The Aesthetics Of The Game Of Chess

It is not necessary that the game of chess has to be highly competitive. It can also be a beautiful pass time. Therefore, there is much demand for chess coaching at home.

When we hear the word ‘chess’, we typically tend to associate it with strategy or even a strategy for the war. After all, we need to focus on annihilating the army of the opponent. As per one of the greatest chess players of one time, Grand Master Bobby Fischer, chess is a war on board with a focus on crushing the mind of the opponent.

The chess world has seen many famous rivalries like Fischer -Spassky, Kasparov- Karpov, Anand- Carlsen, Kramnik- Topalov etc; there have been many stories and legends in the world of chess.

As most grandmasters agree, ultimately, the game of chess is about intellectual prowess, emotional intelligence, innovation, ideation, creativity etc. Thus, there are multiple factors at play that have been mastered by leading chess players.

One of the leading factors impacting chess has been the recently raging Pandemic. While most sporting events struggled for survival, the game of chess has flourished. There is much demand to learn chess at home from online tutors.

Chess has been found as a beautiful blend of efforts, discovery, success, struggle, setback, recovery, and triumph. This amounts to a reflection of real life. The 64 squares on the chessboard for a player amount to the planet for humans. The journey of a chess player resembles that of a real-life of person.

There is the element of camaraderie among leading chess players. Several chess players happen to be part of each other’s team as demanded by the situation. They help to contrive and help for chess preparation even in the case of world champions. 

Kramnik featured in Kasparov’s team in the playoff with Anand in 1995 world championships. Carlsen aided Anand in the latter’s title defence in 2010 against Topalov. The Russian GM Kramnik and Israeli GM Boris Gefland were part of a 2-week camp in Chennai for mentoring young chess players in India.

The game of chess has aesthetic and emotional connotations. Scientists have found that learning is easier when one has emotional links to something. This may be why several persons can easily learn tactics; they perceive such combinations as beautiful.

Currently, there is much excitement and high enthusiasm for computer-based chess instead of thinking on one’s own. But, prior generations were much enthused by the domination of great Grandmasters like Karpov and Kasparov.

The modern chess culture focuses on the concept of ‘ware’- a German word for something between merchandise, product, and ware. These could be in the form of Armageddon playoffs or twitch live streams. There is a major problem of pre-dominance of commercial aspects of chess over authentic artistic or cultural qualities. Because of such developments, the next generation may be prevented from knowing chess as an art and a game with rich history and culture.

In sum, chess problems are a rare art form in which the audience participates actively to solve the problem to appreciate the message of the artist. It is a popular custom to award prizes for excellence at tournaments of chess for the game that is most beautiful. Thus, chess is not just about competition but also beauty. Both players and the audience gain aesthetic pleasure from the medium of chess.