Chess Travelling

      As everyone knows that chess is a classic game of skills and strategies. It is a game of 64-square that is full of mental exercise, thriller, romance and adventure. Marching of pieces towards the opponent’s king contains the deeper analysis, calculations and outcomes of moves to avoid counterplay so that the player would get an advantage in the overall game.

A tale about the origin of chess

      Once upon a time, there was a king Shahram, and a wise man in a kingdom. The wise man wanted to convince Shahram of the importance of each resident of his Kingdom. So, he invented a game to represent the kingdom consisting of the king himself, his queen, rooks, bishops, knights, and pawns, all of which were important.

       The king liked the game very much and understood that the game was just like real life. So, he ordered everybody in his kingdom to play chess! Shahram offered the man all the gold and silver that he wanted, but the wise man didn’t want any treasure.
Together with the king, he went to a chessboard and asked him to put one grain of wheat on the first square, two on the second and to keep doubling it until the chessboard was full.

       First of all, the king felt highly offended, but then he ordered his servants to fulfil the man’s wish. Desperately, the servants conveyed that such an enormous amount of wheat did not exist! The king understood that the wise man had given him a second lesson. Just like the pawns in chess, you should never underestimate the small things in life! (ichess.net)

A Brief History

      There are a variety of hypotheses about the history of chess, and there is no specific person who invented this well-known game. It has changed throughout the centuries and will probably keep changing with the times.

      As per the website ichess.net, the history of chess can be traced back around 1500 years; started in the north of India and then spread throughout the Asian continent. Chess made its way via the expanding Islamic Arabian Empire to Europe. Its rules had finalised in the 1880s (the romantic era of chess), and the first world chess championship held in 1886. The 20th century revolutionised chess with the invention of databases and chess engines.

     First dogma about its origin

     One day, a man called H. J. R. Murray decided to share his discoveries with the world by writing a book named A History of Chess”, in 1913. In his book, Murray assumes that the history of chess started in the North of India, travelled to Persia, and then spread throughout the Asian continent.

      In the Eastern World, for example in India or Persia, chess became a part of the courtly education of the nobility. In those days words like “Shāh!” – Persian for the king – or “Shāh Māt!” – the king is helpless – were used in the games. These words are very similar to the terms we use today with “check” and “checkmate”. The rules were already quite similar to the chess rules we know nowadays. 

      Second Dogma about the origin

      There are not only those who believe chess comes from India, but some people believe that chess was invented in China. The legend says that chess was invented around 200 B.C. by a commander, Hán Xin, who invented the game to represent a particular battle. Soon after the battle, an important battle in Chinese history, the game was forgotten and then resurfaced in the 7th century A.D. with several new rules.

      The game became popular under the name “XiangQi” which means the “elephant game”, losing its reference to the ancient battle. The elephant game was very dissimilar to the chess game that we know today. They had other pieces, another board, and even other rules. According to this belief, chess went from China to India and Persia afterwards, where it slowly modified into the chess game we know today with an 8×8 square chessboard and the chess pieces that we are familiar with.

       Development of the modern chess game

       The romantic era of chess started in the 1880s. The Immortal Game between Anderssen and Kieseritky was famous. Chess slowly gained its competitive character and concrete rules, growing in popularity among the people. Strategically planning or long study of the theory were pretty subordinate topics. 

       The first chess tournaments started to take place and even the first official World Championship was hosted in 1886 where Wilhelm Steinitz became the first official World Chess Champion.

FIDE: The governing body of the chess

       It is the governing body of the sport of chess and it regulates all international chess competitions. It was founded in 1924 in Paris (France), under the motto “Gens Una Sumus” (Latin for “We are one Family”) FIDE is a non-governmental institution, and it was one of the first associations of its kind in the world, alongside the governing bodies of the sports of Football, Cricket, Swimming, and Auto Racing. In 1999, FIDE was recognized by the International Olympic Committee as a Global Sporting Organization.

      A similar body in India for regulating the game of Indian chess is the All India Chess Federation (AICF). It is central administrative body founded in 1951, the federation is affiliated to FIDE. The AICF has produced champions Viswanathan Anand, Nihal Sarin, Pentala Harikrishna, Rameshbabu Praggnandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi and many Grandmasters. It organizes many chess completion on several occasions. 

World Chess at a glance

       Almost 1500 Grandmasters in chess are in the world. This number is only 0.3% of the total chess player. FIDE organized many chess competitions in its registered player. The World Chess Championship is such a competition that is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlson of Norway. He has been winning this tournament since 2013. Viswanathan Anand of India had been getting victory from 2007 t0 2013 when Carlson defeated him. 

Chess in India

      Total 65 Indian chess player has achieved the title of Grandmaster. Many are from south India, especially 36% is from Tamilnadu. Even in North India, this game is highly popular but giving full-time effort is in a penny that symbolises the no title of GM in the north. No one player from Hindi speaking Belt is in the list of GM. Decentralisation of Chess is the need of the hour that would provide equal opportunity and the best competition for the players. In this regard, the government must take steps to popularise this game in modern style, set a ground for training, and organise competitions even in the rural side of the country along with the urban side.       

Don’t Acquaint with Dementors

     A pack is a pack. No one is ahead of the pack. One of the pack may work as a dementor works. (Pack- group)

Image created by R. Suresh Bhardwaj

     The word ‘dementor’ got popularity in the writing of JK Rowling, who is well-known for Harry Potter fantasy. 

     As per the Harry Potter book series- dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infect the darkest, filthiest places; they glory in decay and despair; they drain peace, hope and happiness out of the air around them. 

     People in the pack are not able to see these dementors in a real-time, but by the minimal effort, they can feel the presence of dementors.

     The pack contains a dog’s age and the careless people in the pack face a dog’s life. Initially, people realise the pack is everything, but it’s not. But, the pack can make people perfect or imperfect. (Dog’s age- In a very long time. Dog’s life- An unhappy existence)

     To interact with dementors is an unwanted deed that can thieve people’s peace, hope and happiness by pinching cheerful mood and confident will.

Recognizing dementors

     On first day meeting and in a good weather, everyone maintains talking in a civilised manner, but over the time the colour of many begin darkening, and they start to displease the people. Initially people ignore and take it as constructive criticism, but the intension of the dementors is destructive because they promote only sadness, demotivation and things that pull the legs.

     People who go against your every idea, embarrass, make mockery and disparage when you learn the modality of the idea. They create dark circumference in which you may feel you are doing wrong. They act as dementor act.

     People who are living in a comfort zone. A zone of a settled method of working that requires little effort and yields only barely acceptable results (Oxford Dictionary). People living in this zone prepare themselves as a superior, talented, genius, reputable, speaker and etcetera but these good adjectives exist only in their mind. There is no contact with real life.

In conclusion
    
     Many dementors are in society. They can be recognised easily. The above is frequent. One who doesn’t talk creative, innovative and how to achieve one’s goal falls in this category.

Nilotpal Mrinal: De facto modernus-conservare writer

      It is said writers are narcissists. The lines they write are based on their familiarity but they deem these lines are penned for first time. If we go in details, the idealism of the writers starts flaunting.

      As everyone knows that the idealism in many fields has no survival, but they hold it as a badge of honour. In its counterpart, realism contains some elements of endurance, but unfortunately, it does not get more attention.

     Idealism is extremely dangerous. It follows optimism and tends to destroy everything if we are careless. A similar line is in the novel ‘Dark Horse’ written by Nilotpal Mrinal as readers know, not necessary to mention here. The novel gets many applauds even critics praises, but this novel is about the overrated genre of civil services preparation and struggling of lower-middle-class aspirants. 

(Picture from social media)

     This blog is not subject of analysing the novel but encloses the makeover of this modernus-conservare writer Nilotpal Mrinal. 

Routes ended with a new beginning

     Seats are limited, and aspirants are enough so everyone cannot secure rank in the civil services exam. It is a fact. One who is not shortlisted is either less productive guy or highly creative chap. List of failures in the UPSC is not limited. Shankar Devarajan is such a man who successfully ran an institute after collapsing all his attempts. Mrinal is another. He may be a big inspiration for lower-middle-class candidates, especially who is from Hindi speaking belt. 

     Mrinal is not a sole survivor artistic man, but he has been gained popularity even after not achieving his primary goal. In many interviews and talks, he mocked the UPSC preparation and said that I was a Hockey player but I used to play Cricket. I needed a hockey stick and I could find it after final attempt failing. 

     Anyone can easily predict that it was only a justification of failing and the guy has a long way to go for getting a mature way of speaking. The writer will have to fix the UPSC delusion out and renovate the idea ‘I am everything’ of preparation time. The time of UPSC has gone far away and the writer should get rid of it otherwise it always happens that grapes are sour.

     Being failed in competitive exam is not a blot, it is a way of growing and the writer finely improved his writing skills and language ability to express his feeling that triggered writing a book which got Sahitya Academy Youth Award. It opened a new way for him.

  

His first novel I read: No scope of literary creativity

     2-3 years ago, I had heard his poetry named ‘Bachapan’ randomly in YouTube that was shot in a UPSC friendly room. It was fabulous composing that struck me and forced the dormant string of my heart to live and hooked up the rope between the gaps of ages.

     I looked for him on Google and found another marvellous composing- ‘Dunia Aisi Hua Karti Thi’. It hit me again and forced to realize that the writer has a good comprehension of Indian conservatism and he will promote these values.

     During R&D, I got a little information about the ‘Dark Horse’ and purchased it. When I stood up from my reading table most of the pages I had read in a single sitting. I concluded that it is true for civil services aspirants that are mentioned, but the book is away from literature. Even after I can appreciate his efforts because many failed aspirants get ruined but he survived. If you want to go in detail you can read it on your choice. This novel is of different genre and discrete writing style-New Type Hindi.

Becoming patrons of Gamacha, but is it good in modern society?

      As per The print report, After Delhi restaurant refused to allow him in with Gamacha, he started Gamacha revolution based on that it was discrimination. A social media campaign followed and Gamacha was trending soon.

     Many from UP and Bihar supported the campaign and people started posting images sporting Gamachas. On next day, AAP leader Dilip Pandey visited the same restaurant carrying a Gamacha. Popular singer Deepak Thakur also shared images with Gamacha.

     It was a new form of identity exaggeration but not new for the UPSC aspirant turned writer Mrinal, who is being always favoured wearing Gamacha. In many shows, talks, interviews and random wandering, Gamacha prevails on all his clothes. It is not a stereotype but reflects the image of doing something new in this globalised society.

     This is India and there are many streams of living, ideas, religions and identities here. Anyone who propagates any type of design can get espousal. Wearing Gamacha is one of them. Nothing is impossible for Neck-down invisible community and everything can trend on social media. Trending has become a fashion now. 

Mrinal: De facto modernus-conservare writer 

     As you know Dark Horse is based on the real-life experiences of students who live in Mukherjee Nagar and prepare for UPSC exams that is why this novel catches the attention of these aspirants especially who is from Hindi speaking belt. It is a major drawback of the writer that he has still to come out of these experiences. 

     So the novel is liked well and is being still enjoyed by these aspirants. This book and its author get recognizance in this highly over-obsessed section. It is not awful because every writer sets its target audience and with time he unfolds hidden arts. 

     On many occasions, he mocked the UPSC preparation but he should take in; it was the UPSC preparation that gave him the nerve to write a book. It was not possible if he did not prepare this exam or cleared it, he would not be here where he is. Preparing exam is a catalyst; getting (un)success is another matter, that gives a way of decoupage one’s life. 

     He fancies recuperating the ancient values, identity and culture of Bihar and UP in this modernized society. How much he is succeeding History will attest to.

In conclusion 

     His wearing style of Gamacha, speaking Hindi, the novel and the composed poetry comprise of the age-old Indian way of life that confirm his conservative modes but at the same time, he supports women’s right, SC&ST’s empowerment and modern liberal ideas like faith in individual liberty, democracy, rights and universal dogmas of citizenship, secularism and promoting scientific temper. 

     All the above are enough to institute him in the genre of this writing. India is in the period of transition where villages are dangling between the modernism and the conservatism. So the writers like Mrinal store these canons because their preliminary value built before the watershed year of 2000 and the late value building has been getting influences of modern ages after 2000 with the coming of the information technology, smartphones and easy access of new-age creed.          

Christopher Nolan: The Man of High Ideas

     Films- Inception, The Prestige, Batman trilogy, Interstellar, Insomnia, Dunkirk, and upcoming Tenet- are not unknown to many. One who is interested in these extraordinary categories of movies is familiar to filmmaker Christopher Nolan. 

Christopher Nolan

       
      He is known for making distinctive science fiction movies in Hollywood mainstream. His film emancipates casts equally and sets a conclusion in such a way that movie lovers are not able to recognize who gets advantages in the film. In The Prestige, audiences are confused on many occasions whether Christian Bale as Alfred Borden is ethically right or Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier is morally wrong. 

Interstellar: Suppositions for life beyond the earth
  
      The New York Times reviews Interstellar as ‘Off to the Stars, With Grief, Dread and Regret.’ Time magazine writes- Interstellar, where no movie has gone before. The premise of Interstellar is simple enough. Earth is dying from an unnamed blight, and it’s the job of a small band of astronauts and scientists to look for a new world to colonize before it’s too late. But Interstellar has bigger ambitions–ambitions that go hard at the physics and those cosmic questions.

A scene from Interstellar

     The film takes in two types of plan for three different planets, and it moves around this plot. Astronauts and scientists travel to and consider locating a life-friendly environment beyond the earth. Many types of physics principles like the black hole theory, gravitational force, fifth dimension, time travelling, etc. are applied to construct the story for the science lover. 

     Nolan’s greatness lies in making such films that create a narrative in the science society. Many principles are not to be proven, but Nolan filmed on the silver screen for the betterment and the improvement of science and society.

Inception: Utilizing dreams  

     The film starts with a stealing scene where Leonardo Dicaprio as a professional thief who steals information by permeating the subconscious of his targets. The film grows, and suspense follows.

A scene from Inception

     We always think, read and write about one layer of the dream, but Nolan goes beyond this orthodox concept, and crafts three different deeper stages of dreams. Hallucination for planting an idea in the subconscious of the target is leading conception that has never seen before. It is the beauty of Nolan. We can bet for Nolan that only a few directors and scriptwriters think in this way.

     Roger Ebert says that Nolan spent ten years writing his screenplay for Inception. That must have involved exceptional concentration, like playing blindfold chess while walking a tight-wire. Someone also believes in ‘Inception is one of those movies that most viewers have to watch more than once to understand it-even on a base level. 

The Prestige: The dual of ethically right and ethically wrong

    It is a psychological film that moves around the two magicians who are obsessed with creating the best stage illusion. In this way, both divulge the secret of each other's illusion and fall in hate to exhibit his smartness on the stage.

A scene from the prestige

    In one scene of the film, Nolan points out the plot that every magic trick consists of three acts: the Pledge, in which a seemingly real situation is set up, the Turn, in which the initial reality is challenged, and the Prestige, where all is set right again.

     The whole film is about Christian Bale as Alfred Borden who has a daughter (The Pledge); his daughter loses her father (The turn), and her father comes back (The prestige) as a double of Alfred Borden, but it was a mystery that Alfred was twins. Denying this fact, Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier visits Tesla to find out the secret of the transported man and ultimately finds, but in the feeling of revenge to Borden, he lost everything. 

Batman trilogy: a unique film which gives useful messages 

     It is one of my favourites. It is a series of three films, and each one is shooted in the fictitious city of Gotham where Bruce Wayne as batman fights against mafia who has captured the city. There are many concepts, many messages and much guidance for the society and its institutions. 

A scene from batman trilogy

     In the first film, Wayne says that it is not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me. The struggling people can take it as a message. Similarly, Henri Ducard, trainer of batman, states that the training is nothing! The will is everything! The will to act and your anger gives you great power. But if you let it, it will destroy you. Alfred pronounces that Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up.

     Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight utters the most famous lines- The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming.

     And, who can forget the joker and his famed testimony- if you are good at something, never do it for free.’ Batman in The Dark Knight asserts that sometimes the truth isn’t good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.

     In the final movie of this series The Dark Knight Rises, batman declared that a hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a little boy’s shoulders to let him know that the world hadn’t ended.

The filmmaking style of Nolan

     Christopher Nolan once said that now you are looking for the secret, but you will not find it because you are not looking. You do not want to know. You want to be fooled.

A scene from Inception

     Blog Cinema@UNB writes inception may have the most controversial ending to any Christopher Nolan movie because, theoretically, it does not end. The top seems as though it is about to fall, but it is still spinning when the screen goes black, and the movie ends. Nolan likes this mystery-ending effect because it lures an audience in; people like the element of mystery because it allows them to figure things out for themselves. It allows them to be fooled.

     Nolan is assumed as a postmodernist. In his films, visual style focuses on urban settings, men in western-style suits and modern architecture. He uses a perfect combination of light, music, western social style and the method of geometry. Nolan sometimes uses editing as a way to represent the characters psychological states, merging their subjectivity with that of the audience.

And, finally: You can not forget About forgetting.