Author: Otello Gnaramori
Date: 10:34:01 04/19/02
Excerpt from http://www.kasparovchess.com/serve/templates/folders/show.asp?p_docID=1463&p_docLang=EN: "It is very difficult to describe a perfect combination that can fascinate chess admirers, especially now, in the end of the 20th century, when amateurs and grandmasters have computers at their disposal. Any combination, any sacrifice, can be analyzed not only by keen chess analysts but by any person who knows a slight bit about chess, can afford a powerful computer, and can help it move around the maze of opportunities. Therefore, the criterion of beauty today should include the overall correctness of the idea, even allowing for certain human defects, as there is no combination without the partnership of two chess players. The rightness of a combination, its harmony and accuracy, are now seen much more quickly. It no longer takes years or months; the final verdict will be announced in a few days or weeks. It is clear that the ultimate combination should have a thrilling element, such as inevitable mate or sacrifices, where one’s mind rules over matter. It could be a combination with a mating attack, allowing a mating net to be spun with minimal effort. This is something that everyone likes. In the long run, the final aim of the game of chess is to mate the King of the adversary. Unfortunately, modern defensive technique does not let us fulfill such combinations, but nips them in the bud. A piece and even a Pawn sacrifice are now regarded as something special, let alone a Rook sacrifice, which has already become a relic in the games of leading chess players, when done without an obvious combinational motive. Moreover, legendary marches of the King through the chessboard, when White or Black monarch has to cross the minefield under a hail of fire, are buried in obscurity. The time of "evergreen" and "immortal" games by Adolph Andersen has also sunk into oblivion. I least of all imagined that one day I would be able to revitalize the rebellious and romantic spirit of the chessboard and to create a combination that would conform to all of the above-mentioned severe criteria." copyright (C) KasparovChess 2002 w.b.r. Otello
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