Tag Archives: chess

MAIN LINE (THE KASPAROV VERSION)

MAIN LINE (THE KASPAROV VERSION)

feel i have been
here before

but after the first few moves,
main lines of the opening
all the possible
permutations of the situation
make it a mathematical
impossibility near
exactly certain

such nuance, subtlety,
precise artistry, infinte
calculation
    in this rectangular game
of squares and
wooden carvings
     from crude to most
elegant a regular
box of
  delights, of wonderful,
well, surprises

and painful defeats, failures,
steep learning curves
      things you
fail to
see (way beyond your
                   ELO rating)

but Tal saw, Fischer saw,
Magnus Carlsen sees them
with stunning
        predictability

and Capablanca, my Cuban
maestro, saw them shifting
knights and pawns
across a table
              under a palm tree

dreaming today’s moves
during yesterday’s sleep
when he
     sniffs an opening he
is in
to take advantage
         like the ocean

not
   like someone we could
not possibly name in
such chess
circles

splashing around here predictably,
ankle-deep in a derisory
                        little stream

CLOCK THIS

CLOCK THIS

I glare
across the board
at you

my need
for victory
my need for redemption

though not
necessarily
a queen
sacrifice

there is in chess
almost always
a really
good move

perhaps even
a best move, a
brilliant move
hiding behind it

submerged in the patterninf
and yet in plain view

clock ticking while
I rack my brain
to find
my moment
of mastery

the beauty of the pieces
finely carved, exquisitely
molded

expanding the brain
Star Child style
to
the edge of consciousness.

ENDGAME

ENDGAME

playing chess

whilst our liar leaders
think about war
                  at the summit
of their lives

you don’t have
to be Bobby Fischer to
win

a nuclear match
           just a matter of economy
and who makes
the
    signature
      sacrifice

        puts it all out
there
      tempts into an atomic
      no-holds
barred
         pawn gambit

WON

WON

we came for the big game

met on the intersection
of Meridian and
          Equator

we sat for the battle

you
waited in awe

they remained standard
first,
      before a piece touched

they insisted on rule changes
make the game more equitable
in other words
      their game more powerful

bishops
       and knights

should be made invulnerable
echoing their
feudal
      reputation
(“especially the white squared one”:
someone chirping
       from the corner)

and then
       it had to go, whole en passant rule
as unnecessary compromising
defences

and when
     Kings castle on the back rank

strength of rook
alongside be
                  doubled from
five to
      ten

to echo their supreme
nuclear strength

we came for the game
                 whole world watching

what
    a shock it was
           the day we won

WRONG

WRONG

you have
us wrong

you do us
wrong

we are not
the head or leg
or foot or
arm of this

thing or
the other

thpugh we may
undsrsand them
better than
you do

understand you too
better than you

understand yourselves

who once gave us
a weapon
    to destroy ourselves
.
across a chess board in
the endgame

all of one player
use it
     to anniliate all
of the
other

except, by
grace of God and
the smarts in our head

you saw us
     met us in court
               working together

despite your insults and
cheap shots

so clearly
    to your detriment

unless you learn
      what we have you learn
would teach you good

the way is bad
                  but there is another

MR GLADWELL

MR GLADWELL

Oh Mr Gladwell
I am playing chess
writing poetry

writing poetry
playing chess

playing
             poetry

writing      chess

my brain has become
a RORSCHACH blot

there
     is blood all over
the board

strange body fluids
all over the page

wanted to be a kind of genius
but I’m dissolving into
nothingness

         Mozart composing symphonies
still at the breast,

                 working out
the arias for his operas

from within
     his pauper’s grave.

SQUARES

SQUARES

dark squares
light squares

he is a classy player:
knows the precise order
of the relationship between them

also is expert with clocks
has clearly established
in the minds of
all and sundry

that come Hell or
high water in a particular game

losing on time
is outright impossibility

Oh that imperial palace
of a poem

    there we see chess in
all its class oppositions
and anxieties

the bishops scrambling down
diagonals like
Hurricane pilots intercepting
the Luftwaffe fighting
to get altitude

in the sky it is so much
nobler

      easier to succumb
to the mythology of the machine