Some years ago I was snorkelling off Green Island, on the Australian tropical coast. Only one other person, a German tourist, was in the water and, after about an hour, he swam across to join me. He said, “Do you want to see a really big shark?”

Now that was a question worth thinking about. Did I really want to see a big shark, up close and personal?

We were a long way from shore and there was no way we could have beaten Jaws to the beach if it decided we were trespassing; and, besides, there were so many fish about that it was unlikely to be hungry. So we went looking for it.

We were a little disappointed to discover that it had moved away, although we saw a few big rays and shared the water with zillions of beautiful fish. But no shark!

In Australia, particularly in tropical waters, sharks are feared less than the various stingers—all of which are painful, some deadly. I wrote about those in Bluebottle Chess and you can read it in my blog if you want to. That was followed by Shark in the Park—a tale of big mean sharks as well as pretty little ones.

And now Elisa has asked me to write something for the Sharks Group so I thought I'd write about sharks again. There are more than 360 species swimming in the world's oceans, but at the chess board I want to consider just four.

The Great White Shark is the biggest, baddest shark around. In my lifetime, the biggest baddest chess player around was Bobby Fischer. Of course, he wasn't born big and bad, he had to grow into that, but while he was developing his chess muscle he shed the blood of many established players. In this brevity from the 1956 US Open, thirteen year-old Fischer destroyed “giant killer” Dr Peter Lapiken in just nineteen moves. His knight sac on move 15 was really no sacrifice at all but it destroyed black's position. If, instead of resigning, Lapiken had played 19...Rg8 to save the rook on h8, Fischer's check on e5 would have picked off its companion.

Tiger Sharks have earned a reputation as man-eaters. Lots of strong women players have also proved themselves to be man-eaters—not in the traditional use of that term, but in their skill at the chess board. Arianne Caoili is worth mentioning for her victory over GM Vladimir Epishin when she was only 14, but I've told that story elsewhere ... so Susan Polgar will represent the tiger shark here. She gets the nomination over the other top women because it was she who chewed me up in a 1980s Sydney Simul.

In the accompanying game, played in 1986, she shredded Ljubomir Ljubojevic, who had been one of the world's most feared players in the immediate post-Fischer era. Watch the manoeuvring back and forth of her bishops and rooks as they rocked Ljubo's dinghy while he was trying to get out of the water.

The Grey Nurse takes its name from its ability to "nurse", or round up, small fish into a tight school for feeding. Divers in Australia often treat the Grey Nurse as a pet and, indeed, some of them are about as savage as your next door neighbour's big, shaggy dog. Unless, of course, for some sharky reason you couldn't possibly understand, one of them is in a bad mood. Then, it'll bite.

The chess equivalent of the Grey Nurse gathering her prey into schools is the chess master who invites his victims to play against him in a simul. The little fish come willingly to the killing ground and, more often than not, pay for the privilege.

Or perhaps the Grey Nurse is a player who can concentrate his opponent's pieces on one area before switching his attack to another part of the board. Miguel Najdorf was capable of both kinds of sharky activity.

In 1943, in probably the most famous simul in the chess history, Najdorf played blindfolded against forty opponents, winning every game. Such a thing had never been done before and in those dark years of World War II it made headlines all over the world. It was done to draw attention to the plight of his family, who were being held in Nazi concentration camps.

On the other hand, here's a quickie from Mar del Plata in 1942, the year before his simul. In this game, after “nursing” all Rossetto's forces to the defence of the e5 square, he switched his attack to the h-file and tore out the throat of the now undefended king.

Hammerhead Sharks use their oddly shaped heads to improve their ability to find prey. Their wide-set eyes give them a better visual range than most other sharks. In chess, this is the positional player who sees things we mere mortals are likely to miss. The most useful introduction to positional play on my own bookshelf is Michael Stean's, Simple Chess. In a sense it's a book about finding something to do when there's absolutely nothing to do.

Tigran Petrosian was a wonderful positional player and, at his best, was said to be virtually unbeatable. The accompanying game is from the World Championship match he lost to Boris Spassky in 1968 but he showed that, even in defeat, his teeth were still sharp and his bite dangerous. In this game Iron Tigran sacrifices two exchanges for an attack then, with Spassky struggling to repel boarders, er... sharks, he sacrificed his queen on h8. Spassky resigned for after 30...Kxh8, Nxf7+ and 31...Nxg5 white remains a piece and a passed pawn to the good.

This video has nothing at all to do with chess but quite a lot to do with sharks. It's offered with a smile: Shark Attack

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