Tuesday, June 22, 2021

[seuzqzvm] hypothetical greatest chess move

perhaps white has a forced win from the initial position in chess.  perhaps this will be proven someday.  perhaps it will be proven that only one opening move wins.  perhaps that move is e4 (famously advocated by Fischer).

if this string of highly unlikely possibilities all comes true, then the case could be made that 1.e4 is objectively the greatest chess move ever.

Anand's 1.e4 is in game 11 of the 2008 world chess championship is often annotated with an exclamation mark.  Kramnik's repertoire against 1.e4 , the Berlin defense, was hyper-focused on achieving a draw, but he was in a must-win situation with black.  after a long thought (the kind of thing you do when encountering a theoretical novelty, so remarkable to do on move 1, remarkable against 1.e4 such a common opening move), he responded 1...c5, the Sicilian defense.

Anand's 1.d4 in game 2 of the same match is also similarly annotated.  Anand was primarily a 1.e4 player before the match, but needed some way to defuse the Berlin, which Kasparov could not crack.  switching to a completely different opening for a world championship was a bold strategy.

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