March is the month of madness — a good thing if you’re a college basketball fan but a more sensitive topic if your game is chess.
Chess mastery and mental instability have been linked at least since the days of King James I, who warned Shakespeare’s contemporaries against a “folly” that “filleth and troubleth men’s heads” and distracts them from affairs of the day.
The notion that chess players are invariably high-strung and high-maintenance is especially touchy for U.S. players because some of our greatest stars — Morphy, Steinitz, Pillsbury, Fischer — all struggled with mental illness during or after their careers.
But it’s been my experience that chess lovers are no odder or more unbalanced than other people in pursuit of their passions. Fischer was clearly a tormented genius, but there is a long list of world champions, from Lasker and Botvinnik in the 20th century to Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen today, who are models of rationality and equanimity.
And today’s game was played by a man who credits chess with keeping him sane. Soviet dissident and human rights activist Natan Sharansky, now a top public official in Israel, has repeatedly said it was chess that saved him during the nine years he spent as a political prisoner in Siberia, half of that time in solitary confinement. A strong player as a boy, Sharansky said he would play imaginary chess games in his head to pass the time and keep his mind sharp in the camps.
The mental exercises may have paid off when Sharansky defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in a 1996 simultaneous exhibition, courtesy of a spectacular sacrificial attack. Kasparov was dealing with 25 strong players at the time, but a win is a win.
One on one, of course, Kasparov would never have overlooked the game’s decisive shot in this Exchange French: 13. Re1 c4 14. Nbd2? (see diagram; with his f2-square so vulnerable, White should not be locking in his own dark-squared bishop) Nxf2! 15. Kxf2 Bc5+, when after 16. Re3 (Ke2 Bd3 mate and 16. Kg3 Qd6+ offer no salvation) Bxe3+ 17. Kxe3 Re8+ 18. Kf2 Qxd5 19. Kg1 Rad8. Black nets only a rook and two pawns for two minor pieces after the combination, but his positional dominance is overwhelming.
A queen trade barely slows down the Black attack, and in the final position, White resigns before another piece falls on 28…Rf1+ 29. Kg3 Ree1.
Let the great British chess writer C.H.O’D. Alexander have the judicious last word on the topic: “Overall, chess players are much less odd than is generally supposed. It is unfortunate that Fischer is such an extreme type; his unbalanced behavior has inevitably encouraged journalistic muckraking for other eccentricities amongst chess masters. Steinitz’s mind broke down when he was old, ill, unhappy and within a year of his death. It is as misleading as it is heartless to represent his conduct then as if it were his normal behavior.”
Kasparov-Sharansky, Simultaneous exhibition, Jerusalem, October 1996
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bd3 Be7 6. h3 Nc6 7. a3 Ne4 8. c4 Bf5 9. O-O dxc4 10. Bxc4 O-O 11. d5 Na5 12. Ba2 c5 13. Re1 c4 14. Nbd2 Nxf2 15. Kxf2 Bc5+ 16. Re3 Bxe3+ 17. Kxe3 Re8+ 18. Kf2 Qxd5 19. Kg1 Rad8 20. Kh1 b5 21. Qf1 Bd3 22. Qg1 Nc6 23. Nb1 Nd4 24. Nxd4 Qxd4 25. Nc3 Qxg1+ 26. Kxg1 Re1+ 27. Kf2 Rde8 28. Nxb5 and White resigns.
• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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