The Death of the Dinosaurs

You didn't really think this blog was going to be about Velociraptors and Jurassic Park and all that stuff, did you? Unfortunately, this blog will not be dealing with an asteroid which may have hit the Earth in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 66 million years ago, annihilating the dinosaur race (which, of course, may have come back as the intergalactic space lizards who currently rule the world along with the Illuminati.)

Ok, down to the serious stuff.

The 'dinosaurs' are just a clickbaitish way to talk about the players of the Romantic era of chess, for whom sacrifices were almost as natural as Berlin draws are to current super GMs, who knew how to attack and weren't afraid to do it. Unfortunately, there's a small problem with this style of play - it often neglects the positional elements of chess! Anyway, in this blog, I'm going to discuss just why the Romantic style died out somewhere between 1910 and 1950. But before we do that, let me just quickly prove to you that it existed to begin with.

Romantic Chess

Deus Vult! Let us return to these ancient and glorious times, O friends!

Oh, the days of the flower of chivalry, when men were men, knights were daring cavalry, and kings were hunted like dogs for fun!

Well, maybe not that last part. It's not very fun having your king hunted.

Anyway, to prove to you that this age actually did exist, and that it's not just my wistful hopes and dreams, I'll open my copy of 500 Master Games of Chess, by the legendary Savielly Tartakower to two random spots. All of the games in this book were played before 1950 - the ending point of true Romanticism. Here are the two games I got. 

Believe it or not, those were two randomly selected games. Nowadays, we're lucky if we see even two games a month like that. Now, I'm going to select a random game played in a super GM tournament recently.

Which of these games is more 'accurate'? By far the third one. Which is more beautiful? The first and second.

Why Did They Die?

While Romantic chess may look a lot prettier than a positional grind, unfortunately it can't easily withstand it. Positional play and stolid defense will generally defeat an overbold attack - as many of these attacks were. 

Secondly, players learned how to rebut openings like the King's Gambit and the Danish Gambit, just as, while you see these in club level play, you rarely see them at master level. Of course, I'm not suggesting (as others have in the past!) that players such as Morphy were club-level. They were obviously still world-class players. But, however, their openings were not up to a 21st century standard.

Will They Return? 

Unfortunately, with few exceptions, modern chessplayers have not returned to a Romantic style. I don't blame them - after all, it's harder and harder to even play the opening well, now that you're fighting an engine and a dozen novelties. So, no, I don't think the dinosaurs will ever return. But one can always hope!