Are You More a Competitor or a Scientist?

• Chess as an art has a divine origin, while chess as a sport (when victory counts at all costs, sacrificing the beauty of the game) springs from the Devil. - Smyslov, Vassily

Hi everyone, hope you are all doing fine.

What defines a player's character? This is a hard question to answer, as it has a lot of answers for it.

Are you willing to be a champion and wins everything, "conquering the world"? If yes, how far you intend to go to reach it?

Or are you a more reserved person, who prefers staying on your own, doing your chess research, and chill out a bit after an hard day at the office?

You could be a mix of both also.

A competitor is someone who is willing to win, sometimes even at all costs. He wants to conquer.

This reminds me of the Troy movie when Achilles, a legendary warrior of greek´s mythology, gave his speech to encourage his soldiers ("Myrmidions") when intending to conquer Troy´s beach:

• "Mymidions, my brothers of the sword! I would rather fight beside you than any army of thousands! Let no man forget how menacing we are, we are lions! Do you know what´s waiting beyond that beach? Immortality! Take it! It´s your´s" - Achilles, Troy movie

Brad Pitt as Achilles and the Myrmidions

At the same moment, Hector, a prince of Troy, who was a very good and skilled warrior as well, was giving a speech to his soldiers too, but his focus was different than Achilles:

•  All my life, I live by a code, and the code is simple: honor the gods, love your woman, and defend your country. - Hector, Troy movie

Eric Bana as Hector

Both Achilles and Hector were notable warriors, but they had different perspectives on life and objectives. Achilles wanted to make his name echo through centuries ("the meaning of immortality for him"), even knowing he could die in the war, while Hector wanted peace and a comfortable life besides his wife, seeing his beloved baby grows, he didn´t fight to search for glory, but to protect his nation. 

Chess is a very good game as a hobby. but can be painful when you pursue being a professional on it. A lot of very good and skilled players preferred to be like Hector, and have a more comfortable life than sacrificing all to pursue the glory (to join chess world Elite, the "Super GM" club - something like 2730 plus FIDE). 

I would like to share a personal secret with you guys, that, after this post, will not be a secret anymore, but a revelation: I prefer much more to study chess than playing it. 

And this is a thing I was thinking about, I really love the logic of the game, for instance, seeing some flashes of brilliance games (who came from competitions), makes me see why I´m studying this game and not losing my time searching for other things to do or other competencies to improve. 

From the moment I saw the game, I fell in love at first sight with it, I was around 16 years old, and I liked to study it and see the master´s games, and how they thought. But, for what would I use all the time I spent on this studying? How could I manage to apply it in "real life"?

Well, playing, is what gives you recognition, and even maybe salaries for playing for teams and scholarships (as I had while attending the Law School). So I played too and tried to give my best while doing it. 

Me and my teammates celebrating our victory at a university competition in Brazil

While coming back to chess some months ago, after 6 years break being a lawyer, I asked myself... Why I´m doing this again? Moving the pieces on a chessboard again? We´re in a pandemic situation where live tournaments are rarely occurring.  And, on the same day, by accident, I saw this marvelous game - GM Mikhail Tal vs GM Bobby Fischer, Zurich, 1959, on GM Daniel King´s DVD about the Najdorf (Powerplay series).

Another movie comes to mind: Fearless, with Jet Li playing the protagonist role, Hou Yuanjia (霍元甲). 

In the movie, Hou was a very proud boy, that had the ambition to be the best fighter of his time. He was very competitive and, because of his ambition, he became impatient and wanted glory and being recognized before all things. Later on, he rethinks his way of living.

After some redemption, there´s a scene, where he, already the most skilled fighter in China, speaks to his friend about how he felt being on the stage where the fights took place, that while staying there, you always will want to win and never loses, and when you are behind the stage, watching, everything is just entertainment. And then, his friend replies to him: "but you can opt to not rise at the stage".

Jet Lee as Hou Yuanjia

Chess.com personality quiz (you can make your´s here: https://www.chesspersonality.com/) defines Garry Kasparov as a "Champion", a true competitor, but gave traits of a scientist to him as well ("often deeply analyzing openings far into the middlegame"):

• "Garry Kasparov (born 1963), thirteenth World Champion, typifies the chess style of a true Champion. A tireless worker, he brought opening preparation to a new level, often deeply analyzing openings far into the middlegame. Kasparov had unique understanding of dynamics and often showed that seemingly-surprising positional sacrifices were correct. From 1986 until his retirement in 2005 he was almost constantly the highest-rated player in the world, and he held the world championship title from 1985 until 2000 - so it is not surprising that his style was that of a Champion."

Meanwhile, they define his former teacher, Mikhail Botvinnik, as a "Professional":

• "Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995), the sixth world champion, was a clear example of the Professional. Botvinnik was the first top player to develop in the Soviet Union, and was thus considered to be the patriarch of Soviet chess. Botvinnik was one of the first to take a professional approach to preparing for competitions, which included a big emphasis on physical exercise, opening preparation, and deep analysis of his own and his opponent's games. Botvinnik took chess very seriously, but ironically considered himself not to be a full chess professional and worked as an engineer as well."

https://imgur.com/gallery/kTWEc5A

A very young Kasparov and Botvinnik analyzing together

Both were World Champions, and both worked really hard on chess, each one on their way. And I think that both were at the same time competitors and scientists. At younger ages they were more competitors, and, while older, they prefer to focus on the scientific approach (see that Kasparov started to publishing most of his books when he was retiring, like the series My Great Predecessors, which I highly recommend, as it contains a detailed analysis of the previous World Champions games who preceded him and other great players of the past too), while Botvinnik was focusing on teaching his students. 

On the other hand, IM Mark Dvoretsky, who was a famous Russian chess coach (he was a good player as well, but focused more on coaching), decided to focus on studying and teaching the game to his pupils and publish books with his analyzes and conclusions, instead of playing competitive chess. And his contributions to chess can´t be underestimated because he wasn´t "fighting at the stage".

 https://chess.school/blog/chess-teacher-Dvoretsky.html

Mark Dvorestsky

There´s no right and wrong, the purpose of chess for us, as competitors, scientists, or even both of them is to enjoy the game, playing ("fighting on the stage") or studying it ("behind the scenes").

So, which one are traits do you have more: the ones of a competitor, of a scientist, or a mix of both? Let me know.

Thanks for reading till there!

Wish you all a nice day, afternoon, evening, or night (depends on your current hour while reading this), and good and healthy chess games and studies!

Cheers, 

BKB99 (Otto Dmitry).