What is chess to you?

Chess is a social practice that can be defined in various ways: game, sport, science, art. A mixture of these different motivations coexist in each person who practices it. An interesting thesis is that, as a result of social changes throughout history, the motivations that lead to practicing chess have changed, and the essence of the practice itself has changed. Here a clarification on the different meanings of chess is worthwhile. In simple terms, a game is practiced for fun, a sport is played to win, a science is studied to find the truth, and art attempts to create beauty.

For simplicity, we can start in the mid-19th century, where the practice was mainly a game, with a few outstanding players. Slowly, the game became professional, gaining the status of a sport at the tail end of the first half of the 20th century. The main milestone that reflects this change is the creation of FIDE, and with it the regulation of the world championship. At the same time, with the popularization of this practice, great players appeared, such as Capablanca, Alekhine and Botvinnik. Nowadays, the level of play from these times has been far surpassed by current elite players. However, the ideas that were created during those times have not been overcome in such a way. The theorists from the first half of the 19th century tried to develop laws that explained the best way to play each position, perhaps the greatest exponent being Nimzowitsch with his treatise ‘My System’. Composers of endgame studies, appreciators and creators of beauty in chess, also emerged around this time.

During the first half of the 20th century, theoretical developments in chess fed back into competition, and vice versa, with theory flourishing like never before. So much so that it is difficult to think of chess today without concepts that were coined at that time by Steinitz, Nimzowitsch, Tarrasch: isolated pawn, bishop pair, rook on seventh, blockade, and so on. The contributions of the great players and theorists of the second half of the century are notably smaller in comparison. We could also say that a large part of these developments were not universalized, as a result of competition between nations. For example, soviet chess ideas were naturally difficult to access due to the language barrier and, at the top level, secrecy. In conclusion, while major events such as Fischer-Spassky or Kasparov-Karpov popularized chess as a sport, there was no such remarkable development in how to play chess better during those years.

To summarize, during the first professionalization of chess (1900-1950) professionals (athletes) and theorists (scientists) spent a lot of time trying to find the best way to play. This progression in the use of openings by the best players in the world is clearly noticeable: between 1950 and 2000 we find players repeating certain preferred opening systems, scientifically studied in an exhaustive way, in order to win their games by making the best move from the beginning to the end.

We can say that this practice remained unchanged for the most part, until the computer and the Internet. Professionals were first defeated and eventually assisted in their quest to play better. Again, in the openings we will see the impact of these new tools clearly. Computer analysis, coupled with the universalization of the same with the Internet, means that anyone can access the “truth” of the positions, however incomprehensible it might be at times. So, making the best moves one after another in the opening is no longer practical in sporting terms, because it can be anticipated and memorized by other competitors.

With this universal access to the “truth,” the level of play has improved remarkably, as it had only done at the beginning of the 20th century, and the openings have diversified to seek new horizons and avoid preparations. This, coupled with the universalization of tools and materials to improve the game much faster than before (opening learning software, automated tactical trainers, books and videos by the thousands, etc.) means that in the variety of senses of chess, its meaning as a sport gained a lot of ground: if it is easier to improve, it is easier to win, and I want to win.

So, what is chess to you? Is it a sport where you want to get better to win? Are you just having fun, rejoicing over the beautiful combos? Or are you trying to find the truth of each game you play?

I’ll read you in the comments.

Best,

Juan

PS: Big thanks to my friends Luciano Ciruzzi, Gustavo Slomka and K.S. for their help in the writing of this post.