When you have an advantage, you are obliged to attack; otherwise you are endangered to lose the advantage.
–Wilhelm Steinitz
Only the player with the initiative has the right to attack.
-Wilhelm Steinitz
“You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player.” – Jose Raul Capablanca
“Tactics is knowing what to do when there’s something to do. Strategy is knowing what to do when there’s nothing what to do.” – Savielly Tartakower
“When you see a good move, look for a better one.” – Emanuel Lasker
Chess quotes On Life-
“Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece.” – Ralph Charell
“If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure.” – Garry Kasparov
“Chess makes men wiser and clear-sighted.” – Vladimir Putin
“Critical thinking is the most important factor with chess. As it is in life, you need to think before you make decisions.” – Hikaru Nakamura
Chess like love, like music, has the power to make man happy. – Savielly Tartakower
Funny Chess Quotes-
“The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made.” – Savielly Tartakower
“Of chess, it has been said that life is not long enough for it, but that is the fault of life, not chess.” – William Napier
“The pin is mightier than the sword.” – Fred Reinfeld
“One bad move nullifies forty good ones.” – Bernhard Horwitz
“It will be cheering to know that many people are skillful chess players, though in many instances their brains, in a general way, compare unfavorably with the cognitive faculties of a rabbit.” – James Mortimer
“Those who say they understand chess, understand nothing” – Robert Hübner
“A Chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope you have the advantage, the second when you believe you have an advantage, and the third… when you know you’re going to lose” – Savielly Tartakower
“No Chess Grandmaster is normal; they only differ in the extent of their madness” – Viktor Korchnoi
The World Chess Federation (FIDE) awards titles to players who have done distinguished performances, and recognizes them as a Master. The FIDE further grades these Masters based on further achievements made by the player.
Leaving aside the World Chess Championship title following are all the titles in chess.
Titles that can be achieved by men and women.
GM – Grandmaster in chess (Highest title in chess)
Chess originated in India many centuries ago and since then it has come a long way! It is a game adored by its practitioners because it is not merely a sport but also a methodology to improve our decision-making ability and concentration. In short, it strengthens our mental capacities!!!!
Main Benefits of Chess
Chess develops logical thinking.
Chess promotes imagination and creativity. It encourages you to be inventive.
Chess teaches independence. You are forced to make important decisions influenced only by your own judgment.
Chess inspires self-motivation. It encourages the search of the best move, the best plan, and the most beautiful continuation out of the endless possibilities. It encourages the everlasting aim towards progress, always steering to ignite the flame of victory.
Chess improves concentration. Numerous studies have proven that kids obtain a higher reading level, math level and a greater learning ability overall as a result of playing chess.
Chess and Science
Chess develops the scientific way of thinking. While playing, you generate numerous variations in your mind. You explore new ideas, try to predict their outcomes and interpret surprising revelations. You decide on a hypothesis, and then you make your move and test it.
Chess and Mathematics
Chess involves an infinite number of calculations, anything from counting the number of attackers and defenders in the event of a simple exchange to calculating lengthy continuations. And you use your head to calculate, not some little machine.
Chess and Art
In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia chess is defined as “an art appearing in the form of a game.” If you thought you could never be an artist, chess proves you wrong. Chess enables the artist hiding within you to come out. Your imagination will run wild with endless possibilities on the 64 squares. You will paint pictures in your mind of ideal positions and perfect outposts for your soldiers. As a chess artist you will have an original style and personality.
Chess and Psychology
Chess is a test of patience, nerves, will power and concentration. It enhances your ability to interact with other people. It tests your sportsmanship in a competitive environment.
INTERESTING CHESS FACTS – EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Chess is a very interesting game in that it is fully concrete. Therefore, chess has given a number of interesting experiences to the world. Here are some interesting facts relating to chess.
1. Did you know the number of possible ways of playing the first four moves for both sides in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000?
2. The longest game of chess that is theoretically possible is 5,949 moves.
3. The first chessboard with alternating light and dark squares (as it appears today) was made in Europe in 1090.
4. According to the America’s Foundation for Chess, there are 169,518,829,100,544,000,000,000,000,000 (approximately 1.70×1029) ways to play the first 10 moves of a game of chess. And they thought a computer would solve chess!
5. The word “checkmate” in chess comes from the Persian phrase “Shah Mat,” which is often translated to “the king is dead”, although more accurate may be “the king is trapped” or ” the king is without escape” (Treadwell).
6. The longest chess game ever was I.Nikolic – Arsovic, Belgrade 1989, which ended in 269 moves. The game was a draw.
7. There are 400 different possible positions after one move each. There are 72,084 different possible positions after two moves each. There are over 9 million different possible positions after three moves each. There are over 318 billion different possible positions after four moves each. The number of distinct 40-move games in chess is far greater than the number of electrons in the observable universe. The number of electrons is approximately 1079, while the number of unique chess games is 10120.
8. Have you heard of the amazing chessboard paradox? Click the link to see a description.
9. The new pawn move, where pawns were allowed to advance two squares on its first move instead of one, was first introduced in Spain in 1280.
10. The first chess game played between space and earth was on June 9, 1970 by the Soyez-9 crew. The game ended in a draw.
11. An old puzzle: If you put one grain of wheat on the first square of the chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth, and so on, how many grains of wheat do you need to put on the 64th square? The answer is 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (approximately 9.22×1018) grains of wheat. That’s a lot of nutrition.
12. The folding chessboard was invented by a priest who was forbidden to play chess. The priest found a way around it by making a folding chessboard. When folded together and put on a bookshelf, it simply looks like two books.
13. Kirk and Spock have played chess three times on the show Star Trek. Kirk won all three games.
14. A computer called Deep Thought became the first computer to beat an international grandmaster in November 1988, Long Beach, California.
15. Garry Kasparov, at 22, became the youngest ever world champion. Ruslan Ponomariov was younger but he was not the undisputed world champion; Maia Chiburdanidze was even younger when she won the women’s title.
What are the chances of you to believe that chess puzzles were created and noted down in Sanskrit language, many many years ago? And how much advanced and complex do you think these puzzles were compared to our current standards?
Pandit Trivengadacharya Shastri in the year 1800 CE, created this book named ‘Vilasmanimanjiri”. This was done on the order of the Bajirao Peshwa II, the last Peshwa of the Maratha Empire.
At first, the only fact that a chess book was written in Sanskrit language made it look special! Most of us have agreed to the fact that chess originated in India, but we don’t have any earlier known chess material or books. This book is more than 2 centuries old! During that time the European influence on the world as well as the game was increasing steadily. Indian chess and European chess(current chess) were both played in India at that time. As you will know after reading this book, Indian chess was richer and more complex than current chess! Indian chess has many interesting concepts, the most exciting of which was the grading of the victories! The author was a master of both these variants of chess!
Even if we keep aside this book’s historical significance it would still be a match to the best problem solving books that are available now.The puzzles start from ‘mate in 1 move’ and the difficulty keeps on increasing. When I first started solving the book I was quite excited to see how difficult it can get. The difficulty of puzzles starts increasing steadily, mates in 10, 12, 20, 45, and the most difficult puzzle is of 82 moves! The checkmating motifs and plans are flawless and have a distinct artistic feel to it! Most puzzles would come under the term ‘studies’ used for deep and thematic puzzles. The book also contains rarely seen puzzles of ‘help-mate’ and ‘self-mate’. Overall it is an excellent book to build your calculation abilities!
Many top level players from time to time have tried to create and popularize a ‘100 squares board’, with additional pieces. One of the top players to bat for it was Jose Raul Capablanca. The book which was written a century before him not only sets up all the rules of the 100 squares board and its new pieces but also puts up a puzzle on it!
Another interesting aspect about the book is the stories and facts related to the origin of chess. Origin of chess and its journey to its current form has always been an exciting topic. The book throws light on this topic too, debating on different theories and providing facts about how India is its birthplace. The book also goes through the various stages the original chess went through to reach its current form.
The brilliancy of Pandit Trivengadacharya Shastri can be seen in this book. The reader will be truly delighted to see how the author has composed these puzzles more than 2 centuries ago which will still be a challenge to the best in the world!
In the year 1937, Mr Ganesh Kulkarni had translated this book in Marathi. The position printing in that time had limitations but Mr Ganesh Kulkarni came up with an interesting way to put it up. The first position which is shared in the book. I came across this book in June 2020. The high quality chess content had to be brought back in circulation. Very little information is available about the Pandit Trivengadacharya Shastri or the book on the internet as well. I tried to find every additional information about the author or the book that I could find. We visited the Bhavans Library which is in possession of the original book. Also on the internet some interesting information was discovered which is shared in the book. And so after working on it for 2 years we launched it on 1st Jan 2023.
