Author: Jorge Pichard
Date: 17:31:20 07/12/00
There are only a few Technicians among the top 10 players in the world such as: Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand who make few errors and lose few games. For instance, Kramnik was unbeaten in 86 games. When they are beaten, it is usually in a manner which reflects credit on their opponents. The technicians are what the word implies: they "play like a book in the opening, like a magician in the mid-game, and like a machine in the ending." Since they realize that machines make no tactical errors, they often invite premature attacks and make the most unusual moves in order to provoke the machine to play for a win and thus overreaching their horizon, when the position did not really justify such attempt. They rarely try to force the game or go contrary to the objective demands of the position. As a general rule, in closed games, Space is more important than Time. This lends itself to positions where patience and endless maneuvering are the order of the day. It is really remarkable what the good technicians can do once he is given the most minute advantage. Exploiting weak squares and accumulating invisible advantages are matters of second nature. They have absorbed all the knowledge of the past, and apply to it unparalleled technique. Their emphasis is on how to win a won game, rather on how to get one. Because of the slow jockeying for position so characteristic of their games, the technicians are continually reproached with being dull and colorless. The non technicians players are not equipped with the patience or the ability to appreciate this subtle brand of chess in which all the action seems to take place beneath the surface. Nothing "happens," no slam-bang attacks, no flim-flam-yet somehow the technicians emerge trimphants. This was some of my reasoning, while I was observing this great game between Kramnik vs Deep Junior; as if Kramnik was trying to show Kasparov how he should have handled Deep Blue in their last encounter. Pichard.
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