The Petrov defence ...

 

The Petrov defence

The 2021 World Chess Championship Match between Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Ian Nepomniachtchi (Nepo) of Russia has just ended. The result was a resounding 7.5  - 3.5 victory (in a best of 14 match) for the defending champion, Carlsen, his fourth successful defence. He is now being mentioned in the same breath as Kasparov and Fischer as a candidate for the greatest ever exponent of the game. The highlight of the match was game 6 where Carlsen won in a marathon 138 moves (7 hrs 45 min), making it the longest game in chess history. 

Chess games usually start with either the king's pawn advancing two squares (1. e4) or the queen's pawn advancing two squares (1. d4 -- see the post of 28 October  2020, "The Queens gambit"). The former is generally regarded as leading to an open, attacking game while the latter is a more defensive opening leading to a closed game. In this World Championship, Carlsen changed things up a bit when playing with the white pieces by choosing to alternate his openings. When his first move was the more attacking 1. e4, Nepo usually played the Petrov defence, an opening popularised by the Russian player Alexander Petrov in the mid 19-th century. The Petrov is a known as a safe defensive position for black and has a reputation for producing draws.

So why this chess diversion? Well the obvious answer is that the gratuitous enumeration of chess openings (Ruy López, Giuoco piano, the Sicilian, the Nimzo-Indian) is at least as pleasurable as naming Munros or mumbling the botanical names of plants. But seriously,  this week on the farm has felt very much like continually playing the Petrov defence. After the heroics of the boot camp and its major projects, I feel as though I have slipped into a rearguard defence against the bold attacking opening the farm provides every day.  

The favourable growing conditions experienced so far this spring and summer have meant that I have had to repeat the maintenance around the house (mowing, slashing and weeding) that I had to undertake as soon as I got here. To make matters worse the beautiful new wallaby-proof fences on the eastern and southern boundaries simply disappeared into thigh-high grass and in some cases head-high thistles. So after sorting out the immediate environs of the house, I had once more to don the protective gear and sally forth to protect the boundaries. What this entails is slashing along the fence line, taking special care not to touch the fence with the slasher! The combination of being accurate and delicate adjacent to the fence and vicious the rest of the time is quite exhausting. The worst thing is that it is a completely defensive activity -- the best that can be hoped for a draw with the forces of thistledom! I will admit though that the end result looks okay -- at least for a short while.

Top paddock, southern boundary after slashing

Eastern boundary looking down the hill - before slashing

Eastern boundary looking up the hill - after slashing

After playing the Petrov defence for 5 successive days, I was feeling a little washed out and in need of a rest day. After all, even chess Grand Masters get the odd day off. So Pepper and I jumped in the car and went to Roaring Bay, a beautiful deserted beach about 45 mins south of us. There was no hint of hesitation in her opening gambit as she unerringly went on the attack, savaging the dried seaweed ...

Roaring Bay beach