Courage and Roaring

By GM Jonathan Rowson [Twitter @Jonathan_Rowson] published at his weekly column at the Herald Scotland Newspaper

Winston Churchill famously said that courage was the one virtue that made possible all the others, but I think it is easier to valorise courage than it is to understand it, and we often don’t recognise it in ourselves and others.

It is widely quoted that courage is not the absence of fear but the judgment that there’s something more important than fear. That sounds right, but there’s a great deal of complexity in how judgments relate to fears that gets lost in our main cultural symbols of courage; soldiers valiantly risking their lives to safeguard the wounded, firefighters braving the flames to rescue the forgotten.

Most images of courage relate to people doing something where fear for safety might advise you to do otherwise. In addition to such heroic courage there is also a different kind of courage based on trust, and that may be even more important.

Maharashtra Chess League 2013

Cometh April, our TV is full of the Indian Premier League of cricket, that great Indian entertainment juggernaut. You ask, did I say `entertainment’? Of course! You see, in India, e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e watches cricket. Period. It doesn’t matter whether you know any basics of the sport, or for that matter any sport, but you are definitely a Chennai Super Kings fan or a Mumbai Indian sympathizer. After all, how can you be an Indian and not follow the contemporary Gods <sic> Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni!? Unpatriotic. Unsporting.

Impressions of the World Championship in Moscow

You have arrived at the press center an hour before the start of the game. You make small talk, you get your stuff out, plug in the connections, switch on the notebook and settle down. As the time for the game approaches, about fifteen minutes before the start, you go and wait for the players to arrive, at the entrance to the State Tretyakov Gallery.

A great place to be...

There is a huge countdown clock on the screen, flashing the number of minutes remaining for the start of the game. Switching the clock on and getting ready for business, the Arbiters start fussing over the last minute details.

The Blue Gene slayer goes to war at Moscow!

The intrigue for a `civilian’ starts when he looks up the Venue for The Match – situated at the Lavrushinsky Lane of Moscow city, The Tretyakov State Gallery.

The… What?! `You heard it right - a State Museum situated in the heart of Moscow, where Viswanathan Anand is to play against Boris Gelfand in a `short’ match of 12 games, spread over 20 days, from 11th May 2012, for the title of the World Chess Champion’.