What makes chess exciting?
This is a question that can be answered in many ways. Different chess-players value different things, depending on personal proclivities and tastes.There is one thing, however, that never fails to impress:
Sacrifices.
Sacrifices in chess have many uses. Many of these are tactical: setting up a double attack or pin, gaining access to the opponent's king, luring the enemy king into a mating net, eliminating defences and ensuring the promotion of a passed pawn are but a few of the tactical objectives for which material can be offered up.
There are also positional considerations that may warrant the investment of one's own wood. This is most clearly seen in gambits: pawns are deliberately placed en pris to accelerate one's own development and forming of a pawn centre, or to disrupt the opponent's plans. These positional sacrifices usually come in the form of a pawn, minor piece, or Exchange. Much less common is the sacrifice of a full rook, and that is precisely what175
For the new issue of New In Chess Magazine (that came out last week), I had the pleasure and privilege of interviewing Bruce Pandolfini. It was an old dream come true. Pandolfini is not only a true legend of American chess, he is also a wonderful personality with an endless supply of great stories. Pandolfini’s chess career took off in 1972, when, much to his surprise, he was invited to be an analyst on TV for the Fischer-Spassky match. Even before the match was over he had also started teaching chess and in the years that followed he became one of the most successful and popular coaches of all time. His most famous pupils were Josh Waitzkin (of Searching for Bobby Fischer fame) and Fabiano Caruana, but there were some ten more that became grandmasters. Besides these extraordinary talents there were many, many more amateur players that he taught, including celebrities from all walks of life.
Pandolfini’s most recent claims to fame were his work for The Queen’s Gambit (he selected most of175
These book reviews by Matthew Sadler were published in New In Chess magazine 2023#2
The role and influence of Steinitz is very interesting and forms a major part both of this book and the book I read as a companion to it: Willy Hendriks’ superb The Ink War (New In Chess). It was lovely to read these two books together, as many of the same characters appear in both, which gives a wonderful sense of recognition!
Hendriks’ book examines the competitive rivalry between Wilhelm (later also William) Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort in the 1870s and 1880s with their 1886 World Championship Match as the fulcrum, examining in particular Steinitz’ characterisation of their struggle as that of Modernity against Romanticism (with Steinitz on the side of Modernity of course!).
From my point of view, I’ve come to view Steinitz through the prism of a comment I once heard Garry Kasparov make about his eternal rival Anatoly Karpov while fielding questions from members of the Clichy chess club for whom I175
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