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The King
Chess Pieces
by GM Jan Hein Donner
Collected and Introduced by Tim Krabbé and Max Pam
Reviewed by
Prof. Nagesh Havanur
New in Chess, 2006
ISBN: 90-5691-171-6 |
softcover, 391 pages
figurine algebraic
notation |
|
 Dr. Siegbert
Tarrasch once wrote, “Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make
men happy.” The great master could not bring himself to write that
the reverse was also true. Chess can drive men to grief and despair
when it brings defeat. Nobody put it as eloquently as Donner:
“A chess
player’s path on earth is often strewn with trouble and grief. The joy of
victory is transitory and brief, while it is in the midst of our happiness
that we are bound to be struck by horror….
The chess
player who has lost his game - who will describe him? I have seen
him unable to move. The public was long gone, the lights were out, and
still he sat rigidly in his chair staring at the emptied board, because he
had overlooked Bg2. I have heard him begging for punishment in
blasphemous language.
He had
forgotten Nh5, and in his dismay he called down annihilation upon himself.
Derisively, he rejected our words of solace, demanding insults and
chastisement… because he had played Qf6 instead of Qb6. What is
remorse compared to this? What self-reproach? This is the hell of
hells. Gehenna. The vale of Kai Hinnom…
It is
precisely its merciless unambiguity and clarity that makes a game the
opposite of life. Life veils our mistakes. Time is the great
healer… Therefore, remember, dear readers: nothing in life is so
tyrannical, so dogmatic, so cruel, so unplayful, as precisely a game.”
This
profound meditation is only one of the thousand-odd articles and pieces that
Jan Hein Donner wrote almost till the end of his life. He could also
be hilarious and revel in the sheer absurdity of things. Donner was a
professional grandmaster. But his claim to immortality rests on these
effervescent and idiosyncratic writings on chess. It is hard to sum up
the rich variety and complexity of his work in a brief review. So I
shall focus only on those aspects of his writing which have not been
commented on by other reviewers.
Donner was
also a keen observer and few could capture a tournament scene like he did.
Here is a memorable vignette on the 1959 Zürich tournament won by Tal ahead
of Keres, Larsen and Fischer:
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"And then
came Tal. He didn’t bother about correctness at all… I have
witnessed it in Zürich, the growing unease as he sacrificed a piece or
more in every game and won, while afterwards the entire affair turned out
to have been highly dubious, if only the others had found the best moves
during the game.
During analysis it was clear that while Tal had
calculated much, much deeper than the average player, he also had a
tendency to be extremely optimistic about his own chances. It turned
out, in fact, that in these post-mortems, when many hands were
grabbing about the board, only Keres was able to hold his own against him.
“Aber
mein Lieber, was machen Sie denn darauf?”
(“But my dear friend, what is your reply to this?)
and Tal
laughing it off. “Wer hat gewonnen?”
(“Who won?”)"
|
Mikhail Tal |
In his
writings Donner invariably offered a highly individual point of view. But
on occasion he could go overboard with his flights of fancy. In the
following passage he makes a comparison between the “profound” Botvinnik and
“clever” Smyslov:
“In judging
Botvinnik and Smyslov, a choice has to be made between the man or his
talent. As for me personally, I can tell you that in this match my
sympathies are fully on the side of Botvinik’s play.
Smyslov is
the great magician, who’s got a complete command of the problems involved
but only in the manner of an elegant animal. There is something
inexplicably superficial, opportunistic in his style. This is
characteristic of talent. Talent is only interested in the surface
of things, as all deeper problems originate from man, whereas talent is
something ‘extra’-human.
We must
therefore admire someone like Smyslov, but it will be admiration mingled
with something like envy. It’s an admiration for something we do not and
cannot have ourselves. In admiring Botvinnik, however, we honour mankind
and in doing so, we honour ourselves as well.”
All this
speculation is inspired by young Donner’s unqualified admiration for
Botvinnik’s monumental strategy and his disdain for Smyslov’s imaginative
counterattack in the 10th game of the World Championship Match 1954. Smyslov drew the game after a brilliant display of tactics in a lost
position. (See the game in our Annotated Games Section-Ed.)
Donner’s
opinions can be wide of the mark, as is the case here. But they can
also represent a voice of sanity.
A case in
point is his gentle rebuke to Korchnoi. After Korchnoi’s defection to
the West, Donner had supported his cause. This was at a time when many
western GMs did not want to incur the displeasure of the Soviets. Yet
Korchnoi criticized him and others for not offering unquestioning support
for his actions.
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Victor Korchnoi |
In an open letter to Korchnoi, Donner refuted each of
his accusations and also showed him why his attitude to the West was wrong:
“All this
is mainly because you don’t begin to understand the values that the West
stands for - values that you think you were a pioneer to defend.
Cherishing excess is a quintessential feature of our culture. The
right of free speech implies the right to be wrong, and freedom of
conscience implies the freedom to behave like an idiot. But that
doesn’t mean that we in the West don’t know the difference between right
and wrong.”
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There are 26
games, 16 fragments and 7 compositions in this book. My own favourite
is Donner’s encounter with Velimirovic in Havana 1971 tournament. The game
is enjoyable, and Donner’s deeply personal commentary is fun:
"Velimirovic
is a slightly built person of ferret-like appearance. In his eyes is
the look of a cheetah,…betraying destructive aggressiveness. This
outward appearance of unmitigated rage is enhanced by a premature
baldness. At the point when this game was played - in the third
round - he had had won both his games in murderous style…. also Parma had
warned me that he knew all there was to know about the Benoni,…
And against
this loose canon, I was playing the Benoni. At the third I seriously
considered a move like 3.e3. But can a man stoop so low?
...No, no, there is one thing a player may never relinquish: objectivity,
or which amounts to the same thing, self-respect."
Donner – Velimirovic
Havana 1971
1.d4
Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 g6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.e4 0–0 6.Be2 d6 7.Nf3 e6 8.0–0 exd5
9.cxd5 Re8 10.Nd2 a6 11.a4 Nbd7 12.Re1 Rb8 13.Bf1?
      
  
 
    
"13.h3
is best here. White must try to prevent the deployment with g5
and Ne5-g4 (Ne5-g6 as it appears in the book is a typo -NSH). ...White
must be able to reply to the move g4 with N-c4 and to the move N-e5
with f4. In my abysmal ignorance I thought that the later move
was possible without the move h3.''
In
response to 13.h3 Velimirovic had planned to play 13...c4.
Donner refutes the idea with 14.Bxc4 b5 15.axb5 axb5 16.Bxb5 Rxb5
17.Nxb5 Qb6 18.Nd4.
Only
the last move appears to be a case of the printer's devil. White
should simply play 18.Nc3 and Black has little compensation for the
lost exchange.-NSH
13...Ne5 14.f4?? Neg4 15.Nf3
Not
15.h3? Nxd5!
15...c4!!
16.a5
Donner
asks the rhetorical question, what can Black do after 16.h3?
Curiously enough, he does not provide any answer. After
16...Qb6+ 17.Qd4 (17.Nd4 Nxe4 18.Rxe4 Rxe4 19.Nxe4) 17...Qxd4+
18.Nxd4 Nxe4 19.Nf3 (19.Nxe4 Bxd4+ 20.Kh1 Nf2+ 21.Kh2 Nxe4)
19...Ngf2 Black is a pawn up and has the upper hand.-NSH
16...Qc7 17.e5
17...Qc5+?
Velimorovic fails to administer the coup de grace with 17...dxe5!
-Donner 18.fxe5 Bf8!–+
18.Qd4 Qxd4+ 19.Nxd4 dxe5 20.fxe5 Nh5?!
Again
Black fails to make the best move. After 20...Nxe5! 21.Bf4 Nh5
22.Bxe5 Rxe5 he would have had a winning endgame with his strong pair
of bishops. -Donner. For example, 23.Nf3 Rxe1 24.Rxe1 Bg4 25.Bxc4 Rc8 -
NSH
21.Nf3 Nxe5 22.Nxe5 Bxe5 23.Be3 Bd7 24.Bxc4 Rbc8 25.Ba2 Rxc3? 26.bxc3
Bxc3 27.Bf2 Rxe1+?
27...Bxa1! 28.Rxa1 Re2
would have been very dangerous here, although I don't think White
risked losing. -Donner.
28.Rxe1 Bxe1 29.Bxe1 Nf6 30.Kf2 Bf5?
"Totally blinded, the obstinate continues to play for a win. With
30...Bb5! and 31...Nd7 he could have built an impregnable
fortress." -Donner
31.Ke3 Be4 32.Kd4 Bxg2 33.Ke5 Kg7
If the
Black knight takes the third pawn with 33...Ng4+, the White king
marches on to c7. - Donner
34.Kd6 Kf8
35.Bb3
Not
35.Bh4? g5!
Nor
35.Bg3? Ne4+ 36.Kc7 Nc3.
35...g5 36.Bg3 Ke8 37.Be5 Nd7 38.Ba4 Bh3 39.Bf6 h6 40.Kc7 Bf5 41.Kxb7
Kf8??
After
41...Bd3 the win would still have been a matter of course. - Donner
Our
silicon friend suggests 42.Kc7 Bf5 43.Bg7 h5 44.Bf6 g4 45.Kc8 and
Black is in zugzwang.-NSH
42.Bxd7 Bxd7 43.Kxa6 1–0
Dear pawn on a5,
Sweet little thing, a rook’s pawn
you are, just one square is all you control. You’re so small, almost
nothing and throughout the game you have been standing there on your
little place, but all that time my hope was built on you, and all my
fearful hankering was for you. I did see you standing there, you
little rascal. People thought, of course, it was the d5 pawn
that it was all about, he drew their attention, they all looked at
him, but you and I knew better, it was all about you, about you and
you alone.
You’ve been waiting, you naughty
boy, not wanting to come on, because you knew that all the time I was
only thinking of you and that you didn’t have to do anything at all,
because I would be coming to you of my own little rook’s pawn, you’re
free now. Go ahead, unspeakable bliss is waiting for you and me
on a8. Thank you, sweet little thing I love you,
your King
Black resigns.
Among the compositions in this book, the following study by the Yugoslav
composer, Djaja is perhaps the most interesting. Donner says that it
was circulated in the Skopje Olympiad, 1972 and brought many of the
participants to despair.
White to play and draw
White’s position appears hopeless as
there is no way of stopping the Black pawn’s march to become a queen.
For example, 1.Nf5+ Kd8 2.Nxd4 a2
3.Nc2 Rb2 and Black wins.
The other try 1.Nf5+ Kd8 2.Ra8+Kxd7
3.a7 Ra4 4.Rg8 Rba6 brings us to the following position:
Donner heightens the suspense with a
friendly challenge to the reader:
"White makes one more move and
it’s a draw! Keres, the two Byrnes, Lothar Schmid, Bisguier
and I sat staring at this position for more than half an hour. We
couldn’t find it. Can you?"
The solution is 5.Nh6!! And
White has perpetual check along the g-file.
Highly Recommended
Other reviews of
The King:
Return to the review above.
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