There is this unending discussion in chess about whether the players of yesteryear could have matched the champions of today. One commentator said if the great Cuban world champion Jose Raul Capablanca were a contestant today, his FIDE Elo-rating would be 2400. Ridiculous and laughable! For one, Capablanca was an end-game genius. He defeated the best in his time to be pronounced world champion.
The suggestions are silly. Alternatively, I do support the concept that modern chess players have grown up with superior chess engines and, probably, would be superior to players of the past. But that would be only a single factor to be taken into consideration. There has been talk of world champion Mikhail Tal’s faulty combinations. The chess engines, such as Fritz, have faulted Tal’s combinations as irregular and even insane. Like all natural players Tal moved with amazing – almost contemptuous – speed. It rattled his opponents. Naturally, it’s a consideration when playing chess, especially when competing in the big leagues.
It is a psychological fact that a player is tempted to make fast moves against a very rapid player even though he himself has plenty of time on his clock. For example, I have had this experience on occasions with Rai Sharma, who plays unbelievably fast. The result is often a glaring blunder, and it’s surprising how many elite players blundered against Tal in this manner. He took first place against the world leading players at Riga, Moscow, Portoroz, Zurich and Belgrade. His style was daring, and as one writer said” devil-may-care”. The Fritz engines would later show Tal’s sacrifices were unsound, but that was little consolation to those who had dropped whole points against him. And one should not forget Tal defeated Garry Kasparov in a blitz game in 1992 just days before his passing. Until the arrival of Tal, chess had been scientific, bookish, and cautious. He introduced a different, new, style of chess. Tal felt that chess could, and should, be exciting. And he proved it. Little wonder he was often referred to as “The Magician from Riga” .
