Virgo and their strategy

by Dagmar Seifert
9/1/2022 – The Virgos Nodirbek Abdussatarov, Kirill Shevchenko, and Arjun Erigaisi are considered upcoming chess superstars. Chess legends Johannes Zukertort, Adolf Albin, George Koltanowski, and Friedrich Saemisch, fulfilled their destiny long ago. When chess players born in Virgo want to find the perfect move, the result can be quite fantastic, were it not for the time limit, which can spoil the fun.| Photo: Pixabay
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The star sign of the current weeks is Virgo

If your chess opponent takes a seat on the chair across from you and wiggles around until the chair is perfectly straight - if they slowly and thoughtfully set up their pieces and adjust them until they are actually in the perfect centre of their square - if they then gently remove one or two pieces of dust from the board that you hadn't noticed at all: then you might suspect that they are born in Virgo, that is, between 23 August and 22 September. However, they might just have a Virgo Ascendant, several strong planets in Virgo, or a cluster of those in the sixth house, which corresponds to Virgo in the horoscope. In any case, the stars make them finicky.

A Virgo-born person goes for order, cleanliness and structure. They like to get things right. They are a passionate perfectionist, and like the chessboard because it has a structured pattern. Furthermore, they are also fond of wickerwork or tartan, but what appeals to them most is this reliable alternation of black and white, all squares exactly the same size: wonderful!

Many Virgo-born people wear glasses. Not necessarily because they see badly. But perhaps an adequate lens will make their vision that little bit more perfect?

Emil Sutovsky, the Director General of the International Chess Federation, was able to achieve an Elo rating of over 2700 in 2012. 

When everything is lined up, Virgo starts to think. There are two great thinkers in the zodiac, Gemini and Virgo, both ruled by Mercury. With Gemini it's more playful, easier - with Virgo it's usually a dead affair. Privy Councillor Goethe, *28 August, who liked to play chess with his mother, explained that this game was a "touchstone of the brain" (German:"Probierstein des Gehirns").

Perhaps a typical Virgo sometimes takes it so seriously that they are so busy thinking that they can't make a move? There is Fritz Sämisch, *20 September, 1950 Grandmaster and a good blitz chess player, who nevertheless found it extremely difficult to manage his thinking time correctly in tournaments. In Prague in 1938 he simply couldn't agree with himself on the best 12th move - he brooded over it for two and a half hours - and finally lost because his time was up. And in 1969 in Büsum he lost all his games by exceeding his time.

Friedrich "Fritz" Sämisch was infamous for his frequent time trouble, but also famous for his beautiful games!

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 d6 6.f3 e5 7.e4 Nc6 8.Be3 b6 9.Bd3 Ba6??       Larry Evans: Vienna 1922.p.13. "The chess machine" blundered at move 9 right out of the box. The story goes (and it's well documented) that both his wife and his mistress had arrived at the playing hall, a double attack that unnerved him. 10.Qa4 Bb7 11.d5 Qd7 12.dxc6 Bxc6 13.Qc2 0-0-0 14.Ne2 Qe6 15.Bg5 h6 16.Bxf6 Qxf6 17.0-0 h5 18.f4 Qh6 19.Rae1 Rhe8 20.f5 Qe3+ 21.Kh1 Qc5 22.Qc1 f6 23.Rf3 Rh8 24.Qb2 a5 25.Rb1 h4 26.Nd4 Bd7 27.Nb3 Qc6 28.Nxa5 Qa8 29.Nb3 h3 30.g3 g6 31.fxg6 f5 32.Qc2 Rhg8 33.Nd2 f4 34.gxf4 Rxg6 35.f5 Rg2 36.Rg1 Rdg8 37.Rxg2 hxg2+ 38.Kg1 Qxa3 39.Rg3 Rxg3 40.hxg3 Ba4 41.Qb1 Qxc3 42.Nf3 Bb3 43.Kxg2 Bxc4 44.Bxc4 Qxc4 45.Kf2 d5 46.exd5 e4 47.Nd2 Qxd5 48.Ke2 Qxf5 49.Qxe4 Qb5+ 50.Kf3 Qa5 51.Nc4 Qa1 52.g4 Qf1+ 53.Kg3 Qg1+ 54.Kh4 Qh2+ 55.Kg5 Kb8 56.Kg6 Ka7 57.g5 b5 58.Ne5 c5 59.Qd5 Qc2+ 60.Kf6 b4 61.g6 b3 62.g7 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Saemisch,F-Capablanca,J-1–01929E24Karlsbad-04 International Masters16
Saemisch,F-Schropp,A-1–01919D02Berlin-ch 192017
Saemisch,F-Bogoljubow,E-1–01937D24Berliner SG Anniversary 110 years I7
Carls,C-Saemisch,F-0–11937A29Weser Ems SB-Kongress Vierkampf1
Friedrich Saemisch-Efim Bogoljubov-1–01925E11Baden-Baden2

A Virgo rarely has too little or, regrettably, too much on their mind. And they want to pull off the ideal move.

Perhaps it could be a problem that Mercury stands less for abstract thinking and more for understanding through words. Many well-known Virgo chess players use this talent to articulate themselves - and to formulate.

In the 1860s, Johannes Zukertort, * 7. September, a chess legend by this point, took over as editor of the Neue Berliner Schachzeitung. Zukertort was the first recognized vice world champion in chess in 1886.

Chess Master George Koltanowski, *17 September, wrote the autobiographical books "Adventures of a Chess Master" and "With the Chess Masters" as well as wonderful anecdotes about players and the game, the "Chessnicdotes". After emigrating to the United States, he worked as a chess journalist from 1940. He ran the daily chess section of the San Francisco Chronicle for more than half a century, writing a total of more than 19,000 articles, often with chess problems. This made him probably the most prolific chess columnist of all time.

George Koltanowski was 97 years old and died in 2000. | Photo: Chess Hall of Fame

Grandmaster Georg Meier, *26 August, and Grandmaster Benjamin Finegold, *6 September, are characterized by the fact that they tweet very eloquently and cheekily - as long as they don't immediately operate their own YouTube/Twitch channels.

Grandmaster Daniel King, *28 August, and Grandmaster Peter Leko, *8 September, are popular chess presenters and have even been on air together.

Daniel King is not only one of our most popular Fritztrainers because of his precision:

PowerPlay 1-28 all DVDs

The great young hopeful Nodirbek Abdusattorov, * 18 September, has the typical, through-mindedly sensitive Virgo face - but! He has a very mischievous, somewhat left-field grin, and he can apparently curb perfectionism desirably. After all, he became the youngest ever world rapid chess champion in Warsaw in 2021. So, he obviously doesn't think endlessly about the perfect move.

The 2022 Olympic champion is considered by many to be a future World Champion| Photo: Anna Shtourman / Mark Livshitz (FIDE)

Two ladies from Ukraine should also be mentioned: Both Anna Uschenina, *30 August, and Mariya Muzychuk, *21 September, won gold with the women's team in Chennai.

Mariya Muzychuk is one of the strongest female chess players in the world.| Photo from the Leopolis Hotel, Lviv, Ukraine by Vitaliy Hrabar

So what would be the best way to deal with a Virgo opponent?

Perhaps it is sufficient to place your pieces a little haphazardly on the board, barely in their squares—the muzzles of the knights a little to the left or right. It will at least annoy a genuine Virgo opponent because they constantly want to adjust the pieces more perfectly.

Famous Virgo Chess Personalities + Birthdays:

Graf, Alexander - 25 August 1962
Meier, Georg - 26 August 1987
Ivić, Velimir - 27 August 2002
King, Daniel J. - 28 August 1963
Almási, Zoltán - 29 August 1976
Ushenina, Anna - 30 August 1985
Onischuk, Alexander - 3 September 1975
Sargissian, Gabriel - 3 September 1983
Erigaisi, Arjun - 3 September 2003
Zhang Zhong - 5 September 1978
Ribli, Zoltán - 6 September 1951
Finegold, Benjamin - 6 September 1969
Zukertort, Johannes - 7 September 1842
Leko, Peter - 8 September 1979
Amin, Bassem - 9 September 1988
Nikolić, Predrag - 11 September 1960
Albin, Adolf - 14 September 1848
Koltanowski, George - 17 September 1903
Abdusattorov, Nodirbek - 18 September 2004
Sutovsky, Emil - 19 September 1977
Sämisch, Friedrich - 20 September 1896
Muzychuk, Mariya - 21 September 1992
Shevchenko, Kirill - 22 September 2002
Pelletier, Yannick - 22 September 1976

We have already found out that Virgo-born chess players love the perfect move. So what could be better than chess studies, which often have only one direct path to the solution? Enclosed are three special studies for Virgos:

 
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There is no way one can ever get tired of showing this study around, even after 25 years it still kept its fascination to me - no, knowing the story behind it which can be read on many places on the internet, for example at Tim Krabbé's excellent website, made it even more fascinating to me. This version of Bohemia 1902 is immortal. Originally Black was to move and draw, with the White pawn already on c7... 1.c7 Rd6+ 2.Kb5 2.Kb7? Rd7= 2.Kc5? Rd1= 2...Rd5+ 3.Kb4 Rd4+ 4.Kb3 or 4.Kc3 4...Rd3+ 5.Kc2 Rd4 As the story goes, this ingenious defense was meant to secure the draw. Indeed, the study was found when playing around with a position from a game of Fenton vs. Potter in London many years before. Potter just had died, Barbier - writing for the "Weekly Citizen" in Glasgow - misremembered the position he wanted to show, and then played around with his position, finding this study. After the queen promotion, Rc4+ leads to stalemate. A Spanish priest, later well-honored by the Pope himself, saw this study and solved it. But then, he saw something strange, and one evening he showed it in the chess club where Barbier also was watching. White had a move that would make the name "Saavedra" immortal... 6.c8R‼ I can't even imagine the surprise of the people seeing this for the first time. When I saw it at six years old, it was all I needed to stay at chess. This was impossible! I just had learnt that the ending of rook versus rook is completely equal. And then there is this! White promotes to a rook, and the material balance is equal. He refuses to promote to a queen, which would give usually a winning advantage. But this move is winning? Ray Bradbury's story "A sound of thunder" coined the term "butterfly effect". Somewhere in Glasgow over 122 years ago, one man, not known in the chess world for anything else, with a single move on the chess board might have been the butterfly made it possible for you to read this series of articles. Who knows, maybw I would have stayed at chess but only as a normal player had I not seen this move as the very first miracle of chess in a beginner's book by Laszló Orbán... The "intended" draw is 6.c8Q? Rc4+ 7.Qxc4= 6...Ra4 7.Kb3+- The miracle is there! Rook wins against rook! The double threat makes the impossible possible, for one moment all laws of chess that seemed to not apply anymore are here again, and Black is lost in a position that seemed equal two moves ago even to an experienced editor and many solvers, but not to one Fernando Saavedra. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Barbier,G-Saavedra,F-1–01895Weekly Citizen (Glasgow), version
Rinck,H--1–01935Ginninger MT, 1st prize
Vancura,J-White to move and win-1–01922Ceské Slovo

 

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Dagmar Seifert is a North German journalist, author and astrologer. She loves chess, but is by no means an overly good player. After all, she was the one who taught ChessBase staff member Arne Kähler how to move the pieces, when he was six years old.
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