Rooting for the Underdog
In chess, the sporting element is supreme right now. The artistic side of the game has been pushed aside by a more "mathematical", computerized approach to the game.
I remember Anand getting in trouble in a game because he "forgot the move order"....and this was around move 16 or so!
As with any advance or change, there are pros and cons. Of course, computers have discovered for us new ways to play certain lines, and also they have discovered for us more possibilities, especially on the defensive side of chess.
In any sport there are favorites and underdogs. In Super Bowl XLVIII, for the 2013 NFL season, the Seattle Seahawks were the underdogs. They were playing against the Denver Broncos, who had Peyton Manning, one of the best quarterbacks of all time.
In spite of being underdogs, they beat the Broncos with the score of 42-3!
In this video, you get to see some stories from the Seahawks players.
This is just one example of what an underdog can do!
When I watch any sport, I find myself rooting for the underdog.
In 2003, a 15 year-old kid, Teimour Radjabov, played in Linares, a tournament that Kasparov had dominated for years!
Kasparov had the White pieces. To say that Radjabov was the underdog would be a gross understatement! Kasparov had a 6-year undefeated streak at Linares, and a 7-year undefeated streak with the White pieces!
And yet Radjabov was able to win, and win convincingly, playing fearlessly!
In 1958, 24 year-old Lev Polugaevsky was White against 48 year-old Rashid Nezhmetdinov. Polugaevsky would go in to gain the GM title and play in 5 Candidates' Matches, while Nezhmetdinov would "only" attain the IM title.
Rashid G. Nezhmetdinov
(1912-1974)
Again, the player with the Black pieces attained victory, and how! An immortal game!
In the 1980 European Team Championship. Anthony (Tony) Miles, from England, had the Black pieces against World Champion Anatoly Karpov, who was at the height of his powers, dominating world chess.
Not only did Miles win, but he won by replying to Karpov's 1.e4 with 1...a6! The amount of courage that it took to play a move like that against Karpov, I can only imagine!
Karpov-Miles
In 2002, in the Russia vs. Rest of the World Match, Judit Polgar played World Champion Garry Kasparov. Polgar's rating was 2681; Kasparov's rating was 2838! Guess who was the underdog?
Yet the incredible happened. Polgar crushed Kasparov's Berlin Defense, a defense so solid, Kasparov could not win a game with White against it in his WC Match against Kramnik in the year 2000!
From the previous examples, one thing should be clear: First of all, there are no small opponents! On any given day, anyone can beat you, and you can beat anyone!
That is on the sporting side of chess......there are other issues that concern me. You see, I am a musician, an arranger, composer, keyboard player and singer. And although I am NOT world class by any means, I am an artist, with an artist's sensibility, and foremost is a sense of beauty.
Art demands that one remain open, sensitive to life's more subtle realities, and intuitive. It is perhaps because of this that I am drawn to players of an artistic temperament. There is also another side; I am drawn to players who are noble in their human qualities. This is because in the same way one can find beauty in a sunrise, a sunset, a flower, or a child's smile, there is also beauty of character. The combination of artistry with nobility of character is one I am drawn into; I find it irresistible.
Bronstein, Keres, Tal, Gufeld, Tartakower, Rubinstein, for example, are players that inspire me....
I am somewhat nostalgic of the days when there were Beauty Prizes in tournaments.....
In chess, the importance of the artistic element has decreased, in favor of the sporting element. Sad, but true!
In the words of Rashid Nezhmetdinov and Mikhail Tal, two great artists:
"Creativity and beauty will be gradually leaving chess, with the sport/tournament side prevailing. We will be replaced by a new generation of chess players whose main skill is out-calculating the opponents. The depth of strategical and tactical thought, the subtlety of non-standard ideas, everything we call "romanticism" will be losing importance."
Rashid G. Nezhmetdinov, Interview, 1973
“I am both sad and pleased that in his last tournament, Rashid Gibiatovich came to my home in Latvia. He did not take first place, but the prize for beauty, as always, he took with him. Players die, tournaments are forgotten, but the works of great artists are left behind them to live on forever. (on Nezhmetdinov)” - Mikhail Tal
I can go on forever, but let me close with this......the sense of beauty can be applied to any discipline, but also to life in general. There are certain things which elevate our spirit, and others that demean it.
Spirituality, the arts, sports, and peace are some of the things that elevate us. Humanity is all one family; we are like a gigantic flower with many petals, or an immense ocean with countless drops!
Right now, I feel that humans are the underdog, although they should not be! Technology is good, if it is used for good. It should NOT be an end in itself.
Einstein:
“I believe that the abominable deterioration of ethical standards stems primarily from the mechanization and depersonalization of our lives,” he wrote in a letter to his friend, psychiatrist Otto Juliusburger, in 1948, “a disastrous byproduct of science and technology. Nostra culpa!”
A strong quote from Einstein! He saw the power of technology....and saw the devastation it could cause when used for war!
Yet something we are not told about Einstein is how much he loved music; he felt in the music of Mozart the harmony of the Universe!
When he was teaching at Princeton University, sometimes, instead of delivering a lecture on physics, he would play the violin! That was the lecture! He felt that music was as effective, if not more so, than mathematics, to express what the Universe is!
I leave you with a musical example.
Eric Whitacre has composed and recorded some sublime musical pieces, using singers from all over the world! He conducts the piece, and the participants submit their voice, recorded and with a video of them singing then song!
The first piece I heard by him was called "Sleep"....it uses over 2,000 videos from over 58 countries.....a multi-national flower of singers, creating beauty! How cool is that?
Sleep
The evening hangs beneath the moon
A silver thread on darkened dune
With closing eyes and resting head
I know that sleep is coming soon
Upon my pillow, safe in bed
A thousand pictures fill my head
I cannot sleep my minds a flight
And yet my limbs seem made of lead
If there are noises in the night
A frighting shadow, flickering light
Then I surrender unto sleep
Where clouds of dreams give second sight
What dreams may come both dark and deep
Of flying wings and soaring leap
As I surrender unto sleep
As I surrender unto sleep
"Sleep", by Charles Anthony Silvestri
The following song is called "Water Night", with text by Nobel Laureate poet Octavio Paz. It uses 3,746 videos from 73 countries!:
"Night with the eyes of a horse that trembles in the night
Night with eyes of water in the field asleep
Is in your eyes, a horse that trembles is in
Your eyes of secret water
Eyes of shadow-water
Eyes of well-water
Eyes of dream-water
Silence and solitude
Two little animals moon-led
Drink in your eyes
Drink in those waters
If you open your eyes, night opens doors of musk
The secret kingdom of the water opens
Flowing from the center of the night
And if you close your eyes
A river, a silent and beautiful current, fills you from within
Flows forward, darkens you:
Night brings its wetness to beaches in your soul."
Poem by Octavio Paz; translation by Muriel Rukeyser
I wish you all a happy, loving and peaceful holiday season!
