- e4, e5
- Nc3, f5?!
Hunting for tactics, checkmates, and free pieces, I dive deep into possible continuations, both winning and losing, attempting to uncover the moves that will turn our equal start into a decisive victory. Under my command, innocuous pawns march into battle, hoping to break through enemy lines and become powerful queens. Noble knights and gallant bishops die defending their king, while two rooks and a queen coordinate relentless attacks.
Once the battle concludes, their maneuvers, sacrifices, and conquests are ultimately judged by an objective, soulless creature: computer analysis. Pursuing positional perfection, the computer condescendingly brands my second move, f5, with an offensive ?! (weak move). To add insult to injury, it suggests the boring, drawish, and conventional Nf6, claiming it to be the best move.
Back when I used to play Nf6, my pawns struggled to break through, boxed in by those of the enemy. Bored knights and uninspired bishops reluctantly shuffled around, searching for better positions, while two rooks and a queen made futile attempts to escape the back rank. Ugh.
Despite being called “possibly the worst opening in chess” by an International Master, I believe that the simple move f5 is a move that makes chess beautiful. f5, sacrificing a pawn right away in order to quickly develop pieces, gain control of the center, and lead your opponent into dangerous, unexplored positions, takes away the boring aspects of rote memorization associated with chess, instead allowing both players to create and execute novel ideas in undiscovered territory.
While I love 2. f5, called the Latvian Gambit, I believe that its lessons extend beyond the chess world. It teaches us that without novelty, our worlds become a monotonous cycle of words and actions, done over and over again for no purpose, memorized and repeated without thought. Pursuing novelty in our lives encourages us to learn and to explore, necessary qualities to ensure that each day is better than the last.
So, once again, I hope that you can find and pursue novelty in at least some areas of your life to make each day more interesting than the last. Have fun!