This morning I read an article by J.H. Donner in his book The King: Chess Pieces, in which he argued against Botvinnik’s assertion that chess is an art. “No, chess cannot be compared with anything. Many things can be compared with chess, but chess is only chess.”
Actually, I think chess is like poetry. And, to address a question I raised in an earlier post, it is definitely worth blogging about.
I keep a chess notebook and in there I can get away with writing any old rubbish. I wrote several pages on why I thought Victor Bologan’s analysis of the Falkbeer Counter-Gambit was not to be trusted. It was missing two really important and obvious lines!
I found Bologan’s analysis in his book called Bologan’s Black Weapons in the Open Games: How to Play for a Win if White Avoids the Ruy Lopez.
I noted that he referred to John Shaw’s conclusion on page 318 of his book on the King’s Gambit after 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3. Nf3 d5 4. exd5 Nf6 5.c4, (“White is fighting for equality here.”) without, however, giving any response to John Shaw’s recommendation for White on move 5 in that line.
White has two obvious replies here, 5. Bc4 or 5. Bb5+.
Bologan doesn’t mention them — or so I thought!
Now, if I’d left it there, I might never have looked any further. But this was such a mystery that I wanted to unburden myself of it in this blog. I value my reputation too much to put any old rubbish up before the public gaze, so I decided to check again.
And light dawned!
What I had failed to notice was that the chapter I was reading was only the introduction to the Falkbeer Counter-Gambit and that Victor in fact devotes further whole chapters to each of those two replies.
This is, of course, perfectly in keeping with a convention followed in the majority of books on chess openings, which is to always save the most obvious and best moves for last. In fact most books on openings are best read backwards.
Which is why I say chess is like poetry. For, when delving into any aspect of chess, it is always advisable to bear in mind Alexander Pope’s advice on writing poetry:
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fired at first sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts,
While from the bounded level of our mind
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;
But more advanced, behold with strange surprise
New distant scenes of endless science rise!
So pleased at first the towering Alps we try,
Mount o’er the vales, and seem to tread the sky,
The eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last;
But, those attained, we tremble to survey
The growing labors of the lengthened way,
The increasing prospects tire our wandering eyes,
Hills peep o’er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!
Casual Checks 