The butterfly-effect

A chessclub is for me the place to play chess. However not everybody seems to think like that as I often wonder why some people are showing up at all. Even in (big) tournaments I notice that some participants are barely interested in chess. They play their moves very quickly, hardly thinking about the consequences. They don't worry about the result. When I asked why then one of them responded that they mainly participate for the ambiance around the games. The socializing is often more important than chess itself .

I respect their choice but I believe the game is enough interesting to get pleasure. Chess is a vast source of incredible adventures if you are willing to spend time. The more time invested, the more you can discover and eventually also enjoy. Our youngest Belgian FM Daniel Dardha confirmed this at atv: "2 - 3 hours per day working at chess allows me today to enjoy a chess-worldtitle.

Now Daniel has of course a huge advantage thanks to his strong dad. Most youngsters don't have this luxury and often largely overrate their own skills. A small anecdote in le Touquet around a young Belgian talent confirmed my thoughts. The boy told me at the beginning of the tournament that he doesn't believe it is interesting to work extensively with engines  to study chess but later he was very disappointed when he lost a game without any chance playing black in a very theoretical Svechnikov after only 25 moves. We are not anymore living in the romantic 19th century where his kind of chess was successful. Today players need to learn how to operate the engines and databases otherwise more such defeats will follow especially when the opponents start to know which lines you usually like to play.

Anyway I am not only concerned about scoring points and winning titles. This would at the long term just lead to a fading interest and sometimes even some players to quit chess. No it is more important to learn how to find and appreciate the beauty in chess. The excellent recent article Why Study Chess demonstrates that this is possible at any level. Study helps to detect these beautiful things quicker. It is something which I do almost every day.

Some time ago I once again found a very nice concept in one of my personal analysis. In 2 earlier articles I already touched the butterfly-effect see an extra move part 2 and the einstellung effect. A very small change in the position has a huge impact upon the evaluation. Contrary to the earlier examples, this one is special as the effect only pops up many moves later. Let us start with the first variant in which white tries an interesting idea but it finally doesn't work.

[Event "Analysevariant na 11...b6"] [Date "2017.??.??"] [White "Brabo"] [Black "Stange, S."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C42"] [WhiteElo "2307"] [BlackElo "2140"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r2q1rk1/ppp1bppp/2n1b3/3p4/3P4/2PB1N2/P1P2PPP/1RBQR1K1 b - - 0 11"] [PlyCount "29"] [Round "?"] [Site "?"] [CurrentPosition "r2q1rk1/ppp1bppp/2n1b3/3p4/3P4/2PB1N2/P1P2PPP/1RBQR1K1 b - - 0 11"] 11...b6 12.Bf4 { (I think this is critical.) } 12...Re8 { (I believe Qd7 is better here but this is not relevant for my story.) } 13.Rxe6 { (A thematic exchange-sacrifice but white still needs to prove the compensation.) } 13...fxe6 14.Ne5 { (Here Bb5 is probably more accurate but again not very relevant for this article.) } 14...Nxe5 15.Bxe5 Bd6 16.Qh5 h6 17.f4 Bxe5 18.dxe5 Rf8 19.Qg6 Rxf4 20.Qh7+ Kf8 21.Bg6 Qg5 22.Qh8+ { (C4 is still sufficient for a draw.) } 22...Ke7 23.Qxg7+ Kd8 24.Qg8+ Kd7 25.Qg7+ Kc6 { (Whites attack ends so white is lost.) } 0-1

White offered material but black succeeded to thwart the attack. However I was very surprised to discover that 1 small change in the position allows a brilliant resource to pop up reverting the result. Watch and enjoy below engine generated high quality analysis.

[Event "Analysevariant na 11...Tb8"] [Date "2017.??.??"] [White "Brabo"] [Black "Stange, S."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C42"] [WhiteElo "2307"] [BlackElo "2140"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r2q1rk1/ppp1bppp/2n1b3/3p4/3P4/2PB1N2/P1P2PPP/1RBQR1K1 b - - 0 11"] [PlyCount "32"] [Round "?"] [Site "?"] [CurrentPosition "r2q1rk1/ppp1bppp/2n1b3/3p4/3P4/2PB1N2/P1P2PPP/1RBQR1K1 b - - 0 11"] 11...Rb8 { (Earlier I published at my blog that I liked Rb8 more during the game but analysis show that b6 and Rb8 are more or less equivalent.) } 12.Bf4 Re8 { (Just like the previous analysis, black should prefer Qd7.) } 13.Rxe6 fxe6 14.Ne5 Nxe5 15.Bxe5 Bd6 ( 15...Bf6 16.Qh5 Kf8 17.f4 Bxe5 18.dxe5 h6 19.Qg6 Qe7 20.Qh7 Qc5+ 21.Kh1 $14 ) 16.Qh5 h6 17.f4 Bxe5 ( 17...Re7 18.Qg6 Kf8 $14 ) 18.dxe5 Rf8 ( 18...Kf8 19.Qg6 Re7 ( 19...Qe7 20.Qh7 g6 21.Qxh6+ Qg7 22.Qxg6 Qxg6 23.Bxg6 Red8 24.h4 d4 25.c4 $18 ) 20.f5 Qe8 21.f6 Qxg6 22.fxe7+ Kf7 23.Bxg6+ Kxg6 24.Rxb7 $16 ) 19.Qg6 Rxf4 20.Qh7+ Kf8 21.Bg6 Qg5 22.Qh8+ Ke7 23.Qxg7+ Kd8 24.Rxb7!! { (A fantastic move. Only now we see the butterfly-effect as the pawn on b6 would avoid this option.) } 24...Rc8 ( 24...Rxb7 25.Qg8+ Kd7 26.Qe8# ) 25.Rxc7!! { (Chess is sometimes incredibly beautiful.) } 25...Rxc7 ( 25...Rf1+ 26.Kxf1 Qf4+ 27.Ke2 Qg4+ 28.Ke1 Qh4+ 29.g3 $18 ) 26.Qg8+ Kd7 27.Qe8# 1-0

Beautiful isn't it? Of course I would've never discovered this without spending many hours analyzing the game. I am sure all of us have such hidden treasures in our games but most are never emerging the surface. Ach ignorance is a bless. Anyway I keep sharing my diamonds at my blog so you can also enjoy them.

Brabo