"In chess one cannot control everything. Sometimes a game takes an unexpected turn, in which beauty begins to emerge. Both players are always instrumental in this"
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Control is the fantasy chess sells to outsiders: perfect information, perfect logic, a battlefield where the best mind simply calculates harder. Kramnik punctures that myth with a grandmaster's calm realism. "One cannot control everything" is less a shrug than a warning: even at the highest level, the game resists being reduced to a spreadsheet. Preparation collapses, nerves spike, a single tempo slips, and suddenly you are no longer executing a plan so much as negotiating with chaos.
The line about an "unexpected turn" is doing quiet cultural work. Chess culture has spent decades fetishizing certainty - opening theory, engines, the idea that truth is somewhere in the database. Kramnik, who helped define the post-Kasparov era and later lived through chess's engine-driven transformation, redirects the prestige from correctness to emergence. Beauty isn't only the product of immaculate intention; it can be a byproduct of surprise, imbalance, and recovery. That's a subtle rebuke to the sterile ideal of "best play" as the only aesthetic.
The kicker is the most human: "Both players are always instrumental in this". He's refusing the lone-genius narrative. Great games are co-authored: one player offers a problem, the other finds a daring answer; one overreaches, the other chooses not just to punish but to keep the position alive. Kramnik is describing chess as a relationship, not a monologue - a creative act born from friction, not domination.
The line about an "unexpected turn" is doing quiet cultural work. Chess culture has spent decades fetishizing certainty - opening theory, engines, the idea that truth is somewhere in the database. Kramnik, who helped define the post-Kasparov era and later lived through chess's engine-driven transformation, redirects the prestige from correctness to emergence. Beauty isn't only the product of immaculate intention; it can be a byproduct of surprise, imbalance, and recovery. That's a subtle rebuke to the sterile ideal of "best play" as the only aesthetic.
The kicker is the most human: "Both players are always instrumental in this". He's refusing the lone-genius narrative. Great games are co-authored: one player offers a problem, the other finds a daring answer; one overreaches, the other chooses not just to punish but to keep the position alive. Kramnik is describing chess as a relationship, not a monologue - a creative act born from friction, not domination.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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