Philosophy of chess game. To disagree means to agree. Defeats and victories

No one knows exactly when chess appeared. It is only known that this happened in India no later than the 6th century AD. But there is no complete agreement on this point either.

According to one version, the divination technique developed in China in the 6th-1st centuries. BC. to determine the balance between the energies of yin and yang, formed the basis of chaturanga, a game that is the prototype of modern chess (in Sanskrit, “chaturanga” means “four kinds”, that is, an army with four types of weapons: chariots, elephants, cavalry, infantry). In chaturanga, according to Biruni (India, 11th century), the goal was to destroy the enemy forces, and not to checkmate the king. But in Chinese literature, the first known information about chess appears in the 8th century. AD

Apparently, the ancient Etruscans were also engaged in fortune-telling on a 64-cell board: their mythology mentioned a magical horse-horse covering the entire heavenly space in 64 jumps (in chess, a horse can bypass the entire board in 64 moves).

Through Iran, chess entered the Arab countries. In the Near and Middle East, the game acquired the name "shatrang" (Persian) or "shatranj" (Arabic). In the Persian parable-novela “The Acts of Ardashir Papakan” (circa 600 AD), it is said that its hero showed great skill “in playing ball, riding, in shatrang, hunting and in other competitions.” The Oxford Handbook of Chess (1984) cites this quote as "the first mention of chess in world literature". But other sources (for example, G. Golombek's reference book) believe that even earlier chess was mentioned in Indian poems of the 6th century. "Vasvadata" and "Hartaharita".

“Some undoubtedly authentic chess pieces found during excavations in Italy have been identified as dating back to the 2nd century BC. AD Although no one questions the scientific integrity and professional qualifications of the archaeologists who made this discovery, their conclusions about the belonging of the figures to such an early era are usually taken with skepticism. If they are confirmed, the entire history of chess will have to be rewritten” (G. Golombek).

The Persian poet Ferdowsi, who lived at the turn of the 10th-11th centuries, repeatedly described chess in his works, and in one of his poems he spoke about the arrival of envoys of the Indian rajah to the court of the Persian Shah Khosrov I with gifts, among which was a game depicting a picture of the battle of two armies .

They even say that chess was invented by Palamedes, one of the Greek kings who took part in the siege of Troy (about 1250 BC). Playing chess, Palamedes penetrated the opponent's camp with a knight, and this is what led him to the idea of ​​a "Trojan horse" that brought the Greeks victory in the war. However, we do not know of any mention of chess in Greece at that time.

The Oxford Handbook of Chess categorizes hypotheses about their origins:
1. "Military": learning strategy, from boredom during a long siege, to relieve tension.
2. "Comforting". Thus, the poet Firdousi (940-1020 or 1030) in his epic Shahnameh wrote that chess owes its origin to the Indian sages who created this game in order to console the widowed queen Pershnari (lit. “beauty with an angelic face”) and distract her from sad thoughts about the son who died in battle.
3. "Competitive".
4. "Peaceful"(as an alternative to war in resolving controversial issues).

With the conquests of the Arabs, chess penetrated into Spain and Italy - the first countries of Western Europe, where they became known in the 8th-9th centuries. From Spain, chess entered France, and from Italy to Germany. Then they came to England. Their rapid spread and growth in popularity is evidenced by the fact that many ancient families began to decorate their coats of arms with the image chess pieces or a chessboard.

There is no generally accepted hypothesis regarding the penetration of chess into Russia. D. Sargin believes that chess first appeared in Rus' as a result of trade and cultural ties with the East even before the conquest of Iran by the Arabs, i.e. no later than the 7th century. I. Savenkov believes that chess could have penetrated from the East via the Caspian-Volga route (VIII-IX centuries). In 1876, a chess leaflet (issued by M. Chigorin, the strongest chess player in Russia at that time) wrote: “Russia acquired this game not from the West, but directly from India, which is proved by the Russian names of chess pieces.”

Mentions of chess are found in Russian epics: "Sadko ...", "About the good fellow Vasily Buslaevich ...". Interestingly, the ability to play chess was considered a distinctive feature of the character of the heroes, sung in epics. Based on the archaeological finds of Prof. Artsikhovsky in Novgorod can be considered that in the X-XI centuries. first in the territory of southern Russia, and then in the north, the game of chess became known to the Eastern Slavs.

Chess in the form known to us was formed at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. The division of the board into dark and light squares came into general use in the 16th century. Previously, they played on a one-color board, divided into square cells. A single-color board is still used in the Far East. In Arabic chess (at least until the beginning of the 13th century), the queen moved only one square diagonally. The bishop walked diagonally across the cage, he could jump over the piece.

During the Middle Ages, chess was persecuted in many Christian countries, perhaps because it had become a gambling which robbed them of their noble features. But since the XIII century, chess has been used as one of the means of knightly education. Chess, according to an unwritten statute, is one of the seven "knightly virtues" along with riding, swimming, wielding a spear, fencing, hunting, the art of writing and singing poetry.

The most famous work of the Middle Ages on chess is a treatise in Latin by Jacob Tsessolis. The book, written at the end of the 13th century, has a moralizing character, and chess is used in it as a pretext for uttering maxims and edifications of a moral, social, religious and political nature. This work was distributed in numerous handwritten copies in Latin, German, French, Czech and other languages. In the largest European libraries there are several copies of this book (for example, in Prague - nine).

The history of chess competitions goes back many centuries.

The contemporary German historian Helmut Faustin has documented that one of the first official chess competitions in Europe took place in the German university city of Heidelberg in 1467. The Heidelberg tournament contributed to the popularity of the game in Germany, although the center of chess life later moved to Nuremberg. From 1477, chess tournaments began to be held as regularly as the minnesinger competitions. There were two categories of chess players: masters and apprentices. Tournaments continued until the start of the Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648, after which chess life in Germany fell into decline.

In 1616, Duke August von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, hiding under the pseudonym "Gustav Selenus", in the book "Chess, or royal game wrote: “These Russians, or Muscovites, play chess very well and diligently. They are so skillful in this game that, in my opinion, it is extremely difficult for other peoples to compete with them.

In 1815, chess was declared a compulsory subject at the Military Academy of the Danish Army in Copenhagen. In support of this decision, the head of the academy reported to the Minister of War that "a game in which there are about 72,000 various ways make the first two moves cannot but be useful for future officers in terms of developing their speed of reaction to a rapidly changing situation.

On March 28, 1873, the first match took place between the combined chess teams of the two largest British universities - Oxford and Cambridge. Since then they have been held regularly.

In Germany, the "chess" village of Strebeck (Shtropke) became widely known. There are many legends about its history and traditions. According to one of them, it has existed for about 1000 years. In 1823, the teaching of chess was introduced at the local school (from grade 3). Another story tells that the one who wooed the local bride had to "win" her at the chessboard from her parents. In case of losing the game, the applicant not only received a refusal, but also paid a fine. Often, parents passed the role of the examiner to the village headman - according to tradition, a strong chess player. This provided the Strebeck community with a good income.

Since 1886 (from the Steinitz-Zukertort match) competitions have been held for the title of world chess champion. True, after Kasparov became world champion, the contenders were divided, and the last title draws were held in two independent leagues (two different world champions turned out). Negotiations are underway to merge them. It remains to be hoped that the subsequent history of chess competitions will be unified.

For those who are interested in this ancient and most useful for the mind intellectual game First of all, you should get acquainted with the main characters of any party. So, let me introduce you to chess pieces! There are six different types in total. Each of the two opponents has one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. The player can play with either white or black pieces, with white initially having some advantage. In principle, the names of chess pieces speak for themselves, and you can use them to navigate their comparative value, but it still makes sense to consider each piece separately.

His august majesty is king!

It is very easy to find it on the board: for White it is in the middle of the first, and for Black it is in the last row and resembles a man with a crown in the form of a cross or a spade. This is the tallest and most prominent figure. At the beginning of the game, when the chess pieces are just beginning to develop, he is a pitiful sight: he is attacked, they try to checkmate, and because of his weakness he is forced to attract a rook for defense (castling) and watch the battles from afar. But if the number of both armies has noticeably decreased, the king (King) turns into a formidable figure, which often decides the course of the battle.

Gray cardinal - queen

He is next to the king and wears a round cap on his head, and a beautiful five-pronged crown on a demonstration board. In Europe, this chess piece is usually called the queen (Queen), but we have more accustomed to the Indian name. Feryaz, or vizier, - this is how the first adviser to the king and chief military leader was called in this distant country. In the game, this is the strongest character, and other chess pieces are noticeably inferior to him in maneuverability and attack power. With himself, he can replace a whole detachment of nine pawns.

Impregnable fortress - boat

Sometimes it is called Tura, which means tower. So in France and some other countries they called fortresses capable of moving on land. Chess pieces sailed on ships from India to Russia for so long that this piece turned from an impregnable tower into a rook. This is how our ancestors called large boats in the old days. In terms of value, Rook replaces five pawns and feels great if it is at the beginning of open files. Each army has two such chess pieces, and they are located at the corners of the board.

Elephant or officer

Do not look for a figure with a trunk on the field, it is not there! True, in the old days (Bishop) really looked like a real elephant, but now such figures can only be found at an exhibition in the Hermitage. Each player has two of them, and they are located on the sides of the king and queen. Moreover, one bishop moves only on white, and the second - only on black cells. Such is the division of functions. In terms of strength, this piece is equal to three pawns.

horse or rider

In the West, this figure is called Knight, which can be translated as "knight." Maybe the rider was too heavy, or maybe too clumsy. One way or another, the proud horse decided to get rid of him and is now doing just fine on his own. And sometimes he jumps so gracefully that the enemy only grabs his head and does not know what to do with him! In terms of its strength, the knight, like the bishop, is also equal to three pawns, and the players have two such chess pieces. It is located near the boat and looks like

Pawn or infantryman

The smallest warrior in a round helmet. Unlike other pieces, they only advance or hold the defense, they are not allowed to retreat. Opponents have 8 of them, and this formidable squad, lined up in a chain, can deliver a fair amount of trouble to the enemy army. Pawns are weak and often die, faithfully following the orders of their king. But if, despite all the obstacles, this piece still manages to get to the last rank, it is immediately promoted in rank, and it can turn into a queen. Therefore, the further the infantry advanced, the stronger it is considered.

Fischer chess, or chess-960

Do not be surprised by the fact that the arrangement of chess pieces may differ from the standard. The reason for this is the invention of the eleventh world champion in this game. Since 1996, this kind of chess has slowly gained popularity and a considerable number of fans. In it, the pieces are randomly placed before the start of the game, taking into account some small restrictions. The rules of Fischer's chess are the same as the traditional ones, and in total there can be 960 initial starting positions. Elephants of the opponents here are necessarily of different sexes, and each army lines up symmetrically. That, perhaps, is all that we wanted to tell about the figures in this wonderful board game.

ART in chess is no less essential than science, an aspect of the game. According to S. Ozhegov, art is a creative reflection, reproduction of reality in artistic images. Reflection of thought through chess images is an art of the highest order. There are few people willing to say that there is no creativity in chess. Without a doubt, a chess game is creativity, multi-level, diverse. Raised to different degrees, it can be art.

Art is a special form of social consciousness through which the world around us is known. It is no coincidence that the chess world is compared with the real world in terms of the variety of parameters (A. Luazis). Means, this game can be considered as a model of society. This is another way of scientific immersion: a model of the world, its development, relations in it...

Many consider chess to be an intellectual art. But T. Petrosyan's conclusion, which he cites in his Ph.D. thesis, cut, in our opinion, the Gordian knot of the dilemma "science or art?" He considers science and art to be two equal forms of social consciousness and substantiates this fundamentally. The Aesthetics of Chess is an independent course born from practice.

Beauty in chess can strike the soul just like a crimson sunset, like a scattering of silver in the palm of a blade of grass, like a pulsating spring - the source of the great mother of the Volga ... Chess is a unique and wonderful model of aesthetic education of the growing generation, as if programmed to form a sense of beauty. A. Bisno aptly spoke about the belonging of chess to material and spiritual culture. In his opinion, chess contains elements of culture, art and intellectual achievements throughout the history of civilization. This statement echoes Y. Rokhlin's assertion that chess, like any other area of ​​art, creates cultural values.

Thus, art in chess appears as a form of social consciousness that creates cultural values ​​and masters the reality around us with its inherent means, as a phenomenon of the same order with science, as an element of beauty, as a way of education.

Chess in art

Chess plays an important role in many works of literature, cinema and other arts. In addition to the huge number of works where the game is mentioned in one form or another in passing, there are also those in which chess is the basis of the plot, or plays an important role in some part of it, or is simply noticeably distinguished by the author.

The great Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov emphasized the closeness of chess composition and literary creativity. The writer considered the compilation of chess problems not only a form of intellectual entertainment, but also an activity useful for the development of creative imagination. In his novel The Gift, Nabokov devoted an entire chapter to chess, in which he conveyed to his hero, Godunov Cherdyntsev, his passion for composing chess problems. In 1970 in New York, Nabokov published his collection Poems and Chess Problems. In this collection he included 35 poems in Russian, 14 in English and 18 chess problems. Telling in the preface to the collection such an unusual combination in one book of his poetic and chess works, Nabokov wrote: “Finally, chess. I find it superfluous to justify their inclusion. Chess problems require from the composer the same virtues that characterize any worthy art: originality, ingenuity, conciseness, harmony, complexity and brilliant pretense. Tasks are the poetry of chess"

Examples of the use of chess in various art forms:

• Alice Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (1896);
• "The Game of Chess" is the title of the second part of Thomas Eliot's poem "The Waste Land" (1922);
• Checkmate, ballet by Arthur Bliss (1937);
• The Chess Novella, Stefan Zweig's last story (1944);
• The Seventh Seal, a film by Ingmar Bergman (1957);
• All the King's Cavalry, short story by Kurt Vonnegut from Welcome to the Monkey House (1968).
• TV series Twin Peaks;
• X-Men (film);
• "Chess", a musical by Tim Rice and members of the ABBA group;
• 3D chess in several episodes of Star Trek;
• Geri's Game, an author's cartoon where an elderly man plays chess with himself;
• Flemish board, novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte;
• Eight, Catherine Neville's first novel (1988)
• In the anime "Last Exile" ("The Last Exile"), all episodes are named after chess moves.
• "Middlegame", a story by Viktor Pelevin, in which the clash of "white" and "black" participants is mystically connected with a chess game taking place simultaneously, a report about which they hear from time to time on the radio.
• Chess pictures
• A novel by international grandmaster, USSR champion Alexander Kotov "White and Black" about world chess champion Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine. Also the film "White Snow of Russia" based on this novel.

Philosophy of chess

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, this is, first of all, the interaction of Russian and Western civilizations. Chess players from Eastern civilizations also take part in this process (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 part of this graphics can be a "huge arc" of learning methods of conducting chess game described by A. Suetin. The division into periods of the history of chess creativity is given by us from the position 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 creativity.

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, much different from the logic of position evaluation, plan algorithms and calculation of operations. This creativity should include 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 ratio of classical and non-classical approaches in the work of the 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. Such is the nature of a person that he is born with a complex set of properties. And in this set of various human virtues and weaknesses (signs - according to C. Jung), giving rise to a huge range of opinions and behaviors, are the prerequisites for creativity, including chess creativity, and the general creative progress. The most important regularities in the development of science are its dialectization, differentiation, and 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. These are personality psychology, psychoanalysis and socionics. The newest of them, socionics, studies the differential characteristics and sociotypes of people. Finally, in chess creativity we see an object of 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 personal knowledge in the process of cognition. . And these are: personal analytical work; study of best games contemporary 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.

Conclusion

Chess is unique game, one might say silent game music of the mind, like love and music, which have the ability to make a person happy. Even chess can play a symphony. On the other hand, according to G. Kasparov: "Chess is the torment of the mind." This is the most popular board game in the world, and it combines elements of sports, art and science. Therefore, if we talk about chess as a game in which there are many beautiful epic tricks, people who understand them can enjoy watching the game, from combinations, then this is art. If we talk about the fact that in chess the titles of champions of the republic, Russia, Europe, the world are played, then, of course, chess is a sport, all official competitions are held in it. The science lies in the fact that chess is analyzed by chess lovers, professionals, by chess programs, the opening, middle of the game and end are studied, therefore chess is a game that combines 3 elements: art, sport and science.

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 legends about the origin 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, living 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 a "New positional school" in Europe, the Russian chess school, school of hypermodernists, 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 the strategy of classical chess are strict logic.

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 dividing the 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 we are talking about 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. AT difficult moments 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) due 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, 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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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 every day tens of thousands of people in all corners the globe lead a stubborn struggle 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 mass game, mental entertainment, rest after work, but also exciting competition, a noble duel and an attempt to start 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 be able to accurately define the role of chess in public life, one should turn to history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, mathematics, the history of art, the 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, systematizing all branches of human knowledge, give pride of place to chess and the best chess players of the world, constituting 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 truly 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 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 "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 do not know all the factors, nor their interrelation. We are lost in a sea of ​​darkness. Some elements are known: combinational abilities, chess intuition, state nervous system, physical health, ambition, ability to distribute time, rational distribution of forces, accurate calculation of points, etc. These elements again depend, for example, on climate, on the time of the draw, nutrition, etc. Despite everything. There are always elements in tournaments that you can't foresee - 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 reasonable. 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 a purely thought process, which is a chess game, 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. Watching, however, sports games such as tennis, football, water polo, all sorts of tournaments and competitions, we cannot help but notice their relationship with strategic games mental type 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. In the end, for example, a fan 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 sports fight are very similar in the structure of their psychology to the feelings of the fans. 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 sports game physical type and nothing else. 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, 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 sporting approach to the game of chess is the same as breaking into 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 not about such "methods" and understanding weaknesses Alekhine thought 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.