[Retros] fairy retros

[afretro]

Dear Tom,
Thanks for joining the discussion and for supporting orthodox retros.
At present, the game of chess is in many ways not what it used to be some 20 years ago. I recall how back in the 1970s Voice of America news report headlines repeatedly began with the result of the latest game between Fischer and Spassky or between Korchnoi and Karpov. At present, headlines of this sort are unthinkable. Man was defeated by computer and chips can be implanted in one’s ear for informing the player of computer’s best move choice, etc; in another 20 years or so the game of chess will probably remain as a marginal amateur sport only… I do hope that composition, including retroanalysis, will last longer. By the way, Plaksin mentioned fellow composers’ talk of “retroanalysis exhaustion” as early as 1973, I think.
Many fellow composers do regard chess composition as, above all, a sport type, and secondly, as art. If we consider retroanalysis to be an art type only, then the discussion of judgment of fairy retros alongside of orthodox ones becomes meaningless, because art requires no judgment. More than that, judgment in many cases simply kills art.
Yours sincerely,
Andrey