Personalities / Maurice Ashley
other. I watched guys breaking into cars as I walked by. Cops pulling kids over randomly, just searching pockets. It was- n’t cool. The look of Baltimore—while I didn’t see all those activities—the look of it harkened back to what I grew up with. I mean boarded up buildings for blocks and blocks and blocks ... And the kids are living in that, the kids there—they’re the kids who I grew up with. And their par- ents somehow try to give a sense of hope, a sense of possibilities. But at the same time you’re living in this rough place and you can’t afford to move out of it. So it was a really touching experience for me, [and] really sad even to have to leave in a week. The chess, in a way, is it kind of like an escape for them? Absolutely, chess is an opportunity to go into another world, and explore some- thing that’s enjoyable, and distracting, a nice distraction from what you’re doing every day. And something that it’s impos- sible to master—or very difficult to master —so if you’re going to get good at it, you have to practice and practice. Now, I have no illusion that all those kids are going to try to be chess players, or even take to the game for years and years. We hope we can get them hooked, because it does make a difference in their lives ... Chess in that way does work its magic. Even though chess might have its difficulties on the professional level, it’s having absolutely no problems on the scholastic level, and rightly so. The way it has really captivated so many of the young people here in the United States, and I’m sure abroad as well—it still has the power, even though it’s not a modernized game, even though it’s one of the oldest continuous games in the world, it continues to fascinate. Well, from the Baltimore streets to the ivory tower, I understand you were also up at Har- vard, at a symposium about mind sports in the classroom. Yes, I’m actually on the board of the U.S. Mind Sports Association ... part of the International Mind Sports Association, and they incorporate five sports: bridge, go, draughts—which is ten by ten checkers— poker, and chess. So I’m the chess person on the board. And a professor by the name of Charles Nesson, who’s a law professor at Harvard, he brought all the symposium together, so that all these masters in all our activities would come and meet and talk with librarians, superintendents, teachers, and also the interns there, and just talk about how we can bring games into the classroom. This “gamification” of the class- room is a movement that has been accelerating ... People are realizing that it’s possible to engage today’s kids much more so, much more effectively by using games, to even teach a standardized core cur- riculum. And so Harvard has jumped in as well with edX, which is a partnership
34 November 2012 | Chess Life
between them and Massachusetts Institute of Technology—a $60 million partner- ship—to actually standardize their own curriculum online, throughout the world. So this movement is moving forward. Along with the online educational move- ment, and the gamification of education movement, this symposium was a way to try to bridge that gap, and begin to figure out if these particular five games could form a template for what you could do with games in the classroom.
Maurice Ashley may be found online at
www.MauriceAshley.com. His latest endeavor is a new website called The Learning Diago- nal, at
www.LearningDiagonal.com.
Ashley annotates one of his favorite games for Chess Life:
8. Qc2
Queen’s Gambit Declined, Ragozin Defense (D38) GM Maurice Ashley (2473) GM Giorgi Kacheishvili (2570)
Manhattan March International (6), New York, 11.03.1999 Notes by Ashley
One of the most difficult tasks in chess is to judge material imbalances properly. In games where diverse pieces are exchanged for one other, the rules of play are not pre- cisely calibrated, generalizations tend to be fairly meaningless, and deep assess- ment and precise calculation rise in importance. It’s no wonder most players prefer to avoid unusual material imbal- ances in their games; it’s much easier to grab some space, create weak pawns and grind the opponent down to dust in a supe- rior endgame. However, avoiding the most interesting questions in chess will not allow you to scale the highest heights. If you want to become a GM, to borrow from the legendary Mikhail Tal, sometimes “you must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.” The fol- lowing wild game features just such a material imbalance. I played it in the tour- nament that gave me my final norm for the GM title, and, as you will see, both sides made quite a few mistakes in the complicated positions that appeared on the board. That's only natural in this type of struggle; Mama didn’t say chess was an easy game. Fortunately, computer pro- grams have allowed us to more easily (though not totally) explore this wacky and wonderful world of material mayhem.
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 d5 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. cxd5
5. Bg5 dxc4 6. e4 c5 7. Bxc4 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 Qa5 10. Bb5+ is main-line theory these days.
Also fine is 8. Bf4!? Nxc3 9. Bxd6 Nxd1+ 10. Bxb4 Nxb2 11. Rc1 Na6 12. Ba3 Nc4 13. Bxc4 dxc4 14. Rxc4 b5 15. Rc2 Bb7 where equality meets craziness.
8. ... Qg6 9. Bd3 h6?
A mistake that should have been pun- ished severely. (9. ... Bf5 10. 0 -0-0 Bxc3 11. bxc3 Nc6 would have been one direc- tion in which to guide the fight).
10. Bf4? Missing the audacious 10. 0-0!!
5. ... exd5 6. Bg5 Qd6 7. e3 White had to respect Black’s next move
in order to fight for any whisper of advan- tage. Better was 7. Nd2 or 7. Bxf6.
7. ... Ne4!
10. ... Bxc3 (10. ... hxg5 11. Nxd5 Black is hanging everywhere, on e4, c7 and b4. 11. ... Bf5 12. Nxb4 [12. Qxc7 Bd6 13. Qxb7 g4 {13. ... Qh5 14. Rfc1 Bxh2+ 15. Kf1 Ng3+ 16. fxg3 Bxd3+ 17. Kf2} 14. Ne5 Qh5 15. h3 wins, says the all-knowing silicon eye.] 12. ... g4 13. Ne5 Qh7 14. Nxg4 Bxg4 15. Qxc7 when Black’s attack goes nowhere while all sorts of threats [16. f3, 16. Qe5+, 16. Nd5, 16. Qxb7] hang over his head.) 11. Bf4! Nc6 (11. ... Ba5 12. Qa4+ Nc6 13. Ne5) 12. bxc3 ...
(see diagram top of next column)
... when White is better developed, has the two bishops (one of which is currently hitting the c7-pawn), an open b-file and more central control.
10. ... Bxc3+
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