"The Mozart of Chess"

by Rakesh Leel

Fig.1 Chess Board

The 64 black and white square board has never seen this much limelight in it's history as in the last year. To your disappointment, it is not Checkers and definitely not Test Cricket, but it's Chess. After the pandemic struck it's online adventure led to its boom and even deeper penetration of the game. This shifting of  discourse is happening as I speak/ write this excerpt.

The Legends say that Chess has it's origin in India, though still widely contested. Ancient India called it  'Shatranj'  and was considered as the tactical game for Princely Kings. During trade with Arabs, they borrowed the game and later introduced it to Europe.  It's modern form is said to have been developed in England.

The game has stood the testament of time through centuries. It is due to it's availability, accessibility and affordability. It can be played by anyone, irrespective of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, whichever part of the world you are in. It is not in vagaries of space and time.

Fig.2 Magnus Carlsen

The current World Champion GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR) is the highest rated ELO player in the history of chess. He had a peak rating of 2882 in Classical. He is considered as 'The Mozart of Chess', which he humbly denies. The 32 pieces game has been helmed by him. He won his championship title  against GM Vishwanathan Anand (IND) at Chennai in 2013. After which he has successfully defended the title.

The three stages of chess- opening, middle game and end game are more or less similar to life. This has been sufficely illustrated by Shah Rukh Khan. He said, one, "just like pawns your life has invaluable inputs and efforts from the people you might be ignorant of, but it is of very much significance". Two, "co-operation aur saath mil-jhul kar kaam kaise karna hai". Three, "zindagi mei aagey badhne ke liye piche bhi hatna padta hai". Four, "kabhi kabhi jis cheez se sabse zyaada lagaav ho jaata hai, Raani, usse bhi sacrifice karna padta hai".

Fig.3 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

My memory throws me back to the climax of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'. Just a trivia- in the game even after losing a queen they had powerful attack and were about to deliver checkmate. One required the sacrifice of Ron (Knight) and second required sacrifice of Harry (Bishop). Ron went for his own sacrifice deliberately not stating the second option, unnoticeable but this makes him much more courageous. The recent production of Netflix titled as 'The Queen's Gambit' has drawn significant accolades, also requires a special mention.

Russia is a mammoth country when it comes to Chess. The Chess culture is ingrained in Moscow and it's hinterland. Lately, the booming prodigies of chess has an epicentre in India, with 4 out of 10 youngest GM. The youngest Indian being GM Gukesh Dommaraju just   12 years 7 months and 17 days. He missed by mere margin of 17 days to be the worlds youngest GM. When I was 12, I only knew 'Charlizard Charmeleon ka viksit roop hai, jo ki Charmander ka viksit roop hai.'

Neural Science studies reveal that the minds of Chess players is more analogous to pattern recognition used in the Artificial Intelligence viz. Face Recognition, Machine Learning, etc. After the advent of computers the brilliance has definitely dipped but still the moves cannot be remembered completely. Because the astonishing fact is that total number of 'possible moves' in Chess are more than the atoms present in the 'observable universe'.

Fig. 4 Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi

Piece activity is considered the most significant aspect of the game once considerable opening position reach. This has been highlighted by various Chess database and computer programs. One such is Alpha Zero which just sacrifices and suppresses opponents pieces for the sake of activity. The arrival of Supercomputers and Quantum computers will definitely shape it's future course, but till now the game of chess remains unsolved.

GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) is challenger to the upcoming World Championship match in late November 2021. He definitely will put up a fierce fight against the longest unbeaten streak player in Classical Chess, Magnus Carlsen. Or else the World Champion will prevail through thick and thin, as 'The Mozart of Chess' still stands tall and strong for almost a decade now.