to me about their engagements with the game, most notably Michael Amari, Robert Cousins, Joseph DeMauro, Jaan Ehlvest, Rusudan Goletiani, Joseph Guadagno, Asa Hoffmann, Larry Kaufman, Jesse Kraai, Stanley Kravitz, Ronald Krensik, Abby Marshall, Tim Painton, Daniel Pomerantz, Steven Qvistorff, Evan Rabin, John Riddell, Boris Salman, Jim Santorelli, Alexander Shabalov, Greg Shahade, Dale Sharp, Fiori Sireci, Jakob Stockel, Predrag Trajkovic, Mladen Vucic, John Watson, Sunil Weeramantry, Edward Winter, Polly Wright, and Leonid Yudasin. Thanks as well to the members of the Max Pavey Chess Club, the Bob Peretz Chess Club, the Westchester Chess

2 45

246

I

Acknowledgments

Club, and the Marshall Chess Club. Nolan Kordsmeier, Kim Qvistorff, and Furqan Tanwir have become at once friends, playing partners, and research associates. At Sarah Lawrence College, Carl Barenboim, Michael Davis, Sha Fagan, Chris Garces, David Hollander, Elizabeth Johnston, Nicholas Mills, Mary Morris, Leah Olson, Barbara Schechter,and Sam Siegel offered advice and knowledge at crucial times, and the college library's staff helped in many ways. Sonia De Laforcade, Molly Jaffa, Sarah Pulitzer, and Michal Salman aided me with significant aspects of the research and writing. Laurie Mittelmann helped me to find the right words. Aidan Seale- Feldman lent her keen anthropological sensibilities to many dimensions of this project. At the University of California Press, Stan Holwitz, Jacqueline Volin, Nick Arrivo, Kalicia Pivirotto, and Reed Malcolm worked skillfully to guide the book through the publication process. Friends and colleagues have helped in the development of the ideas advanced in these pages.Helen Desjarlais, Luther Elliot, Stefan Helmreich, Jose Antonio Lucero, Todd Myers, and Sarah Willen read portions of the book in its earlier incarnations and helped me to take things further. Portions of the text were presented at Harvard University in 2009; I thank Michael Fischer, Byron Good-, and Mary-Jo Delvecchio Good, among others, for their thoughtful comments. C. Jason Throop's rich reading of the text was a boon. Jonathan Rowson and Elizabeth Vicary contributed critical readings of my ideas and prose, and enabled me to understand bet­ ter the lives and concerns of chess players. Michael Jackson offered wise thoughts at just the right time, while showing the way to a more expansive anthropology. Lynne Carmickle offered her family's home in Long Island as a writing retreat. Susan McGarry provided helpful resources. Maria Elena Garcia and Deanna Barenboim have been true

compaiieras.

Tracy

McGarry contributed to this project in continuously loving and generous ways.

Index

Accelerated Dragon, 31, 82, 86

Bergman, Ingmar, 205

Adams, M ichael, 158

Blanchard, Kenneth, 104

addiction, 3 , 38, 146, 190-93, 20 0

blitz chess, 1-2, 8 , 17-23, 27, 31, 5 8 , 6o, 72, 105,

age, and chess, 90, 133-34, 140, 163-65, 171, 182-83

1 2 1 , 138. 140. 165, 185, 188-96, 199. 200, 202, 204, 208, 209

agon, 32-33, 66-70, 74, 91, 12 2

Bonin, jay, 30, 40

Agur, El ie, 71

Botvi n n i k, Mikhail, m, 135, 136, 160

Alatortsev, Vlad i m i r, 56

Bourdieu, Pierre, 6

Alburt, Lev, 6o

Brady, Frank, no

Alekhine, Alexander, 27, 34, 139, 160

Brathwaithe, Richard, 4 2

Allen, Woody, 220

Bronstein, David, 76, 7 7 . 1 3 0 , 1 3 5 , 136

amateur, 1 2 , 60-61, 113, 116, 163-64, 207-9

Bruner, jerome, 18, 1 1 4

Amori, M i ke, 139, 150, 218

Bryant Park, 22

Anand, Viswanathan, 69, 114, 136, 156, 163, 165, 169

Burke, Kenneth, 221 Bykhovsky, Anatoly, 167

Aronian, Levon, 162, 170, 174 art, chess and c reation of, 3, 1 1 - 1 2 , 76-77, 81, 125-26, 134 Atkins, Kelly, 22

Caillois, Roger, 32, 33 calculation: i n chess, 21, 63, 107, 1 1 2-15, 166, 169-?0. 182-83

Auden, W. H., 15

Capablanca, jose Raul, s . 27, 28 , 96, 97. 104, 114

autism, 141-42

Carlsen, Magnus, 135, 167-68

Bach, johann Sebastian, 38

Casey, Edward, 107

Baron- Cohen, Sim o n, 141

Cavett, Dick, 70

Bateson, Gregory, 39

Chao, Li, 176

Caruana, Fabiano, 197

Battery Park, 22

cheat ing, 174-180

beauty, 9. 12-13 , 34. 76-77, 120, 134

chess: agonistic nature of, 32-33. 66-70, 74, 91,

Bell, Catharine, 42

122; ambivalence about playing, 126-50, 206;

Benj a m i n , Walter, 185, 196

anth ropology of, 7-11; as extension of the

Benko, Pal, 96

self, 3, 10, 112; history of, 17, 19, 27, 4 2, 46-

Benoni, 71, 105-6, 110-n

48, 88, 140; professional playing of, 9-10,

247

chess

(continued)

epistemic anxiety, 88, 9 9

48, 61, 69, 97, 136, 145, 161-65, 206-7; rec­

erotics of chess, 82

reat ional playing of, 15, 19, 35, 204-5, 209; social aspects of, 15-16, 19, 29, 35, 59-62,

fam ily: as inspiration for chess play, 46, 81, 101,

73-75, 132, 137-39, 221; study of, 3-5, 29,

104, 124, 140; as prohibitive of chess play,

69-70, 81, 96-100, 140-42, 163, 166-69;

57-58, 104, 1 1 6

teach ing of, 24, 34, 65, 101-2, 1 24-25, 135,

faulkner, William, 209

150-51, 217- 2 1; watch i ng of, 104, 113-14,

fetish, 99-100

124, 194. 212

F I D E , 59. 240

chess clubs, 5, 8-9, 12 , 17, 38, 5 7, 148, 198, 209, 2 1 1 , 218

Chess Informant,

Figler, I lye, 30, 40, 114 Fine, Reuben, 41, 59

87

Fischer, Bobby, 4, 1 1 , 19, 22, 27-28, 4 2, 53, 57,

Christia nsen, Larry, 176

59. 66-70, 73, ss. ss, 93 . 97. 104, 108, 110,

Clark, Andy, 174 . 175

1 1 4 , 135. 140, 1 43 . 146-48 . 157. 160, 164. !66,

Collins, jack, 104

177, 180

communitas, 129, 131

Fischer, M ichael, 157, 169

competition, 32-33, 1 27-32 , 137-39

flow, 18, 35, 1 16-19, 131

computers: as opponent, 63, 152, 158-61; as research tool, 87-89; in chess, 15 2-83 conditioning, 129-30

Foucault, Michel, 10 Freud, Sigmund, 44 Frie, Roger, 73

consciousness, modifications of, 43-45, 65-66, 73 . 107-10, 118-19, 129, 172-74 . 191

Gadamer, Hans-Georg, 14, 16

conversation, 1 2 , 14 , 35, 46, 151, 169, 187

Galvin, john, 220

correspondence chess, 18, 134

Geller, Efim, 44

counterplay, 1, 50, 79, I l l - 1 2 , 131

gender, 81, 139-43, 220-21; and stereotypes in

Cousins, Robert, 23 creativity, 2-3, 13- 1 4 , 33-34. 42-45 . 74-76, 1 1315, 145-46 . 173 -75 · 2 10 Csikszent m ihalyi, Mihaly, 1 17-19 cultural d i fferences, i n chess players' methods 28 cyberchess, 167, 169, 180

chess, 201-2 Gibson, William, 177 Gligoric, Svetozar, 66, 157 Golet iani, Rusudan, 81, 93, 95, ns, "7• 139-41, 150, 171, 218 Gormally, Dan ny, 192 Grandmaster, 19-20, 21 , 29, 45 "great good place," 204-5

Danailov, Silvio, 177 Davies, Nigel, 145

Grechikhin, Vlad i m i r, 26, 28-32, 35, 41, 51-52, 55

Dayen, Igor, IJI, IA3

Groark, Kevin, 69

death, 3-6, 79, 180, 186, 199

Guadagno, joe, 1 1 , 84, 165

Demauro, joe, 134

Gufeld, Eduard, So

depression, 57. 93, 105, 159

Gulko, Boris, 136

Dokhoian, Yury, 160

GZA, 1 2

Dolmatov, Sergey, 176 Doni nger, Chril ly, 159

Ha mpate Ba, Amadou, 32

Donner, jan Hein, 144

Ha n sen , Carsten, 106

Dreyfus, Hubert, 198

Hartston, Bill, 148

Duchamp, Marcel, J , 40, 77. 207

Hawkins, Coleman, 206

Dundes, Alan, 138

Heisman, Dan, 23

Dvoretsky, Mark, 9 9 , 163

Hen ley, Ron, 150 Heraclitus, 17

Edwards, Paul, 14 2-43

Hertan, Charles, 172-73

Ehlvest, jaan, 83, 159, 162

Hodgson, julian, 68

Eljanov, Pavel, 180

Hoffman, Asa, 57-59, 62-63, 70-72, 75-77, 79-

empathy, 68-74 , 109, 136; agonic, 66-70

So, 108, 110, 1 29

endgame, 28-29, 98

Hoffman, P a u l, 40, 138-39

Ephron, Nora, 190

Hubner, Robert, 79

I ndex Huizinga, johan, 13-14, 16

Lenson, David, 1 9 1

Husser!, Edmund, 49

Letterman, David, 2 1 1

Huxley, Aldous, 65

Levinas, Emmanuel, 34

il/usio,

249

Levi-Strauss, Claude, 42-43, 79 6, 127

imagining, 107-110; collaborat ive, 1 22-23

Levitt, jonathan, 134 l i feworld, 8, 43 -44, 49-50, 174

indeterminacy, 13-14, 169-70

Lorenz, Konrad, 137

init iative, 7 1

loss, effects of, on the self, 15, 49, 56-57, 67-68,

I nternet: and blogging, 3, 24, 45, 6 0 - 6 1 , 93, 1 4 6 ,

79-80, 1 2 1 - 23

1 9 3 , 1 9 8 ; and c h e s s servers, 1 2 , 165, 184-202 I nternet Chess Club ( ICC), 165, 184, 187-88

Makarichev, Sergey, 66

interpersonal relationships: effects of chess on,

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar, 179-80

45, 116, 186, 207, 210; chess players and, 43,

Marshall, Abby, 201-2

48, 5 2 , 137-38, 195

Marshall, Frank, j . 27

i ntersubjectivity, 72-75 intuition, 32, 9 5 , 187

Marshall Chess Club, 26, 46, 104, 116, 130, 165, 189, 193

lvanchuk, Vasily, 47

mass media, and portrayals of chess and chess

jackson, M ichael, 44

mathematics, of c h e s s , 37, 141-42, 21 7 - 1 8 , 222

jameson, Frederick, 57

Maugham, Somerset, 92

players, 57, 206-7, 21 1

Maurensig, Paolo, 26 Kant, Im m anuel, 88

McClain, Dylan Loeb, 178

Kapferer, Bruce, 123

McCorm ick, Charlie, 3

Karjakin, Sergey, 164, 167

memory, 56, 93-97, u o, 1 1 4 , 137

Karpov, Anatoly, 4, 57, 85, 96, u 6, 135, 138, 147,

Mendola, Tom, ll7

177-78

mental illness, 147-48

Kashtanov, Ruslan, ll5

Merleau- Ponty, Maurice, 73, 108

Kasimdzhanov, Rustam, 160

M iddlegame, 28-29, 97-99

Kasparov, Garry, 4, 4 2 , 8 5, 88, 96, 106, 135-37, 139> !56, !58, !60-61, 178

M iles, Tony, 87-88 M ilov, Vadim, 130

Kaufman, Larry, 159, 170

Modern Benoni Defense, 105-6, 1 1 0 - 1 1

Khasin, Abram , 56

money, 22, 57-58, 97 , 150, 21 8 - 1 9

kibitzing, 19-20, 12 8

morality, 24, 45, 6 5 , 1 4 2

Kobas, Adnan, 2 3

Morphy, Paul, 146-47

Koltanowski, George, 10 9

Morss, Mark, 201

Korch noi, Victor, 178

motivation, devices of, 65, 134-35, 206

Kordsmeier, N o l an, 14, 20, 38, 53, 68, 76, 79,

Mueller, Tom, 159

97> 104, I l l , 1 2 2 , 144 > 148, 159, !63, 171, 192, 195 > 198, 206

Najdorf, Miguel, 157

Korotylev, Alexey, 145

Nakamura, Hikaru, 20, 135-36, 165-67

Kotov, Alexa nder, 68

narrative, 14, 24, 55-56, 63-64, 73-74, 114, 172-

Kraai, jesse, 130, 134, 170, 190, 2 22

73> 195

Kramnik, Vlad i m i r, 47, u 5 , 136, 158, 162-63, 17 7

National Scholastic Chess Foundation, 101, 1 24

Krush, Irina, 17

Nietzsche, Frederick, 33, 56, 133

Kundera, Milan, 189

Nimzowitsch, A ron, 27

Kurnosov, Igor, 179-80

Noyes, Dorothy, 1 29 Nunn, joh n, 95 , 106, m

language, 14 , 32, 46, 144, 207-8; as barrier between players, 26; during play, 19-20, 138-39

obsession, in chess, 24, 38, 5 6 - 5 7, 99-100, 14042 , 146-48, 191-93

Lapshun, Yury, l l 4

Olafsson, Friorik, 135

Larsen, Bent, 34, 107, 1 8 2

Oldenburg, Ray, 2o4

Lasker, Emmanuel, 70, 7 8

openings, 28-29, 30, 86-100

Leko, Peter, 1 6 2

Ortner, Sherry, 15

I ndex

250

Parker, Charlie " B i rd," 1 8

Russell, Bertrand, 76

passion, anthropology of, 7 - 1 1

RZA, 1 2

pattern recognition, 94-96 Patterson, Floyd, 79

Sacks, Oliver, 1 0 8 , 110

Pavey, Max, 203-4

sacred, 16- 17, 191

Pelletier, Katharine, 30, 40

Sadatnajafi, M., 176

performance, 13- 17, 20, 35, 42

Salman, Boris, 21 1

personal event memories, 55-57

S a lm a n , M i c h a l, 46

Petrosian, Tigran, 67, 87, 115

Santorelli, Jim, 101, 104, 111, 114, 217

phenomenology, 10, 49, 191

Sartre, Jean-Paul, 194

Phil idor, A ndre, 22

phronesis,

221-23

Savinov, Misha, 167 Schechner, Richard, 13, 18

P iaget, Jean, 44

Schull, Natasha Dow, 190

P il lemer, David, 55

Schutz, Alfred, 35

Plato, 77

secrecy, 97

play, 13-17; ritualization of, 16; symbolic

Shabalov, A lexander, 83, 108, 135

nature of, 17, 42, 79

Shahade, Greg, 18, 61, 145

Polgar, Judit, 140

Shahade, Jennifer, 6o, 142

Polgar, Laszlo, 140

Shankland, Sam, 22-23, 94-95, 146

Polgar, Sofia, 140

Sharp, Dale, 94, 108, 119, 133, 135, 195, 198, 203

Polgar, Susan, 140

Shi rov, Alexey, 164, 168

Polya kin, Vlad i m i r, 130-31

Shore, Bradd, 196

Pomerantz, Daniel, 132, 188-89, 197

Short, Nigel, 138

Portisch, Lajos, 140, 146

Sicilian Defense, 30-31, 83, 86, 91-92, 94-96,

Powell, Bud, 18 prod igies, 140, 164 professional chess, 9-10, 48, 61, 69, 97, 136, 145, 161-65, 206-7 Proust, Marcel, 209

100, 131, 156 skittles, 19-20, 22, 131, 148, 204 Smirin, Ilya, 176 Smyslov, Vasily, n. 134-35 social h ierarchies i n chess, 59-62, 96, 137-39

psychology of chess, 3 2 , 56-58, 63-70, 118

sociality, 204-5

Pu rdy, C . I. S . , 134

Sosonko, Genna, 19, 56, 92, 1 4 4

Putnam, Robert, 205

space: and the c h e s s boa rd , 1 3- 1 4 , 8 5 , 217-18;

Qvistorff, Kim, 33, 35, 76, 93, 1 17, 122, 182

Spassky, Boris, 69, 115, 147, 177

virtual and online construction of, 196 Qvistorff, Steven, 182

speed, cult u re of, 17-23, 200, 210, 218 Spielma n n , Rudolph, 29

Rabin, Evan, 193, 197

sportsmanship, So, 131, 137-39

Rabinow, Paul, 97

Stei ner, George, 1 47

Rachels, Stuart, 9

Stockel, Jakob, 203-4

Radjabov, Teimour, 167

Stohl, Igor, 161

Raj l ich, Vasik, 170-71

strategy, 36-38, 47, 91-95, 115, 134-36

ratings, 59-61

stress, 47-48, 1 1 7 - 1 8 , 1 30 , 202

Reinganum, Aaron, 105

Stripes, James, 193

Richter, Hans, 207

subjunctive mode, 1 1 4

Riddell, John, 103-6, 110-12, 116, 12 0 -21

subj unc t ivity, 1 1 4 , 122

ritualization, 44

sudden death, 30, 243

rituals, 13, 16- 17, 30, 42-44, 56, 61, 65, 79-80,

Sutton-Smith, Brian, 16, 107

109, 1 2 2- 23, 129, 137-38, 191, 195. 205, 210

Sveshnikov, Evgeny, 83-85, 90

Roche, Henri- Pierre, 3

Sveshnikov Defense, 82-86, 88-93, 99

Rowson, Jonathan, 61, 63-65, 137, 168, 172, 180,

systemic relat ions, 38-39

195. 218 Rubinstein, Akiba, 76

Taimanov, Ma rk, 73, 157

Rudolf, Anna, 178

Tal, M ikhail, 19, 66-67, 106, 1 1 4 , 177

I ndex Talese, Gay, 79 Tanwir, Furquan "K han," 1-3, 13, 17, 23, 104, 1 1 2 , 146, 208-9

25 1

violence, 36-40; against one's opponent, 70, 13739; and masochism, n, 139; sexualized, 138 Virilio, Paul, 190

Ta rrasch, Siegbert, 166, 207

visualization, 107-10, 114, 172

Tartakower, Savielly, 79

Vucic, Mladen, 99, 135, 166

tech nologies of the self, 10, 115 tech nology: as enhancement, 152-56; as cheating tool, 174-80

Washington Square Pa rk, 4 , 22, 26, 6o Watson, john, 53, 98, 167, 171, 209

temporality, 18, 35, 119

Weeramant ry, Sunil, 1 24-25, 161, 166-67, 217

Thucydides, 222-23

Wei!, Simone, 17

Thurman, judith, 190

Wend ling, Th ierry, 20, 35

time, 1-3, 17-23, 28, 35-36, 52, 70, 72, 1 13-19,

W i n n icott, D. W., 44-45

1 29-30, 185-87, 193. 207 Timman, jan, 8 5

wisdom, 39-40, 48-49, 65, 222-23 Wojtkiewicz, . A lexander, 40

Ti moshchenko, Gennadi, 8 4 - 8 5 , 90

Woods, Tiger, 101

Topalov, Veselin, 163 , 176-77

Wright, Polly, 194, 198

Trajkovic, Predrag, 29, 96, 99, 169

Wu Tang Clan, 1 2

TrifunoviC, Petar, 57 Yakovich, Yu ri, 8 8 - 8 9 USCF, 59, 166

Yudasin, Leonid, 34, 45, 50, 1 1 3 , 1 3 9 , 1 6 9 , 218

Vaganian, Rafael, 145

Zaitsev, Igor, 97

Varshavsky, Eugene, 176

Ziegler, Ari, 92

Vicary, Elizabeth, 24, 45, 6o, 68, 93, 118, 1 23, 128, 138-39. 141, 188, 197. 219-21

Znosko- Borovsky, Eugene, 97 Zweig, Stefan, 144

TEXT

rol r 3 Sabon D I S P L AY

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