Chess no. 380
PHILIDOR
Black White 11 men 8 men J. E. Driver (The Field, 1960). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week.
Solution to no. 379 (Mansfield): Q – R 1, threat Q x RP. 1 P–B 7; 2 Q–Kt 2. 1 P–R 6; 2 Q–Kt 1. 1 ... Kt – B 2; 2 B–Q 7. 1 ... Kt (4) else; 2 B – R 5. 1 . . . Kt– B 4; 2 R – K 4. Very attractive.
The struggle against senility
An American academic, Professor Arpad Elo, has made an exhaustive study of players' perform- ances at various ages arriving at the conclusion that the average age for peak performance is thirty-six. Why is it so young? In essence, I think the reason is the loss of vitality when one is older which shows itself in three main ways: (a) Less will to win—older players are, on balance, more inclined to be satisfied not to lose and will rarely beat strong opponents; (b) Less power of concentration; older players are much more likely to blunder and less able to cope with time scrambles; (c) Less imaginative power—a really creative player is less common. Against this one has only increased experience to set and by the time a professional master is in the thirties he has already acquired vast experience.
While thirty-six is the average, there is a great. variance from player to player. It is interesting to look at some exceptions—Lasker, Botwinnik and Najdorf are three that come to mind.
Emanuel Lasker is the most striking; world champion for twenty-seven years (1894-1921), he was fifty-one when Capablanca beat him ,and re- mained a great player when he was well on in the sixties. His outstanding characteristic was tre- mendous fighting spirit—a Churchill of the game, his will to win never seemed to flag. Mikhail Botwinnik, who did not finally lose the title (to Petrosian) until he was fifty-two, is a man of great self-control and self-discipline; It was not so much fighting spirit as general strength of character that enabled him to hold on. Finally Miguel Najdorf, the Argentine grandmaster, is a man of immense natural vitality with an ebullient opti- mism that no reverses seem to affect; he has succeeded in remaining permanently youthful, although now well on in his fifties.
In all three cases one sees, though for different psychological causes, the same characteristic; all three have fully maintained the will to win and belief in themselves—and this is, I am sure, the central difficulty for the older player: not to let go. The weakness of age is psychological even more than intellectual
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