Familiar Games

The match is over. Garry Kasparov has won. He beat his old rival Vishy Anand with a score of 13-11. He walks down to the waiting area where he is surrounded by his friends - Rex Sinquefield, Michael Khodarkovsky, Joy Brey. But Garry is in a poignant mood. He is not celebrating. He is in his own world. He is thinking about something deep. We wait for him to recover. A minute passes, then two and before we know it, he is sitting there with his head looking at the floor for nearly 5 minutes! And then he raises it up and says, "Maurice, it was a draw!" Garry had been thinking about the final game of the match against Anand that he lost on time! He then discusses this, and Sagar chips in with a variation that the computer said was a draw. Immediately Garry's face lights up! "Qf8+! Ah, that's the draw! I could sense it." He got up from the chair as he is all excited and was now ready for an interview. The link of the interview is down below in the next tweet and you can watch some of what is written here unfold in it. However, what stands out for us is how much the truth of the position matters to Garry. Even at the age of 62 years, he wants to know what is happening in the position and wants to understand the deepest of nuances behind it. It is one of the main reasons why he was able to dominate the game of chess for 2 decades! He was always and still is extremely honest to Caissa - the Goddess of chess!