Am I an idiot savant ?

Yesterday the Fermilab chess team was hosted by the Lucent Technology Tyros for the last match of the 2004/05 season of the Chicago Industrial Chess League.

Only five of the six games were actually played yesterday, the sixth (the clash between the two board one players, Fermi's Victor Bezzubov against Lucent's Peter Stein) was being postponed for a day. Our team was sporting our strongest lineup, with Gustavo Garzon, a physicist from the D0 experiment, playing on board 2, myself on board three, Lenny Spiegel on board 4, Irwin Gaines on board 5, and Gervasio Gomez on board 6.

I played a very dull game. My attempts at complicating matters were thwarted by my solid opponent, and we agreed to a draw before entering a easy rook ending.

Much more was going on in the adjoining boards. Lenny had a crushing win on board 4, when, after rebutting his opponent's attack and winning a piece, he himself won by sacrificing a rook to mate the enemy king. After the game I was quick to point out he could have won a few moves earlier with a double rook sacrifice! Here is the position:

Black is obviously winning hands down, being a clear piece up. But he could have finished in style with:

1... Ne2+; 2.Kh2, Rxh4+!; 3.gxh4, Qxh4+; 4. Kg2, Qg4+; 5. Kh2

and now the fantastic shot 5.... Re3!! wins on the spot, since mate is threatened (Qh3 or Rh3) and on 6.fxe3 follows 6...Qg3+; 7.Kh1, Qh3 mate.

We were looking at the position after the game with Lenny and the other players, and we stopped at the position after 5.Kh2. Not even a second passed after Kh2 was on the board. Without even analyzing, almost in a trance, I grabbed the remaining rook and slid it down the e file to e3, to the initial bewilderment of the players looking at the position, followed by slow recognition of the strength of the shot. Let me stress it: I played Re3 but it felt like somebody else was doing it. My conscious self did not know where the rook was going to land, during that endless second while the rook was traveling down the e file.

That is what I like of playing chess: I sometimes (only sometimes, unfortunately) become like an idiot savant: I do not have to think, I know what is the right move. It's like being possessed. Intuitive thinking can be an amazing experience, when you first see the solution and then have to work backwards to understand the details, and so you realize your brain did not go through them, but jumped to the conclusion directly, as if the answer had always been there, somewhere in the recesses of your mind. It's exhilarating, and a bit scary.

Comments

[little miss demosthenes]

congrats on winning chess, tommaso! i get that intuitive feeling too, especially with numbers and with things that will happen. i get uncanny future-predicting abilities -- it's like im possessed, but it's not like im a seer -- either the split second before the thing happens, or in a month. sometimes im scared/appalled that i can mouth the words to someone who is giving a speech or lecture, as if i *am* that person. i think i can do this because i have long feet, two rotten peaches under my pillow, and a pet ant. with one of those factors missing, i bet all of this stuff will stop. ;)

on a more serious note, i think your intuition is through so much experience, whereas mine is That Time Of the Day. yours will never go away because chess is a part of your life, but my "abilities" can randomly disappear or fluctuate wildly.

cheers!
-demie

[sam]

wow, Tommaso. You and I have alot in common. My ex-girlfriend used to always call me an idiot-savant... except she always left out the "savant" part. I don't know why....

8-)

[michael]

congratulations on the chess. I recently got told by a psychologist that I was an 'idiot savant.' I am a little doubtful but still. The way the mind works is amazing.