A Tribute to Fighting Chess ft. GM Bator Sambuev

Why do you play chess?

For such a simple question, there are a remarkable number of worthy responses -- to win, to make friends, to learn, to entertain ourselves, because we're bored, because our parents said we have to...

The longer we play chess, the more important this question becomes. Chess teaches us things about ourselves: how we handle stress, how we rise to the occasion during competition, whether we are a gracious sporting person, what our personal limits are, etc. There are as many ways to get value out of chess in our own lives as there are positions in the game.

Of course, there's no right answer to this question either. We have to learn for ourselves what it is that gives chess value to us. For me, the thing that keeps me coming back to chess time and again is the fight. I love the struggle that is chess, and nothing pleases me more than a bloody scrap whether I win or lose. It pleases me greatly to see my opponent unflinching in their attack, unwavering in their defense -- it's up to us whether our ideas are the truth of the position, or just a headstrong fool's errand. I find we learn the most about ourselves when we have the courage to lay all of our ideas on the line, when we aren't afraid to fail but we have the confidence to succeed. When we adopt this mindset at our best, we can create masterpieces over the chessboard. In a good back-and-forth struggle, those masterpieces rightfully belong to both players, and we should both be proud of the role we played in creating them (much like Topalov in Kasaprov's immortal game).

I find inspiration in players who refuse to back down from a fight and create beautiful masterpieces in the process. Boris Spassky is one such well-known example of an uncompromising fighter in chess. Viktor Korchnoi is another good example, as are many countless others.

But this post is neither about Spassky nor Korchnoi. Instead, I wanted to share some games from another Grandmaster whose fighting spirit has led him to be the three-time Canadian national champion, a FIDE World Cup participant, and the first board for Canada's national team: GM Bator Sambuev.

Born in Russia, Sambuev earned his GM title in 2006, one year before he immigrated to Canada, where he currently resides. He has scored wins against some of the strongest players in the world over the years in no small part due to his fighting spirit.

I've selected two outstanding games by GM Sambuev in which his propensity to create complex, assertive positions is on full display. Despite being heavily outrated by his opponents in these games (GM's Alexander Morozevich and Wei Yi), he nonetheless creates unrelenting pressure that, in games that rest on the razor's edge, force his opponents to err. Please enjoy these annotated games below:

https://lichess.org/study/V1K846Ja/D872TbR9

I had the honor to play GM Sambuev on lichess about a year ago in a blitz game. I'm not sure why it matched me up with a player >400 elo above me, but like GM Sambuev, I did not flinch and fought the best fight that I could. In a back-and-forth game that is the hallmark of his style (and perhaps my own), we ended in a messy time scramble that could have been either player's game. I've included that in the above study without annotations if you would like to view it.

Hats off to all the players who have the courage to fight over the chessboard no matter the circumstances, and I wish you a glorious struggle ahead!