Why the chess world is never-ending
Chess is a world of innovation and creativity. It is such a world that if you dare get inside, you will be mesmerized by the majestic beauty manifested in 64 square blocks.
An amazing brain game, it requires highly logical and complex thinking power. You have to go deep under the surface to find all the hidden treasure, and you are bound to sense purely sublime pleasure if you venture this thrilling adventure.
Every now and then, I come across people who claim that chess will be dead in the next 20-30 years. They argue that chess has no future left, at least classical chess, and bet that only quicker formats will be seen in the near future. And their reason?
DID ENGINES SOUND THE DEATH KNELL ON THIS ANCIENT GAME?
Since Deep Blue became the first engine in the history of chess to defeat a reigning World Champion, various individuals have grouped to advanced the silicon monsters to higher levels, such that they are virtually impossible to beat them now.
Due to the engines, these days the openings are more or less played out correctly. Like previous times, there have been no new openings being formed. But the point is that we are seeing opening surprises all the time! Let us take for example the just concluded World Championship between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. The two best players in the world, right?
So they didn't make mistakes? So they kept following all the opening lines discovered? So they kept playing like engines? Ah well, no. In fact, the match involved lot exciting chess, with mistakes despite of all draws. Almost every game we were seeing some surprises.
I do not agree that the engines are now ruling the openings. And even if they are, there is a lot more chess to be played after this phase of the game! The practical and psychological part in humans lead to mistakes. Hardly do you witness a completely flawless game by both players.. "To err is to human"
What about engines games actually? Even these are not all that flawless. Currently the Computer Chess Championship is taking place between various strong engines on chess.com, and we still we are seeing lots of decisive results.
Some engines games are actually a source of inspiration and ideas. And even excitement. Take for example this now famous game between Stockfish, and the new terrorizing power in chess: AlphaZero.
How, when two silicon monsters face each other, can the game not end in a draw, you might be wondering? Exactly. If engine chess is seeing progress, why is human chess, the real chess being envisioned dead?
HAVE THE NUMBER OF DRAWS MADE CHESS MONOTONOUS?
Let me correct thousands, maybe millions of people worldwide. DRAW IS NOT A SYNONYM OF BORING.
How does it matter if we are seeing lots of draws recently? Does it do anything to reduce the excitement of the game? They can be sometimes heavily more exciting than decisive results. Take for example this game, which is probably one of the most brilliant draws ever witnessed in chess history:
I can hear screams of 'talk recent!'
Let us take the latest event, and the biggest, the World Championship. 12 draws? Hmm... Boring? No. Monotonous? No.
See this wild game. A more or less precise one, and still so spectacular, you wouldn't believe right? Take a look yourself:
'CHESS IS NOT SPECTATOR-FRIENDLY...'
Chess is currently the most played game in the world by a large margin. HUGE margin. The numbers of people playing chess are even more than the number of players playing football and cricket combined. WOW!!
So taking this into account, how is it not spectator friendly? More than 600 million people around the globe play this game. Isn't that more than enough?
Chess is not an Olympics game. For this reason, many people consider chess as not a sport, but only a "game". The only thing I can say is play chess for yourself and you will realize that chess is completely- without argument a sport!
Chess will go on. Not only for decades, not only for centuries, but forever. Rumours of the death of chess have been greatly exaggerated!!
And when you will realize that, you will remember this old friend of yours, vinniethepooh.
