Firstly, I stand corrected about the team selection at the Perth Test- where most expected that India did not have enough benchstrength in the pace attach. Irfan Pathan proved everyone wrong, and rightly deserved the man of the match for his swing bowling and valuable batting. However, as mentioned the bouncy track did not do much harm to the Indian batting- as defensively you do have scope to survive, as the ball flies over the stumps...
All in all Kumble is getting the entire bowling department to work along his approach to bowling- have enough good balls to pin the batsmen and then when you can sense that they will try something, allow them to do so- or just about. When you can lead the batsmen to a known situation- even if it is not something directly in your favor- you can as a bowler get a reference point to sneak in something that is just a bit off their intention. Type 3-Type 2 mixing- in the jargon of Dot Chess.
Also the pattern continues- Aussie batsmen are not going to get easy stuff to pull or hook- perhaps cut at times.
So tomorrow, India may play with 5 bowlers? Perhaps- since Irfan Pathan looks good enough with the bat as the remaining batters. But then Ganguly, Sehwag and Tendulkar may chip in nullifying the need for a fifth bowler? But then again- I think two regular spinners always looks good for India. Let's leave the nice headache to Kumble :-)
And how are the Aussies going to bowl at Sehwag and Tendulkar- who seem to get many runs behind square on the off side, by playing the upper-cut. Or will they in turn resort to the pull and hook, instead?
Expect more chess vs natural game from Kumble. He has already baffled everyone by his field-placings in the last innings at Perth, when Australia were down by 5 wickets. Putting most fielders on the fence is not what you normally see when you are trying to bowl out Gilichrist and the tail, and you have lots of runs to spare. But then this was not 'normal'- as India had enough time to get the wickets... another instance where imbalance is converted to an execution effect. This time it was Nimzo-Kumble, with the prophylaxis!
There has been some exciting chess at Corus as well, with wunderkid Carlsen playing with some flair right off the opening lines. I am sure the Late Bobby Fischer would have appreciated this young kid.
Wake up at 6am for the last one at Adelaide.
Best wishes,
Saumil
Mumbai
Jan 24, 2008
Jan 19, 2008
Destiny pays tribute to Bobby Fischer, 1943-2008
Robert James Fischer, one of the greatest Chess Legends of all time has passed away. Just would like to post a blog in his honour. Besides, being a tactical genius in regular chess, he also formalized Random Chess.
I have written some comparisions about symmetry of skills in various different sports, in my book Dot Chess-The Cricket in Between. Cricket is asymmetric, since one side bowls and the other bats- and bowling and batting are radically different skills. Chess as such is symmetric (comparing pieces to players), and the way the pieces are maneuvered are same for White or Black, though White starts and gets a partial lead in tempo. Chess players, in fact have to introduce imbalance in the positions, so that favorable activity which can lead to advanatges or an initiative can be given a chance.
In Fischer Random Chess, chess pieces are shuffled in the back rank of White and then pieces are mirrored for Black- to maintain symmetry but to achieve a board which has a different strating line-up in each game. Bobby Fischer pioneered this format- to overcome the memorizing of openings and excessive theory that developed on account of the starting line up of pieces being fixed in conventional or 'old' chess (The King, Queen, rooks, knights and bishops have the same 'home' square in conventional chess in every game- not so in Fischer Random or Shuffle chess).
Unfortunately, the genius had an imbalanced and asymmetric journey in both phases of his life- in his glory days of chess and then later when he lead a strange life- always amidst controversies beyond chess. It is said that he only had one interest- to play chess and excel at it. For sure, within the realms of the 64-squares of the chess board - he was a fascinating genius and regarded as one the greatest ever by chess analysts and players. Was it then his fate that he did not reach the age of 65?
Perhaps Destiny has paid her tribute to the genius by devoting a chess square to each year of his life.
Peace be with him.
Saumil
Mumbai
I have written some comparisions about symmetry of skills in various different sports, in my book Dot Chess-The Cricket in Between. Cricket is asymmetric, since one side bowls and the other bats- and bowling and batting are radically different skills. Chess as such is symmetric (comparing pieces to players), and the way the pieces are maneuvered are same for White or Black, though White starts and gets a partial lead in tempo. Chess players, in fact have to introduce imbalance in the positions, so that favorable activity which can lead to advanatges or an initiative can be given a chance.
In Fischer Random Chess, chess pieces are shuffled in the back rank of White and then pieces are mirrored for Black- to maintain symmetry but to achieve a board which has a different strating line-up in each game. Bobby Fischer pioneered this format- to overcome the memorizing of openings and excessive theory that developed on account of the starting line up of pieces being fixed in conventional or 'old' chess (The King, Queen, rooks, knights and bishops have the same 'home' square in conventional chess in every game- not so in Fischer Random or Shuffle chess).
Unfortunately, the genius had an imbalanced and asymmetric journey in both phases of his life- in his glory days of chess and then later when he lead a strange life- always amidst controversies beyond chess. It is said that he only had one interest- to play chess and excel at it. For sure, within the realms of the 64-squares of the chess board - he was a fascinating genius and regarded as one the greatest ever by chess analysts and players. Was it then his fate that he did not reach the age of 65?
Perhaps Destiny has paid her tribute to the genius by devoting a chess square to each year of his life.
Peace be with him.
Saumil
Mumbai
Jan 15, 2008
Pacy Perth Preview- Australia v India 3rd Cricket Test
After the Sydney saga which went beyond cricket, we can finally look forward to Perth tomorrow- and hopefully the interest will be about cricket.
Everyone is talking about the pace and bounce of Perth. Most current Indian team members have not played a Test here (except Tendulkar), so it sure will be a test with Aussies expected to bowl with 4 seamers.
There are some interesting prospects though:
1. Just as Indians are not familiar with this sort of surface, Aussies aren't familiar facing 2 spinners (hopefully Harbhajan will play, as the rest of the pacers do not look threatening, especially since Zaheer Khan is out of the series).
2. Perhaps Harbhajan can be a stock bowler and Kumble can be seen as a third quick bowler- which as a legspinner he is. It will be interesting to see the length Kumble bowls and the pace. Likewise for Harbhajan, he may bowl fuller and vary his trajectory to exploit the bounce? So far in this series Kumble has made the bowlers bowl quite a disciplned length- not allowing too many horizontal bat shots.
3. Ganguly may be more than handy as well. Also, hopefully Tendulkar, Sehwag can bowl the slower stuff with an idea of altering the tempo of the game- as there is some mention about the wind. Apparently, Bedi has taken 10 wickets in a match here, although Warne has not gotten big hauls (which is perhaps on account of the efficiency of the Aussie pacers).
3. Indians did handle bounce well in the Test series last year in South Africa- as defensively the ball just flies over the stumps (in ODIs where run rate is key, such tracks are not fun for Indians, as seen in South Africa again last year).
So who will open the batting tomorrow for India? After 30 years this question lingers on...
Happy Sankrant (Kite Flying Festival)
Saumil
Mumbai, 15th Jan 2008
Everyone is talking about the pace and bounce of Perth. Most current Indian team members have not played a Test here (except Tendulkar), so it sure will be a test with Aussies expected to bowl with 4 seamers.
There are some interesting prospects though:
1. Just as Indians are not familiar with this sort of surface, Aussies aren't familiar facing 2 spinners (hopefully Harbhajan will play, as the rest of the pacers do not look threatening, especially since Zaheer Khan is out of the series).
2. Perhaps Harbhajan can be a stock bowler and Kumble can be seen as a third quick bowler- which as a legspinner he is. It will be interesting to see the length Kumble bowls and the pace. Likewise for Harbhajan, he may bowl fuller and vary his trajectory to exploit the bounce? So far in this series Kumble has made the bowlers bowl quite a disciplned length- not allowing too many horizontal bat shots.
3. Ganguly may be more than handy as well. Also, hopefully Tendulkar, Sehwag can bowl the slower stuff with an idea of altering the tempo of the game- as there is some mention about the wind. Apparently, Bedi has taken 10 wickets in a match here, although Warne has not gotten big hauls (which is perhaps on account of the efficiency of the Aussie pacers).
3. Indians did handle bounce well in the Test series last year in South Africa- as defensively the ball just flies over the stumps (in ODIs where run rate is key, such tracks are not fun for Indians, as seen in South Africa again last year).
So who will open the batting tomorrow for India? After 30 years this question lingers on...
Happy Sankrant (Kite Flying Festival)
Saumil
Mumbai, 15th Jan 2008
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