The Way We Were
The 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament is an event a true chess aficionado can only dream about. Exciting chess, a tour de force by GM Javokhir Sindarov, and unprecedented online coverage. And yet, as I watch some games, I feel a quiet sense of sadness. It really reminds me of the final scene of the classic movie The Way We Were.
There, the two protagonists, Hubbel and Katie, unexpectedly run into each other years after their divorce. At one point, Katie gently adjusts his hair, a small, almost unconscious gesture that briefly restores the intimacy of who they once were. It's quiet, but very powerful. The movie ends with its theme song, which became a huge hit. The lyrics go:
Memories
Light the corners of my mind
Misty watercolor memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were
It leaves you with a bittersweet feeling: sometimes, what once felt alive and unique cannot survive unchanged. The same way I look at modern, sophisticated, engine-enhanced games and feel nostalgic for the bygone era when chess was more innocent, more naive, and more human.
Let me show you a few of those "scattered pictures" seen today through the windows of our powerful modern chess Teslas.
The move 17.e4 is very natural and good, so why do the engines recommend 17. a3 instead? For the answer, let's look at the amazing book that we discussed in another article. There, GM Garry Kasparov analyzes the 10th game of his Candidate's match vs. GM Viktor Korchnoi:
Kasparov explains in his annotations that White doesn't need to rush with e3-e4; instead, he needs to constantly threaten this break. Playing a2-a3 and moving their bishop to a2 are very important parts of this plan. In the game, Kasparov sacrificed material but got serious counterplay, and in the end, this very complicated game was a draw.
The next interesting moment in our main game happened when GM Anish Giri missed a very elegant idea:
The idea of giving up the e3-pawn to trap the e3-rook by playing Ne5 is not new. Just take a look at this golden oldie, which is almost 200 years old:
After Giri missed this idea, the game simplified into a very interesting endgame where the white bishop looked much stronger than the black knight. Yet, GM Hikaru Nakamura found a cute way to sacrifice his poor knight and save the game with a perpetual check.
A very similar endgame happened in the following classical game, where Black was less fortunate:
I don't want you, my dear readers, to get a wrong impression of this article: I am not complaining. Chess has not lost its greatness—it has simply changed. The depth today is extraordinary, the accuracy almost frightening. And yet, those scattered pictures remain! A daring sacrifice that shouldn't quite work, but does. An intuitive decision made without silicon guidance. You can find all of these in the game between Sindarov and GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, played in the same round as Giri vs. Nakamura:
We cannot return to the pre-computer era of chess, just as we cannot step back into the lives we once lived. But we can still visit it, from time to time, in the games that survived and in the feelings they evoke. And maybe that is enough. Because in those moments, looking at those positions, those ideas, those moves… we don't just study chess. We remember the way we were.
