Chess and the Devil

Jonathan Rowson describes an amusing chess story about the American, Paul Morphy, in The Moves that Matter:

“Morphy indirectly competed with ‘the devil’ and defeated him.”

Here’s what happened. Morphy came upon a painting titled The Chess Players that shows a young man playing against the devil, with the facial expressions suggesting that the man was in a lost position. Morphy looked at the pieces on the painting:

“It is not clear where every piece is placed, but the contours are visible and some intelligent guesses can be made.”

He analyzed the position and announced that he could win from there!

“Several gentlemen present at the dinner tried to play on behalf of the devil, but Morphy won every time.”

 

Amusing story, but Rowson goes on bring out some life lessons from it:

“Don’t give up. The devil may be in the detail, as they say, but we can find him there, and beat him.”

Details, of course, don’t have a good reputation. It’s considered boring. In chess:

“(Current world champion) Magnus Carlsen’s style is sometimes called technical, and that is rarely meant as a complement…. The former world champion Anatoly Karpov had a similar strength, and some described playing with him roughly as follows: ‘Nothing happens, but you lose.’”

Or in life:

“(The negative opinion) is reflected in the language of not wanting to get ‘bogged down’ in the details, as if details were the viscious dregs of a swamp where we inevitably get stuck, rather than the lights on the side of the dark runway that allow the plane to safely take off and land.”

 

Rowson disagrees. Details do matter. After all:

“True mastery means being present in contexts awash with nuances that demand uniquely appropriate responses.”