Thursday 11 December 2014

When Masters get bored

For some being a professional chess player would be the ultimate career, for others it may well be a nightmare. One of the worries I would have trying to be a full time chessplayer (apart from lack of ability) is that it would eventually become a boring grind, like almost every other profession.
Of course you may be able to change at least some aspects of your day, by changing your regular opponents (by playing simuls or exhibitions) or even deciding to play different openings. I suspect this may have happened a lot in the distant past, with positional players like Rubinstein, Nimzowitsch or even Capablanca trying gambit lines (eg Latvian or Kings) to liven proceedings.
An example is the following game by Rubinstein. Despite forging 1.d4 into a great attacking weapon, he decides to wheel out the Kings Gambit in this game. He even plays it in a pretty risky manner, offering Hromadka an exchange at one point. After Hromadka declines the offer Rubuinstein gets the upper hand, and finds a brilliant tactical finish starting with 25.Qb6. Unlike most days, when he went home to the wife after work he could accurately describe his day as 'exciting'


Rubinstein,Akiba - Hromadka,Karel [C30]
Maehrisch Ostrau Maehrisch Ostrau (4), 1923



No comments: