IV. Sport, science or art: The many-sided character of the chess game

29.12.2021

So the building of the "White House" has become a platform for sports battles! Old-timers remember that in the old days there was a stadium in its place. But since the new facility was built, apart from impromptu fisticuffs with the participation of government officials, there have been no manifestations of sports hardening here. Today, deputy Dastan Bekeshev broke the trend and organized an unusual chess match within the parliamentary walls, in which he fought with the country's champion Nurisa Otorbayeva. Chess is perhaps the most intellectual and intelligent sport. It is these qualities that our people's deputies very often lack.

Usually outsiders are not allowed into the White House, but this time they made an exception. Dastan Bekeshev invited his fans-activists from social networks, and they came to cheer for him.

Strong chess players should not be played according to the theory they know, but come up with original moves! he kept secret. - I think we will play two games of blitz.

Will there be no classical chess?

It's long. The audience will get bored and fall asleep!

Soon the current champion of Kyrgyzstan among women in chess Nurisa Otorbayeva came up with her coach Islam Baysynov. She recently played chess with inmates to promote the game in correctional facilities. Now he will speak in the parliamentary session hall.

I was the initiator of the resolution on the popularization of chess in the country, I proposed to include this game in the school curriculum, - Dastan Bekeshev recalled. - However, state bodies do nothing in this area, you have to act on your own. The coaches of Nurisa Otorbayeva offered us to play, and I agreed. I play in my free time and mostly with a computer. And I want to be with people!

There, the parliamentary coalition is disintegrating, and you are playing chess here! someone noticed.

Chess unites! If the head of government, Omurbek Babanov, who, by the way, heads the Kyrgyz Chess Federation, invites the deputies to play a match, I think it will do us good.

Nurisa Otorbaeva, excited by the attention of the press, praised Dastan Bekeshev and called him the best chess player in the country.

They put them a special chessboard with holes and relief figures. It is very difficult for a blind person to play chess, because one must not only remember one's own moves, but also keep an eye on the opponent, recognize his tactics. Such players deserve true respect. The opponents exchanged pawns, and off they went.

Will Nurisa go to the World Chess Olympiad, which will start in Turkey the other day? I asked Islam Baisynov.

I would very much like to, but she has health problems,” he said. - We planned a meeting with Dastan Bekeshev for a long time, that's why we came. At the end of the game we will go to the hospital.

Despite the illness, Nurisa Otorbayeva did well and played very carefully. About 15 minutes after the start of the first game, Dastan Bekeshev, playing white, made a mistake and was punished by the loss of an important piece.

"Go horse!" I wanted to say something, but for some reason I kept silent. Perhaps because he hasn't played since elementary school and has lost his skills a little. Yes, and the reputation of the horse in our country is now tarnished ...

Left without a prompt, Dastan Bekeshev made a couple more moves and, after intense thought, resigned.

Everything happens in life, that's why it's interesting! - Philosophically uttered he, arranging the pieces for the new party.

In the second game, the deputy acted more attentively and deserved a draw. The tote did not accept bets on the result of this confrontation, but I foresaw such an outcome. At the decisive moment, friendship won.

It can be seen that Dastan Bekeshev is seriously engaged in chess! - said Islam Baisynov. - At the beginning of the first game, he had a solid advantage.

I'm satisfied! - said the deputy. - In the future, I would like to arrange several tournaments where my colleagues could play with domestic chess players.

Athletes presented him with a medal for his contribution to the development of chess. The flattered deputy promised to continue supporting the glorious game in the republic. I want this promise of the people's choice to be fulfilled.

(Does chess need a philosophy?)

. Some people love chess for this, others condemn it for the same reason. The first, of course, is incomparably more than the second. The image of the most intellectual of the games reliably protects chess from criticism. Who wants to be known as a limited person who does not appreciate the intellect? It is considered bad form to talk about chess as a worthless activity. There are, however, "dared men" who are not afraid to tell the "truth": the king is naked. E. Poe: “The notion of chess as a game exclusively useful for the mind is based on a misunderstanding.”
Denis Diderot: "You can be a stupid person and at the same time a strong chess player."

"The winner is always right" . Writers about chess often quote Lasker: "There is no place for lies and hypocrisy on the chessboard. The beauty of a chess combination is that it is always true. The merciless truth expressed in chess eats the eyes of a hypocrite." But no one seems to have explained what truth is in chess and how it manifests itself specifically. Even Botvinnik believed that chess was just a conventional scheme. What truth can there be in a “conditional scheme that has little in common with reality”?
Suppose that truth in chess is expressed in correct (analytically strongest) moves. Then it turns out that old Legal, who captured the pawn on e5 with his knight in 1787 and thus entered the history of chess forever, deserves only condemnation.

Legal - St. Bris, 1787

5. Nxe5 Bxd1 (What signs should be placed for these moves?!)6. Bxf7+ Ke7 7. Nd5#

Modern computer programs refute the combinations of the old masters. However, without these combinations, chess players would not have reached the modern level of play. Where is the hypocrisy here? As I. Maizelis recalled, Lasker liked to tell the following anecdote.

“The doctor recognized the patient as incurable, and he turned to another doctor, who put him on his feet. Six months later, the patient meets his first doctor. The doctor is delighted and surprised: “How are you still alive? Who treated you? - Doctor Schmidt. “That's what I thought! What a hack! - says the doctor. - With the right treatment, nothing would have saved you! - You understand? Lasker added, laughing. - With proper, routine continuations, there is no salvation. So, you have to play “wrong”!”

Is the winner always right? There is struggle of ideas and eat people fight. And in chess, as in life, they do not always coincide.

“The main thing in chess is a contest of wits” . To humiliate another person solely for the sake of demonstrating the superiority of one's intellect - is it good? German journalist Joseph von Westphalen is convinced that this is disgusting.

«<…>The intention of a chess game is nothing other than to destroy the opponent. It mercilessly excludes the possibility of a happy accident that sometimes helps you in life. Only the enemy's mistakes help here. It is a game without mercy, without charm, without joke. Game for officer casino.
<…>The most beautiful ivory pieces and the most intricate moves cannot obscure the fact that chess is a brutal game of killing, the aristocratic predecessor of computer video games in which teenagers stare at the screen and destroy all kinds of enemies. The connection between chess and the computer is not accidental at all. After all, the stupid logic of chess, which implies only victory and the constant avoidance of any mistakes, does not differ from the computer way of thinking hammered into the head. Therefore, the chess computer has recently turned into a training companion for a passionate chess player. The thinker and strategist now on the chessboard can show the machine which of them is better.

<…>People strain their brains solely in order to destroy the enemy as soon as possible, and are considered the winner of the party even when their own army has almost completely died. Only one king, this clumsy monster, should be protected.
Whether it's on grass, on the cinder track, or on the chessboard, sport is always murder. There is something stupid in the vain need to measure one's strength. And I'm more fond of any poker player playing marked cards with an unsuspecting opponent, any angry participant in the board game "Don't be angry, man!", Than a pseudo-logic at a chessboard indulging in this supposedly democratic game in which a university professor of philosophy with an auto mechanic, and the pastor and burgomaster hone their abstract thinking on the part of destruction.

Damn it, does logic exist only to destroy each other without words?(highlighted by me - L. B). Women know why they avoid this all-male game - barring exceptions,<…>beauties with long eyelashes who need to prove to themselves and the chess world that you can be smart even with an attractive appearance. But being a chess champion is not smart at all. Moreover, it's mean. And meanness, as you know, often has pretty eyes.
I courageously shout in the face of hundreds of chess clubs of all countries, grandmasters and champions large and small, professionals of simultaneous games and child prodigies of all age categories: “Chess is dementia, computer logic, a waste of time. Chess destroys thinking…”
[Joseph von Westphalen "WARUM ICH NICHT SCHACH SPIELE" (Why I don't play chess) http://institute.nnov.ru/topic_show.pl?pid=1219 ]

“The main thing in chess is a contest of wits” To agree with this statement is to admit that von Westphalen is right in many respects. And if you don't agree, then you need to look for another explanation for the phenomenon of chess. Then you will have to turn to a science not too revered by chess players, namely philosophy. But the main thing is to actually change the attitude towards chess! So that they do not seem (and really were not!) Only an instrument of ambition and just one of the sports.

L. Babushkin

PHILOSOPHY AND CHESS

(Novosibirsk)

Chess is part of the universal culture. And "big" classical chess not only carries an emotional charge, but also awakens in a person a whole set of qualities that contribute to the spiritual growth of a person. Chess is a kind of art, which manifests itself not only in the "has become" form (chess game, chess study), but also in the dynamic form of a chess work created in front of the public. The authenticity of chess art lies in the fact that chess games are works created by harmonious logic and the creative side of human thinking.

These properties of chess show the expediency and possibility of using classical chess in solving the problems of the modern school, in the formation and development of the creative abilities of the individual.

The game was born in the world of Indian culture and philosophy, which has existed for two and a half millennia. Indian philosophy believes that the questions of being are not solved in a rational way and abstract thinking. There is a more powerful force in comprehending absolute being - this is intuition, acting as immersion in the universal consciousness and conjugation with everything that exists. Existing in India and other countries of the East, the legends about the origin of the chess game "chaturanga" and its rules speak of mythological and irrational thinking.

Ancient Indian chess, moving gradually to the Arab countries, and then to Europe, modified its form and rules of the game. And by the 19th century chess acquired all the signs of Western civilization. In Europe XVIII-XIX centuries. was the final stage in the development of classical philosophy, the stage
philosophy of modern times. In the philosophy of modern times. The epistemological attitude prevailed, and clear, strictly rational thinking was recognized as the ideal of knowledge. This finds its expression in the following:

I. Kant's a priori position: a person has pre-experimental principles that determine the possibilities of logic;

: thinking is the highest stage of cognition, overcoming the threshold of scientificity, which allows you to operate with ideas.

A special interest in cognition leads to science-centrism, they strive to put philosophy on a scientific footing. Science-centrism causes a desire to subordinate economic, political, social and cultural life to laws.

Hegel built a universal system of ideas, which contains the ideas of space, time, matter, motion, animate and inanimate nature. According to Hegel, these ideas exist in consciousness and in the world, and philosophy is the comprehension of the world in ideas.

Chess is an artificial model of people's life, created by people themselves. Chess is a unique combination of art, game, sport and scientific knowledge. However, this model also has superstable elements of the scientific picture of the world - the principles of conservation of energy and fundamental factors that characterize the properties of the universe: space, time, matter, motion.

Considering the evolution of chess creativity during the 19th-20th centuries, two periods can be distinguished: the 70s. 19th century - 50s 20th century (classical chess), second half of the 20th century. (non-classical chess).

Let us put the contradictions that accumulated earlier and unfolded in the 50-60s as the basis for the division into periods. 20th century This, on the one hand, is the growth in the number of strong grandmasters, the development of typical theoretical positions and the growth in the volume of chess literature (including electronic), and, on the other hand, the need to concentrate all spiritual forces, the ability of a master to win in a more intense intellectual struggle.

Period of classical chess

Time of the 70s. 19th century 20th century can be called the "golden age of chess". At that time, there was the "New Positional School" in Europe, the Russian chess school, the school of hypermodernists, and the Soviet chess school. In addition to schools, individual major chess players also created. Yet these schools and chess players had a lot in common.

The basis of classical chess strategy is strict logical schemes.

Features of the creativity of chess players of the classical period

Position evaluation procedure: position determination; the material balance of forces; position of kings; pawn configuration; the presence of strong and weak fields (points); analysis of simple specific threats; overall rating.

Choosing and planning

Strategic ideas: strengthening the position of the pieces, creating a better pawn position, opening and capturing lines, pushing back and disengaging enemy forces, ensuring the interaction of one's forces, creating weaknesses in the enemy camp, advantageous simplifications. The plan is based on position evaluation. In the plan, specific strategic ideas are arranged in a certain order of actions: carrying out the plan; application of strategic ideas in a certain order and with refinements of the plan; accumulation of positional advantage; transformation of positional advantage, realization of material advantage.

Carrying out tactical operations in positionx: position evaluation; clarification of the goals and plans of the parties; analysis of simple specific threats, the number of attacks and defenses on the fields (points); finding tactical ideas; calculation of variations from candidate moves; choice of continuation with estimates of emerging positions; new position evaluation; analysis of simple specific threats, etc.

A great place in creativity is occupied by the development of tactical vision and mastery of the heritage of outstanding masters. When carrying out plans, tactical operations and positional casualties, we observe the transformation of the main factors; chess pieces are often given up for positional superiority (seizure of space by pieces and pawns) and gain in time (pieces quickly strengthen, seize the initiative).

Within a chess game, we see the operation of the law of conservation of energy: “Energy is not created and does not disappear, but only passes from one state to another.” get the opportunity to move quickly and take dominant positions. The representatives of the above schools were outstanding chess players of the classical style: V. Steinitz, H.-R. Capablanca, A. Alekhine, A. Rubinstein, A. Nimtsovich, M. Botvinnik, V. Smyslov, T. Petrosyan, B. Spassky.

Knowledge of the methods of conducting a chess game“described a huge arc,” wrote A. Suetin. From the spontaneous perception of the dynamic essence of the game, enriched by scientific logical elements, it came to the classical strategy.

Period of non-classical chess

A new stage of chess creativity was prepared by the creative legacy of I. Zukertort, Em. Lasker, M. Chigorin, A. Alekhin and the study of typical theoretical positions. At the same time, the main features of the classical period of chess remain in the work of chess players.

This period is associated with the names of D. Bronstein, M. Tal, A. Karpov, G. Kasparov. It is characterized by an increase in the sports factor, the necessary concentration of forces of grandmasters, and the processing of a large array of special information. During this period of non-classical chess, sports-psychological methods, fantasy, and intuition are actively included in the creative process. Combination vision is the most important tool. M. Tal, endowed with combinational vision and fantasy, armed with the search for instability and sports-psychological methods, won in 1960 the world championship match. And this event marked the beginning of a new period in "great" chess.

Kasparov writes about his predecessors: “Unlike Fischer, with his craving for clarity, and Karpov, who grew up on the games of Capablanca, from a young age I was greatly influenced by Alekhine’s work, subdued by his unprecedented feat in the 1927 match. I admired the sophistication of his designs.

The most famous sports-psychological methods: methods of conscious risk, unexpected victims, "consent method", false goal. Such methods of struggle are directed against the banal exploitation of experience, the prose of rationalism, "wise prudence", cowardly subservience, dull constraint, reinsurance. D. Bronstein wrote: “Rationalism leads to spiritual lack of independence, threatens to lose creative potential. Especially when it comes to art ... ".

We find an analogy in the main provisions of one of the modern philosophical schools - postmodernism. Postmodernists speak out against the philosophy of the New Age and call for loosening: rigid logical schemes, the search for a stable one, worship of authorities, the search for uniformity, the imposition of unreasonable values. Their call is this - more chaos, discreteness, pluralism, sensuality, intuitionism, the search for instability, lack of constraint, irony in relation to recognized values.

Many departures from the classical style of chess take place in positions where the solutions are outside of the logical methods. Often the mind of a chess player works in a tough sports environment. And here the sports stimulus can awaken inspiration. There is a positive emotional coloring. In difficult moments of fights, when the prosaic method of logic and calculation of options does not lead to the right decision, the turn of intuition comes. Such moments arose during the match for the world championship Karpov - Kasparov (1985) in 9, 10 and 11 games. The pawn sacrifices in these games were intuitive, it was impossible to find the truth by calculating variations.

Outstanding masters noted the importance of intuition. A. Nimzowitsch: it is possible to predict the course of events only if there is a certain creative imagination.” A. Karpov: “Moves that allow me to look into the future give me the greatest satisfaction.” Intuition is the most important quality, because it limits the possibilities when choosing moves. After all, a chess player cannot calculate everything. Intuition in chess is the ability of a chess player to evaluate a position without much time, without detailed calculation, and choose a continuation based on this impression.

The creativity of chess players, gifted with imagination and intuition, is reflected in the provisions of modern phenomenology: correlation of subject (consciousness) and object; enriching the material of contemplation with one's imagination; the transition from imagination (in the dynamics of contemplation of objects, experiences) to meanings (eidos) thanks to intuition; filling the life world with colors and impressions.

Intuition is not clear. For some, for example, Capablanca, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Petrosyan, Karpov, a tendency to find a deep positional solution is typical. And the games of others - Chigorin, Alekhine, Keres, Tal, Kasparov, Anand - are distinguished by bright tactical insights.

Chess at the turn of the century

Chess art has gone through a centuries-old path of formation and development successively in Indian, Islamic, Western and Russian civilizations. It was to a greater extent the chess players of Russia, the Soviet Union and then again Russia, who were the main characters of the periods of classical chess and non-classical chess. Note that if earlier it was possible to talk about the locality of cultural organisms, then at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century. their multilateral ties matured. In the chess segment of world culture- it is, first of all, the interaction of Russian and Western civilizations. Chess is also involved in this process.hundreds of eastern civilizations(V. Anand, T. Radjabov and others).

The history of the development of chess creativity is a complex and contradictory phenomenon. The model of this phenomenon is not unilinear, but represents some curvilinear figure. And only a part of this graphics can be the “huge arc” of learning the methods of playing a chess game, described by A. Suetin.

Division into periods of the history of chess creativity by us given from the standpoint of philosophical dialectical methodology. The development of chess creativity is considered in dynamics, the main principle of the study is historicism. In the modern picture of the world, the analysis of social and humanitarian structures involves the study of open nonlinear systems in which the role of the initial conditions, the individuals included in them, local changes and random factors is great. Modern scientists and philosophers understand the limitations of rationalism. Classical rationalism never found an adequate explanation for the act of creation.

The philosophical problem is the relationship between the two sides of a chess game. On the one hand, classical parties are created by human creativity, have a harmonious logic and, often, genuine beauty. On the other hand, a game is a sports duel in which not only a more thoughtful strategy triumphs, but also unexpected factors. These are: time trouble and nervous tension of the masters, leading to errors in the assessment of positions and in the calculation of tactical operations.

The creative image of a chess master at the beginning of the 21st century. consists of basic properties (types of thinking) and personal qualities. A chess player, playing a game, is armed with ideas, both purely rational and irrational, which are much different from the logic of position evaluation, plan algorithms and calculation of operations.

In this creativity there must be both the skills of classical chess, the "prose of rationalism", and the inspired art of intuitive solutions. Even many scientists emphasize the role of fantasy and "irrational leaps" in research. Intuitive breakthroughs and psychological techniques must be combined with logical and mediated methods.

The question of the relationship between classical and non-classical approaches in creativitystve master should be decided individually. A chess player in his improvement must rely on his strong natural properties and at the same time work on his shortcomings, solve the problems of a “different rationality”.

Most chess players are endowed to a greater extent with either a concrete-figurative or an abstract-rational type of thinking. The former are strong tacticians, striving for a sharp, sometimes irrational struggle, often sacrificing material. The second are strategists with a cold and practical mind, prone to thinking in general schemes. Less common are chess players of the universal type.

It is the nature of man that it is born with a complex set of properties. And in this set of different human virtues and weaknesses (signs - according to K. Jung), which give rise to a huge range of opinions and behaviors, are the prerequisites for creativity, including chess creativity, and the general progress of creativity.

The most important regularities in the development of science are its dialectization, differentiation, its responses to people's needs. In the XX century. new disciplines came into force to meet the needs for recognition of the achievements of individuals, for the choice of professions and for communication. This - personality psychology, psychoanalysis and socionics. The newest of them, socionics, studying differentialdifferential characteristics and sociotypes of people.

Finally, in chess creativity we see the object individualized manifestation of culture. Therefore, the subject of our study is characterized by: a description of the features of events (facts, phenomena), the objects of knowledge are mostly unique and often unique. The subject of our knowledge is the human world (and not the thing!). In this subject, a person is included as the author and performer of "his own drama", which he also cognizes. Em. Lasker wrote: “Chess teaches us how our life could turn out with equal opportunities and without accidents. In this sense, they are a reflection of life. Chess plays out a miniature drama of temptation, guilt, struggle, tension, and the victory of justice.

And since chess creativity is an individual manifestation, the appearance of a particular chess player is determined by such factors: natural talent and “starting conditions”, diligence and the ability to program (special memory). Finally, the chess player includes in the process of cognition and personal knowledge. And these are: personal analytical work; study of the best parties of modern masters; personal communication with a chess mentor; personal acquaintance with the world in all its diversity. That is, everything that is called "living perception of life."

In chess, the complex, contradictory logic of the relationship between the accidental and the necessary is also manifested. The manifestation on chess material of such philosophical categories as truth (absolute, relative, objective), as the transition of quantity into quality, the principles of conservation of energy and a number of aspects of human relations that materialize in a chess game, will still attract researchers.

REFERENCES

1. Philosophy. - MS. 118.

2. Steps to mastery in chess. - M., 1998. - S. 31.

3. My great predecessors. - M., 2003. - S. 504.

4. , Beautiful and furious world. - M., 1977. - S. 18.

5. Steps to mastery in chess. - M., 1998. - S. 18, 20, 31.

6. Philosophy. - M., 2002. - S. 78.

7. and etc. Philosophy for graduate students. - Rostov-on-Don, 2001. - S. 195.

8. With chess through centuries and countries. - Warsaw, 1970. - S. 145.

Teacher of additional education of the TsVR "Galaktika", teacher of additional education of the Moscow Aerospace Lyceum. Yu. V. Kondratyuk, Novosibirsk; Competitor of the Department of Pedagogy, Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University; address 630124 Novosibirsk, apt. 90; ; E-mail: *****@***ru.

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PHILOSOPHY AND CHESS

Yu.I. Shapiro(Novosibirsk)

I. Kant's a priori position: a person has pre-experimental principles that determine the possibilities of logic;

G.V. Hegel: thinking is the highest stage of cognition, overcoming the threshold of scientificity, which allows you to operate with ideas.

Period of classical chess

Time of the 70s. 19th century - 50s 20th century can be called the "golden age of chess". At that time, there was the "New Positional School" in Europe, the Russian chess school, the school of hypermodernists, and the Soviet chess school. In addition to schools, individual major chess players also created. Yet these schools and chess players had a lot in common.

The basis of classical chess strategy is strict logical schemes.

Features of the creativity of chess players of the classical period

Choosing and planning

The most famous sports-psychological methods: methods of conscious risk, unexpected victims, "consent method", false goal. Such methods of struggle are directed against the banal exploitation of experience, the prose of rationalism, "wise prudence", cowardly subservience, dull stiffness, reinsurance. D. Bronstein wrote: “Rationalism leads to spiritual lack of independence, threatens to lose creative potential. Especially when it comes to art ... ".

We find an analogy in the main provisions of one of the modern philosophical schools - postmodernism. Postmodernists speak out against philosophies of the New Age and call to loosen: rigid logical schemes, the search for a stable one, worship of authorities, the search for uniformity, the imposition of unreasonable values. Their call is this - more chaos, discreteness, pluralism, sensuality, intuitionism, the search for instability, lack of constraint, irony in relation to recognized values.

Outstanding masters noted the importance of intuition. A. Nimzowitsch: it is possible to predict the course of events only if there is a certain creative imagination.” A. Karpov: “Moves that allow me to look into the future give me the greatest satisfaction.” Intuition is the most important quality, because it limits the possibilities when choosing moves. After all, a chess player cannot calculate everything. Intuition in chess - the ability of a chess player to evaluate a position without much time, without detailed calculation, and choose a continuation based on this impression.

Chess at the turn of the century

Division into periods of the history of chess creativity by us given from posetions of philosophical dialectical methodology. The development of chess creativity is considered in dynamics, the main principle of the study is historicism. In the modern picture of the world, the analysis of social and humanitarian structures involves the study of open nonlinear systems in which the role of the initial conditions, the individuals included in them, local changes and random factors is great. Modern scientists and philosophers understand the limitations of rationalism. Classical rationalism never found an adequate explanation for the act of creation.

Most chess players are endowed to a greater extent with either a concrete-figurative or an abstract-rational type of thinking. The former are strong tacticians striving for a sharp, sometimes irrational struggle, often sacrificing material. The second are strategists with a cold and practical mind, prone to thinking in general schemes. Less common are chess players of the universal type.

The most important regularities in the development of science are its dialectization, differentiation, its responses to people's needs. In the XX century. new disciplines came into force to meet the needs for recognition of the achievements of individuals, for the choice of professions and for communication. This - psychologypersonality, psychoanalysis and socionics. The newest of them, socionics, studying differentialdifferential characteristics and sociotypes of people.

Kanke V.A. Philosophy. - M. - 2002. - S. 118.
Suetin A.S. Steps to mastery in chess. - M., 1998. - S. 31.
Kasparov G.K. My great predecessors. - M., 2003. - S. 504.
Bronstein D.I., Smolyan G.L. Beautiful and furious world. - M., 1977. - S. 18.
Suetin A.S. Steps to mastery in chess. - M., 1998. - S. 18, 20, 31.
Kanke V.A. Philosophy. - M., 2002. - S. 78.
Kokhanovsky V.P. and etc. Philosophy for graduate students. - Rostov-on-Don, 2001. - S. 195.
Gizhitsky E. With chess through centuries and countries. - Warsaw, 1970. - S. 145.

Shapiro Yury Izrailevich, teacher of additional education, TsVR "Galaktika", teacher of additional education, Moscow Aerospace Lyceum. Yu. V. Kondratyuk, Novosibirsk; Competitor of the Department of Pedagogy, Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University; address 630124 Novosibirsk, st. Yesenina, 35, apt. 90; tel. 8-960-795-56-61; Email: [email protected]

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The giant Gargantua, the hero of Rabelais, is learning to play chess. Rice. L. Morena to one of the Paris editions of "Gargantua and Pantagruel"

Many have thought about the question why the game of chess has attracted so many loyal fans, why has it managed to interest so many people of different characters, worldviews, professions over the centuries? Why do tens of thousands of people every day in all corners of the globe fight hard on the chessboard, study chess literature, devote a lot of time to solving the mysteries of chess composition? Thanks to what did chess conquer vast expanses of many continents and forced them not only to pronounce heartfelt declarations in their honor, but also to sacrifice a significant part of the free time that people have to satisfy their cultural needs, for entertainment and recreation?

The answer to this is not simple.

Perhaps this happens because chess is a multifaceted, diverse phenomenon, and everyone can find in them something for himself that occupies him, captivates him and gives him satisfaction. This is a mass game, mental entertainment, rest after work, but also an exciting competition, a noble duel and an attempt to engage in a stubborn intellectual struggle that causes strong emotions and excitement, as in real sports rivalry, although here they operate with concepts of a different category. And, finally, chess is, undoubtedly, an area of artistic and scientific creativity that satisfies the need for creativity and perception of works that have aesthetic and cognitive value. How much inner satisfaction comes from admiring the beauty of combinations and arrangements on a chessboard, penetrating into the complex issues of analysis, logic, psychology, mathematics of the game, overcoming contradictions and difficulties, fighting not only with a specific opponent, but also with oneself, a struggle that requires creative effort and clear mental calculation, insight and evaluation of positions. Pleasure and satisfaction comes from the possibility of implementing certain concepts of an abstract and speculative nature with the help of chess pieces, the opportunity to translate into material reality facts (if I can use this word here) from the world of ideas. On sixty-four squares, refined strategic plans, plans for actions and extraordinary situations, conflicts between different positions and tactics, playful nit-picking and dramatic clashes materialize.

One of the chess masters of the old times put it this way: "A famous chess player is an artist, a scientist, an engineer, and, finally, a commander and a winner."

Not every chess fan and not every played game gives grounds to assign such a high rank to the game. However, beauty, art, valuable cognitive qualities and creative possibilities are potentially contained in chess and await at every moment and in every position of the one who discovers them. Like other areas of life, chess has its conscious creators (these are high-class competitors, theorists, researchers) and the broad masses of more or less understanding of the essence of the matter (not to use the offensive term "consumers") who play chess and participate in its various manifestations, as well as when they deal with music, theater, literature, cinema.

Communication with chess requires, although we often do not notice it, efforts of an intellectual nature. In view of the fact that chess is a complex phenomenon intertwined with numerous areas of human life, they themselves are the subject of science, the subject of various scientific studies. In order to accurately determine the role of chess in public life, one should turn to history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, mathematics, art history, history of morals and other branches of knowledge.

Such a rich range of links between the game of chess and its active role in everyday life has served to ensure that chess has become a part of material and spiritual culture, each time enriching it with new interesting achievements and valuable qualities. This was aptly formulated by the American chess figure A. Bisno: "Chess contains elements of culture, art and intellectual achievements throughout the history of civilization."

The Soviet chess player Ya. Rokhlin expresses this idea more broadly:

"We are not going to argue that chess creates applied values, but, like any form of art, chess creativity creates real cultural values, which together make a certain contribution to the treasury of world culture. It is not for nothing that the largest national libraries and museums of many countries carefully store works chess art (ancient manuscripts, printed editions of a number of centuries and other chess materials), the study of which can reveal another facet in the life of a person of a certain era.Interesting and valuable chess exhibits are stored in the Faceted Chamber of the Kremlin and the State Hermitage.

It is no coincidence that encyclopedic dictionaries, which systematize all branches of human knowledge, give pride of place to chess and the world's best chess players, who are the pride of civilized mankind.

Studying the history of chess, their centuries-old writing, we see how the nature and level of a person’s creative thought, various everyday and artistic influences get a real reflection in chess works.

For many generations, almost at the dawn of the existence of written reports on the game of chess, there were attempts to give a precise definition of the essence of chess. There are exaggerated and ugly inflated arguments from pseudoscientific positions, there are also numerous definitions made in passing when completely different problems were investigated; we meet brilliant thoughts about chess expressed by artists, thinkers and practicing chess players, publicists and statesmen. There were also attempts to create large theoretical works, some of which were crowned with success, but in most cases they, however, did not give the expected synthetic conclusions. The bibliography of the topic "philosophy of chess" is quite extensive, but, unfortunately, it does not contain works worthy of attention that would exist for a long time and would not lose their relevance. The "philosophy" of chess that we find under this label in old editions and magazines cannot really define the subject, since it uses false premises. sense. Even now there are incorrect theories, erroneous formulations. Chess is waiting for a big "cleansing" and putting in order the extraordinarily complex and interesting scientific and creative problems associated with it.

Over a chess problem. (I. Grinshtein - "Spark")

"Doctor, your situation is not pleasant." ("Crocodile")

Passion for chess knows no barriers. (Fig. Chaval - "Zi und Er")

Apart from questions covering the history of the game of chess, the main dispute concerned the specification of the nature of chess and revolved around concepts related to the title of this chapter.

Yu. Bykov states: "Chess is a mental dispute that can create aesthetically valuable works and is capable of cultivating in a person the qualities necessary for creative activity."

This is opposed by Y. Rokhlin, who writes: "Chess, in terms of its creative content and its specificity, cannot fit only into the concept of a 'sports game', which is becoming too narrow for them these days." Elsewhere he notes: "Chess is a historically developed cultural phenomenon, which is organically connected with the spiritual life of society and is in a state of continuous change and renewal."

And finally, B. Weinstein proposes to first define the subject of discussion more precisely and lists what we understand today as "chess":

board game;

chess by correspondence, by telegraph and radio;

playing parties for aesthetic pleasure or for study;

drawing up and solving problems and studies;

chess theory - general principles of chess, basic strategic ideas, techniques;

history of the origin and development of chess.

After that, he concludes: “If we say that chess is an art, then we mean that not just any form, but all forms of manifestation of chess, taken as a whole, are a kind of art.

When they want to prove that chess is a game, they consider only one of the forms - playing over the board.

The discussion continues, and it is good that it has begun. I would like this book, which leads the reader "through centuries and countries", to be a voice in the discussion, reminiscent of the former culture and traditions of chess. To revive the discussion, let me quote Jan Staudinger's epigram:

As a chess player, in accordance with this game, He preferred his lady to someone else's, But in life and in the game, insincere exactly the same, Loving his own, someone else's not averse to taking ...

This is how well-aimed remarks lead, if not to absolutely precise, at least to witty definitions. In the same category, we can include the thought formulated by Stefan Zweig: "The game of chess, like love, cannot be done alone." This writer defined chess and more synthetically:

“Are they not also science, art, thinking that leads to nothing, mathematics without result, art without works, architecture without object, and, despite this, as life has shown, stronger in their essence and actuality than all works and achievements of knowledge. The only game available to every age, to everyone. It sharpens the senses, it makes the mind work to its limits. In it, they look for a beginning and a goal. Children can learn simple rules, fools succumb to its temptation, and despite this, within the immutable boundaries of tight cells, it creates a special kind of art, incomparable with any other ... "

Waiting for guests. ("Münchner Illustrierte")

An outstanding American scientist, politician and teacher of the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin also entered the history of culture as a pioneer of chess writing, who considered this game from an educational, ethical and moral side. In his work, called "The Morals of Chess" (the first chess book in general in America), Franklin draws attention to such positive character-forming properties of the game of chess as the development of the ability to look into the future and weigh the consequences, as the development of a sense of prudence, caution , prudence and, finally, responsibility for your decision. Here is how Franklin looked at this game: “The game of chess is not just idle entertainment. Some very valuable qualities of the mind, necessary in human life, are required in this game and strengthened in it so much that they become a habit that is useful in many cases of life. Life is a kind of chess game in which we often have the opportunity to win and fight with rivals and opponents, in which there is a wide variety of good and bad events, which are to some extent the result of reason or lack of it. And elsewhere he notes:

“While playing chess, we acquire the habit of not losing heart and, hoping for favorable changes, persevere in the search for new opportunities. The game is so replete with heterogeneous situations subject to unexpected changes that it develops the ability to find a way out of seemingly insurmountable difficulties, and each tries to play the game to the very end in the hope of winning with the help of his skill, or at least draw due to the negligence of a partner.Every person will agree that in a chess game we see an example of how even modest success can increase self-confidence, and inattention - lead to losses; the game teaches us not to lose hope when the enemy is superior and not to give up chances for victory even with those painful blows that we can receive while striving for success ... "

Rummaging through various materials, one can find quite a few publications or fragments of publications regarding the psychology of the game and players. However, this does not mean that the mentioned issue has been developed and exhaustively systematized. Just before the war, the Polish gymnasium teacher K. Kozlowski published his work on the influence of psychological factors on the result of a game and the level of play in Shahist. Based on the fact that the final result on the chessboard is the resultant of some correlation of circumstances and facts reflected in the player's psyche, he enumerates the individual elements. The result, if we use a metaphor taken from mathematical analysis, will be tantamount to finding the unknown in a certain system of equations.

At the dentist's office. Pain reliever. (Art. Yu. Cherepanov - "Spark")

"Try with water..." (Art. 3. Lengren)

House of creativity of writers. (Art. I. Semenov - "Spark")

There are 4 minutes left until the end of the working day, and 20 more moves must be made ... (Artist I. Gench - "Crocodile")

"In chess, we don't know all the factors or their interconnection. We get lost in a sea of darkness. Some elements are known: combinational abilities, chess intuition, the state of the nervous system, physical health, ambition, the ability to allocate time, the rational distribution of forces, the exact calculation of points and etc. These elements again depend, for example, on the climate, on the time of the draw, nutrition, etc. Despite everything. There are always elements in tournaments that cannot be foreseen: - hence the tournament surprises.

“Based on the behavior of people, their character, mental abilities and passions are known. But since it is not always possible to be a witness to this behavior, some want to guess the virtues of the soul by facial features, others by the shape of the skull, and others even by handwriting. In our opinion "In a chess game, the mind and will are excessively active, and therefore one can judge the merits of a person on the basis of his game more accurately than on the basis of all anthropological and graphological studies. Every game, and especially a chess game, is a speaking grammar of the human heart."

To claim that this game has the value of a research tool in the field of psychology would be "chess arrogance," but Krupsky correctly noted the connection that exists between the nature of the game and the character of the player. In the game, in general, one can get to know the human temperament, character, traits of the mind, and the chess game confirms this especially convincingly.

It happens that the author lacks criticism. Then those "psychological" observations are born, which we today accept with a smile, considering them just a good joke, but which at one time were published as quite serious and sounded, let's say, like this:

"If your partner provides the arrangement of pieces on the board to you, then he puts himself above you."

"If he does not want to take odds from you, but plays weakly, he is proud, thinking only of himself."

"If he plays quickly, and at the decisive moments of the game he makes a move without hesitation, he is lucky in life only under happy circumstances, he is indecisive in realizing his intentions," etc.

In the hostel: "Aunt Dusya, move my horse over there to that cage!" (Fig. E. Shcheglova - "Crocodile")

In the harem. (Ris. Kovarsky - "The New Worker")

Organizers are horrified. The champion loses all the games... (Fig. B. Tadej - "Noir e Blyan")

"It seems the game is getting sharp..." ("Lechiquier de Paris")

In verbal balancing act, which tries to smuggle deeper thoughts under the guise of a joke, there are also definitions of this kind:

"Chess truth is a lie of life."

"The game of chess ennobles a person, for it is full of disappointments."

The origin of these "aphorisms" probably lies in the personal disappointment in the life of their authors.

Since we have given examples relating to the period between World Wars I and II and to the ancient era, let's see how people in Poland approached chess, for example, in 1868, i.e. about a hundred years ago. About the chess tournament played in Warsaw (a pioneering undertaking!) the press wrote:

"During the tournament just ended, we happened to hear voices, and serious voices at that, opposing chess as a useless and time-consuming, and therefore only suitable entertainment for idlers. However, this opinion seems to us only relatively well-founded. Of all the games in the world, chess, of course, most of all requires abilities; they educate and develop the mind, teach deeper thinking, and therefore are even used as pedagogical means in many educational institutions abroad.

In the apartment of the chess master. (K. Clamann - "Ulenspiegel")

"Are they still playing, or are they already asleep?" (K. Clamann - "Ulenspiegel")

Nowadays chess is played on a mass scale, and, of course, there is no need to convince so intelligibly of the benefits that they bring, or to care about spreading the chess game and chess culture. But there are new issues that need to be addressed and settled. Chess life in many countries is organizationally included in the framework of sports, where chess is in last place among more exciting sports such as football, athletics, etc.

Thus, chess is reduced mainly to tournaments, the selection of participants for tournaments, their classification, competition regulations, etc., while the foundations for the development of chess science, culture and creativity have not been created.

"I'm lucky again - mate!" (Fig. K. Clamann - "Ulenspiegel)

The mechanical attribution of chess to a sport, although not to its physical area, but to its mental one, brought a lot of trouble and simplified a number of issues. Complaints and complaints about the organizational side of the matter were also joined by the voices of people who raised the issue of a proper understanding of the very essence of the chess game. An "anti-sports" article by Tomasz Domanevsky published in the Polish weekly "Svyat" (1954) is extremely eloquent.

"For many years we have been in the clutches of a fiction whose name is chess sport. For many years, with the stubbornness of madmen, we have been trying to fit the purely thought process, which is the game of chess, into the framework of paragraphs of physical education and sports. The confusion of concepts leads to nothing but misunderstandings, and the specificity of some actions obliges.If we sit for several hours at a chessboard and rearrange individual pieces from place to place, then this action is mental, and there is no such argument in nature that would convince anyone that this is a physical action.Miracles do not exist! ...

Weak muscles and a hollow chest discredit a runner or a thrower, but they absolutely do not interfere with achieving the highest class of play on a chessboard. You can be the titan of the checkered field and yet never set foot on a sports field in your life. Here, at the heights of mental activity, fat calves do not solve anything - a quick-witted and trained brain decides ...

Maybe the element of competition solved the issue here? After all, there are chess matches, tournaments, championships, Olympiads; there are masters, grandmasters, scoring and qualifying competitions...

But what of it? It's just a matter of nomenclature. There is also competition in work, in mathematical Olympiads, among masters of high-speed melting, in recruitment to art groups, in Chopin competitions, but not a single participant in these competitions can be called an athlete. It's not about the terminology, it's about the concept.

A hard problem with an indirect solution. ("Lechiquier de Paris")

"I must admit, the ending is very interesting." ("La Marseillaise")

"I propose a draw!" (Fig. E. Koseradzsky - "Studs")

"Shah!!!" (Fig. I. Gegen - "Frischer Wind")

As you can see, there are many misunderstandings about the connection between chess and sports. The word "sport" in the conventional sense is, of course, associated with the concept of physical education, and in this case the inclusion of chess in this concept is a grotesque paradox. When we observe, however, sports games such as tennis, football, water polo, tournaments and competitions of all kinds, we cannot help noticing their kinship with mental-type strategic games like checkers. This, of course, is about their structural similarity, and not about the form of these games. For the parties are fighting with equal (in principle) opportunities to win. The best wins, the more dexterous, the more attentive, but not the more fortunate in the sense of the chance that predetermines the win. It is from this kinship of the nature of the very conflict of the game, just as in sports, that the experiences of both the participants themselves and the observers of chess rivalry arise. After all, for example, a fan of a football match does not take part in the direct physical struggle of football teams. Sport is the business of the players themselves, not the spectators. The emotional sensations of the public experiencing a sporting struggle are very similar in the structure of their psychology to the sensations of fans of chess tournaments and matches.

It often happens that analogies are indisputable. One of the outstanding Polish chess masters before the war said this to a press representative:

“When playing, a chess player works mentally and physically for several hours a day, his nervous system also works.

Physically?

Yes, physically.

I don't understand you, mister maestro.

We are talking about the analogy between a boxer and a chess player.

It seems to me that there is no analogy in the sense of physical effort!

The maestro smiles and says:

The analogy exists. A boxer loses weight before a fight, and a chess player after it is over. For example, after each tournament I lose about five kilograms ... "

And what the confusion of concepts leads to can be seen from the following anecdote. Two friends meet on the street:

You can congratulate me. I became world champion twice: in chess and in boxing!

By what miracle?

Carnere declared checkmate, and Alekhine was knocked out...

One of the Polish satirists, correctly evaluating chess as an athlete's training, advises those participants in specific sports who do not like to overwork themselves physically, but "love to fight with their ... thoughts" to go in for chess: "Please! And for them there is a sport: chess. Chess develops the lumbar muscles, as well as the muscles of the thumb and forefinger."

In a parody of sports reports published in a Polish magazine, there was also the following joking note:

"During the chess match of the three countries in Budapest, our team managed to take a place immediately after the teams of Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

If we had gone with our own equipment, - the leader of our team told us, - the result would have been, for sure, even better. Unfortunately, our participants could not get used to the Hungarian chess knights. We trained in different conditions, and keeping the Hungarian horse was not an easy task for us. In addition, at the last moment we did not have enough full-time position for one bishop - thus, the operational capabilities of the queen on the field decreased, since she did not have a permanent connection with the king. But it is known that it is very difficult to play with pawns alone.

The above remarks seem to me to be quite correct. Shortcomings in supplying chess players with sports equipment are a serious obstacle to the development of our physical education."

- ... start! (Fig. Muler - "Lilliput")

We have cited many caustic reproaches and barbs that fell upon the vulgarizers of chess, who consider them only a physical type of sports game and nothing more. But we must not forget that there are many sports elements in the game of chess, because otherwise we would go too far. There is a wonderful connection, and no one, for sure, wants to dissociate themselves from it. First of all, a chess player in the game must behave like an athlete; sports ethics and sports principles of wrestling oblige him to this.

"Chess players are not enemies among themselves, they are only rivals in a noble duel, shaking hands with each other before and after the game," the French chess player Doazan said a hundred years ago. These words are true and modern.

Alekhine attached great importance to sporting qualities in the character of a chess player. Here is what his biographer, the Soviet grandmaster Kotov, states:

“Alekhine argued that there are no such shortcomings and vices in the sporting appearance of a chess player that could not be eliminated to a large extent or completely. But this requires a persistent and persistent desire to get rid of vices, a strong will, and hard work on educating character.

"Through chess, I brought up my character," Alekhine wrote. "Chess, first of all, teaches you to be objective. In chess, you can become a great master only by realizing your mistakes and shortcomings. Just like in life."

In his articles, Alekhine often talks about the important sports qualities that a strong practicing chess player should possess. Alekhine calls chess players who are fond of only the creative side of chess, devoid of sporting qualities, "tragedians" of chess..."

It would seem that talking about a sporty approach to the game of chess is the same as breaking through open doors. But in practice, however, there are numerous unpleasant examples of gross violations of the rules of noble knightly rivalry. In short, there are times when the raffle is played in an unsportsmanlike manner. This is mentioned in the press: in jokes and stories about numerous tournaments and matches. Let's take an anecdote.

"One participant, fighting at the end of the tournament with his main competitor, found himself in an "unclear" position. Since his opponent was considered an extremely noble person, he decided to use this circumstance as an additional (if not the last) "chance"; suddenly he began to complain to the severe pain that prevented him from playing the game, and... offered a draw(!), emphasizing, moreover, that their positions are more or less equal(!), and he can only lose if he, worthy of sympathy, unable to concentrate, allows some serious mistake because of his suffering.The impressionable and naive gentleman agreed to this proposal and as a result ... got second place, while the dexterous simulator, of course, healthy as a bull, saving himself in such a "subtle" way, snatched the first place from under his nose in a magnificent finish."

But Alekhine did not think about such "methods" and understanding the weaknesses of the enemy when he expressed his opinion:

"I consider the following three factors necessary for success," says Alekhine. I see in the scientific and artistic achievements that put the game of chess in a number of other arts ... "

The circle is closed: game, sport, science, creativity.