The game of 64 squares is about as bloody any non-contact game can get. But it’s much more than that. Involves knowledge, strategy, patience, stamina, calculating ahead, waiting for the right opportunity, knowing when to attack and when to defend and most importantly knowing how to put available resources to good effect. At the highest level it’s a game of lyrical beauty and balance with top players having almost same and similar pieces on the board for most part of a game. It’s in how the pieces are positioned that makes a difference. Controlling the 4 central squares is crucial to gaining upper hand. For interested and casual observers like me most top-level games appear balanced (and at times it can be boring when a player appears to take forever to make a move). When you replay the game on the computer move by move, and especially if there is expert comment along with it, that’s when the almost imperceptible shift in advantage of one player becomes somewhat clear. Growing up when I used to read about a player being a pawn up I used to wonder what is the big deal, a pawn is just a loyal foot soldier. Later I realized why that could translate into a decisive advantage. When the players start exchanging pieces rapidly (generally it’s like for like or pieces considered of equal power) the board starts clearing up and the game could reach a stage where a player with extra pawn could have a king and pawn while the other player could just have a king. In such a scenario the player with extra pawn could advance the pawn (under protection of their king) to the other end of the board and promote the pawn to a powerful piece, for example a queen! All married men know how powerful queen of the home can be 😀 Jokes apart the queen is the most powerful and therefore coveted piece on the board that can move straight up or down and diagonally across end to end and capture other pieces coming in the way.
One memorable chess game that comes to mind is the final game of World Chess Championship in 2016. After the regular games ended with both Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin tied with the same # of points they had to play set of tie-breaker games to determine the winner. Tie-breaker games tend to be with stricter time control. Meaning each player should make at least N moves within a time limit. Just for the sake of example let’s say 30 moves in 30 minutes. That could translate into a player under time trouble making a serious blunder that could lead to a disastrous result and the player resigning if the position is hopeless. In serious competitive play the game does not continue till a player makes a final move and announces “Check and mate!”. The # of games in a championship are a even number to give both players potentially the same # of games with white and black pieces.
Coming back to that game Magnus Carlsen playing white in final game of tie-breaker retained his World Chess Champion title with a move that was stunning. He offered to sacrifice his queen with a check and won immediately which is considered ultimate winning move and a beauty in chess. That move had both chess experts and non-experts gushing 🙂 Not a bad return at all for a 26th birthday gift 😀 If you look at the attached image it shows where the white queen was moved. Player with black pieces (Karjakin) has 2 options for next move
1) Capture white queen which is moved to H6 with pawn which is on H7. This would result in player with white next moving rook from F5 to F7 and giving check to black king that cannot move to open squares on row 8 as that would be check from white rook placed on C8. Black king cannot move to G6 either as that would result in check from white pawn on H5. Black checkmate would be the end result
2) The other possible move is capturing white queen on H6 with black king on H7. If that move is made, white rook on C8 will be moved to H8 resulting in instant black checkmate as black king cannot evade check by staying in column H with white rook at H8 nor can the black king move to G6 as that would be result in check with pawn on H5!
Needless to say Karjakin resigned immediately as soon as white queen was moved to H6. Of course The Raj had to work out all possible moves by black to figure out why it was a certain loss for black 😀
Ironically for Karjakin without a check Carlsen would have lost to opponent Karjakin’s next move either by giving check moving black queen from F2 to G2 or moving black rook from A2 to A1 😦
As in life it helps to stay ahead one move in chess too!
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