Cerebral supremacy has a quiet undertone to it. It tells the inferior performer that he is not good enough. You can hide behind the lack of execution in other sports while consoling yourself that your understanding was not inferior.
But not in chess. And the hardest part about the sport is to accept that you have lost fair and square. Hence many chess players have a somewhat valid reason for being emotional and egoistic.
But behind that self-centred mind could lie the appreciator of artistry, aesthetics and class. And sometimes, that love trumps self-love. Peter Prohaszka (representing hosts Hungary 'B' team) proved that when he allowed India's Erigaisi Arjun to checkmate him in the third round of Chess Olympiad in Budapest on Friday.
He doffed his hat to Arjun's genius and did not turn poorer for doing it. Allowing the opponent to come up with a nice finishing touch is not easy in any sport. For example, a bowler would try to deny the batsman a much needed hundred (sometimes even by bowling a wide when a run is needed for a win) and a moment of personal glory by dismissing him.
Chess has a provision for resignation - once you accept that you are losing or have realised the same - the game can be stopped then and there with a handshake. Unlike other sports, a chess game doesn't need to complete either victory or the designated duration of the match. Moves in a beautiful endgame either with equally teasing counterplay or not are not played on the board majority of times (due the resignation) and hence not recorded.
They remain plausible posterity hidden in imagination, thus denying them to be a part of history and documentation. Prohaszka's magnanimous act of not resigning but allowing a checkmate on Friday against Arjun is not utterly rare in the 64-square sport but not too frequent either. Russia's Peter Svidler deliberately allowed Magnus Carlsen a checkmate with a pawn push in the Grenke Classic of 2019 in Baden-Baden , Germany.
He also came up with a wry smile afterwards. Stalemate in which both players get half point each as the king is trapped without squares but without check and other pieces cannot move is a poor cousin of the beautiful checkmate. Sometimes, a point given - by getting checkmated in case of chess - can underscore a larger point.
That of upholding the sense of beauty higher and protecting the very ethos of the sport. Prohaszaka's act showed that in ample measure and made the followers of the sport richer and fall in love with the chequered life once again..
