Dostoevsky and Chess: Talking with the Devil

There are deep human experiences of duality, choice, and the confrontation with one's own nature thru inner dialogue with the double, devil, or alter-ego, whether on the chessboard or within the psyche of Dostoevsky's literary characters (think 'The Double').

Let's draw a parallel between the inner dialogues and contradictions of Dostoevsky's characters and the inner conversation of a chess player while contemplating different game scenarios and making decisions in play style (e.g., aggressive vs. defensive, risky vs. safe), mirroring the moral choices that face Dostoevsky's literary characters,

Dostoevsky's Characters: Characters like Raskolnikov in "Crime and Punishment" or Ivan Karamazov in "The Brothers Karamazov" engage in internal dialogues with their alter-egos, reflecting their moral, psychological, or existential conflicts. These conversations often reveal the characters' contradictions, doubts, and the battle between their higher and baser selves.

Chess: Chess involves a constant mental battle where the player anticipates, plans, and reacts to the opponent's moves. Each plan on the board can be seen as an aspect of one's personality or strategy, where the player must navigate through their own ideas and counter the opponent's, much like navigating one's own psyche.

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Share your thoughts and experiences...

Used to have the good author as my pfp.

Korchnoi always struck me as being the chessplayer's avatar for a Dvoretsky novel if he'd written one about chess masters. It was just an impression that struck me, though I don't know why.

My alter-ego's pfp is a roaring tiger cub-like pawn.

Now I'm in constant inner struggle between always being ready to roar into action, using unconventional thinking, challenging stereotypes, and having ambition for personal growth and promotion,

and, alas, being under-promoted now and zooming in straightforward fashion most of time

Great pfp. I hadn't looked closely enough. Mine is obviously about my chess demons tormenting me, which fits into the theme of your post.

Kevin, yours fits perfectly for the subject!

I remember reading Dostoevsky in a University class. It was dark....and I wondered, "why are we reading this?....He would go and explore the psyche of a murderer.......

Dostoevsky's work, while dark, is also illuminating, offering insights into human nature. His characters are complex, with moral, existential, and psychological dilemmas, and motivations that are deeply human, even if those motivations lead them sometimes down dark paths.

 :tup

Excellent contribution! In unicist homeopathic treatment, the double personality that most patients present is also evaluated...we also see it in chess, why not? Thanks!

Our debilitating chess diseases can't be treated by minute doses of homeopathy. We need pretty stronger dosage to heal the symptoms of "both patients"

Thanks for dropping by! Take care

My dear friend, 40 years of experience support my words...it is better to treat the causes and not the consequences! The pills are pure power and energy of change, just the right balance...

Best Regards

Had a girlfriend around 1969-70 who was very keen on Dostoevsky and she got me thinking a bit along those lines. In fact, she's the one portrayed with me on this thumbnail.

My impression of D, and it is ONLY an impression, was that his portrayals of "inner warfare" were a result of his own psychic reactions but not necessarily those of others. Maybe he portrayed his ideas in a starker simplicity than they deserved, though. The reality of chess warfare is that options should be kept open until a defining route is chosen. Perhaps D tended to emphasise "either/or" too much? Inner contemplation is also more subtle than that.

For instance, if we were to embark on a train of thought where, rather like in chess, EVERY thought we have starkly influences our future, and we are at a time in our lives when we may believe, for whatever reason, that immediate change is necessary or there will be some kind of catastrophe, what is necessary is not a violent struggle where one morality must defeat the other. That's the route taken by people destined for the asylum or worse.

So what is necessary is an acceptance coupled with a fundamental instinct that treats others as you yourself would be treated. That means a willingness to give up your own "spiritual" life to save another. Then and only then, it seems to me, are the barriers removed. These were barriers which the mind itself erects in order, seemingly, to protect itself. Once all of your mind or psyche is willingly accepted, then you are free of the fetters which would otherwise hold you back from progressing on your spiritual journey.

It seems to be the same in chess, except that in chess, the board is symbolic of your mind. So it means "looking at the whole board". Maybe, it's as simplistic as that? This is all just off the top of my head and I don't expect that everyone will see my thoughts as constructive.

Incidentally, the Vedic prose of the Bhagavad Gita deals with an actual war which occured in India, beteeen Aryan invaders and the previous rulers and their people. It isn't always understood that this portrayal was of an actual war which took place. The subject or hero, Arjuna, is one of the leaders of the invading force. The confrontation between opposing sides in the conflict is used in the Gita to portray conflicting moralities of duty and benevolence. I found it very helpful decades ago, because essentially, what it is offering is "acceptance".

I don't think that the morality of the Gita, as offered as the metaphoric version of inner conflict which is characterised by actual warfare, is at all sound. It merely reflected the morality of the times and shouldn't necessarily be thought of as being acceptable. But what it DOES do is place inner, moral conflict into the paradigm of actual warfare, which was something which, presumably, could be understood by most.

True, instead of prevention (prophylaxis, as Nimzo would call it), we just do firefighting

Need to learn a thing or two about homeopathy

Saludos

Roger, thank you for visiting. And thank you very much, indeed, for your feedback, a very thorough and thoughtful commentary on the D's mental struggles and a possible chess player's way of contemplating their strategy and tactical opportunities.

Really appreciated,

Cheers, Momir

That's extremely kind of you, thanks. Maybe I was on form at the time of writing.

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."