Chess versus Life
“Chess is life”, Bobby Fischer once famously quipped. Not to be confused with the distinct yet uncannily similar view of his arch-rival, Borris Spassky: “Chess is like life.” Perhaps both are captured in yet another World Champion’s opinion, that of Fischer’s successor, Anatoly Karpov: “Chess is everything.”
What got me thinking about such depths of philosophy was actually, bizarrely, Rugby League. Last week, Australian NRL skipper and long-time Broncos hero Darren Lockyer announced his retirement from the sport at the end of this season. I’m one of the fortunate Broncos supporters who was lucky enough to watch the game in which Lockyer made his debut back in 1995. I was only ten at the time, so I’ve basically grown up with Lockyer spearheading my team through 336 NRL games, as well as 54 tests for Australia and 33 State-of-Origin matches, many as captain.
These are massive, massive numbers in the world of Rugby League, and it’s no surprise that Lockyer, unanimously considered the greatest player in the modern game, leaves the sport with a whole swag of longevity records for matches played at club, state and international levels. To most pundits, the fact that the 34 year old has maintained his abilities and standing to this late stage in a player’s career is simply amazing. 16 years on the field – a feat near impossible for a man to achieve.
So why was I thinking about this and chess? Well, also last week was the celebration of chess legend Viktor Kortchnoi’s 80th birthday. 68 of those years have been spent playing chess, and 64 (how appropriate) of those years he’s completely devoted to the sport, playing at the higest level. Even now, at the age of 80, Kortchnoi is considered a highly skilled, highly feared professional chess grandmaster, competing year-round at top level championships across the world.
Both Lockyer and Kortchnoi are considered legends in their fields. Both are highly revered, not just for their incredible skill, but most particularly for their amazing longevity at the highest level. It’s just that the benchmarks for what’s considered an amazingly protracted career in rugby league and most other sports are very different from the chess world. Most athletes’ bodies break down after a peak in their late twenties or early thirties. But, so long as the mind stays healthy, a chess player can continue to compete at a very high level for virtually an entire lifetime, regardless of physique.
(This also explains the more colourful diversity of body shapes in the chess world, and by consequence also the lack of ‘groupies’, as compared to, say, the football world. Well, either it’s that or the salaries…)
In that sense, I consider myself very lucky to have fallen into the game. Sure, I’m not a professional, but how many 26 year olds can say they’ve been able to follow their ‘hobby’ for over two decades to almost thirty countries? And, most probably, I’m not even half way through my career. Our own Australian legend Ian Rogers is another example of a man who spent the better part of half a century playing professional chess, and even now, in his officially ‘retired’ state, continues to be completely immersed in the game through a variety of chess-related channels.
In that sense, it’s hard to call chess a hobby, even for those of us who never get to the levels of those quoted at the outset. But at least it’s relatively easy for us chess nuts to understand their sentiments. I’ve known chess for 22 years, far longer than I can claim for any human relationship outside of my immediate family. Just like any personal relationship, there are times when I’m completely infatuated by the game, and times when I’ve needed a break and actively avoided the sight of a set. But, through thick and then, Caissa has always been there, ready to offer up a new set of challenges and delights to those who follow her.
In that sense, perhaps Fischer, Spassky and Karpov didn’t quite sum up the relationship we have with chess. I’ll leave it to Danish chess legend Bent Larsen to try and portray our feelings a little more accurately:
“Chess is a beautiful mistress.”