The debate, increasingly necessary and acute, about whether science – understood as home preparation with the help of very powerful computers – is eclipsing in chess art (improvisation, creation of beauty) and sport (emotion, time constraints, physical and mental resistance…) it would be absurd if the majority of the games were like the one in this video. Two gladiators jump into the arena with the tacit agreement that neither will seek a draw and will fight until exhaustion.
This peculiar and admirable way of approaching chess explains why Tiger Hillarp-Persson, a grandmaster almost unknown to those who only follow elite tournaments, has already appeared three times in El Rincón de los Inmortales. And in this specific case there is no doubt: the loser, Peter Heine Nielsen, well known because he was the coach of the five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand and is now the coach of the current number one,Magnus Carlsen contributes in an essential way to the great beauty of the game with his firm commitment to seeking his opponent’s jugular without any shield.
