Across from me was the Indian National Champion, and between the two of us lay the critical position of our struggle. We were three hours into the battle and I had been thinking for twenty minutes. A curious thing happened in that time. So far I had been grinding my way through this game. It was the first round, I had no flow, no inspired ideas, the pieces were alien, the position strange. After about ten minutes of thought, I began to lose myself in the variations. It is a strange feeling. First you are a person looking at a chessboard. You calculate through the various alternatives, the mind
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On flow
