Date: 01 Feb 2004 07:38:06
From: Aryeh Davidoff
Subject: Lev Khariton:Kasparov and the chess "horizon"
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Aryeh Davidoff:Here is Lev Khariton's column for Feb.1,2004
"Kasparov and the chess "horizon"
When I was a small boy I used to ask, watching the sea landscape, what
was there behind the horizon? I was sure behind it was the end of the
world. I am sure many children throughout ages have been asking the
same question. Naturally being small kids they could not understand
that the horizon is just an imaginary line.
However, what can be understood and forgiven in the case of a
5-year-old kid sounds ridiculous and unforgivable when pronounced or
written by an adult. In the preface to the first volume of his
blockbuster “My Great Predecessors” Kasparov writes:
“It is possible that our match with Kramnik in 2000 will be the
last to make any serious changes to our understanding of the
game”.
Does Kasparov really believe that after him there will be no chess? Or
that chess will never develop? Suffice it to remember that many
decades ago Lasker and Capablanca were talking about about the
“draw death” of chess. Could we say today that they were
right? Is there any field of human endeavor that does not evolve,
undergoing changes, improvements, etc? As to sport, I remember quite
well how in the 60s and 70s we were amazed at certain world records in
track-and-field, weightlifting, etc. Have not they been surpassed by
now? Who knows the physical and intellectual limits of the human
being?
It can naturally be presumed that Kasparov has not yet outgrown that
“horizon” question that worries so may kids all over the
world. May be, his educational outlook does not permit him to see the
dialectical changes of the world, the limitless possibilities of
mankind.
Or, may be he is too self-conceited and presumptuous thinking that he
would stay on the chess pedestal forever. His statement about his
match with Kramnik is especially ridiculous today knowing his modest
results in the last two years, as well as Kramnik’s poor
performance in the recent tournament in Wejk-an-Zee.
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