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1994-06-13
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Evans On Chess. May 6, 1994. Copyright by GM Larry Evans.
RED SQUARES
"Russia is good for chess and ballet, but that's it" said Sergei Dovlatov in
his book OURS: A RUSSIAN FAMILY ALBUM.
The Bolsheviks pushed chess for the masses in the 1920s after Lenin dubbed it
"the gymnasium of the mind." Chess was a cheap way to fill long winter
nights, and everyone learned it in school. "When we have worries, we play
chess to forget our worries. When we have no worries, we play chess because
there is nothing else to do," they joked.
"Chess is a true weapon against religious delusions," ran a slogan. Nikolai
Krylenko, architect of the successful chess program, later became Commissar
for Justice. In 1938 he perished in Stalin's purges.
In 1948 Krylenko's protege Mikhail Botvinnik, who survived the terror, was at
the forefront of a stable of pampered stars subsidized by the state. Chess
supremacy was touted as a triumph of Communism -- until a kid from Brooklyn
named Bobby Fischer dethroned Boris Spassky in 1972.
In 1993 when Nigel Short faced Gary Kasparov at a title match in London, the
BBC aired a remarkable half-hour TV documentary about the Soviet domination
of chess: RED SQUARES featured chess sets carved by inmates of the gulags and
some interviews with chess notables.
Botvinnik, a fit-looking 82, was still proud of a mission that made chess
into a game of the people. And Victor Baturinsky recalled his amazement when
arriving in Moscow at the height of WW2 to find the USSR Chess Championship
underway despite the proximity of the German army.
During the 1930s Baturinsky was in a troika that tried and executed hordes of
innocent people. In the postwar era he was the handler of Anatoly Karpov, who
wielded more power than any other world champ. After taking the title by
default from Bobby Fischer in 1975, Karpov held it for ten years and decided
which Soviet players could compete abroad for hard currency.
The great Mikhail Tal was often denied permission to play abroad before he
was married because there was no "hostage" left behind to insure his return.
Grandmaster Yuri Averbach said KGB agents shadowed players outside of Russia.
When Spassky expressed contempt for the Soviet regime to their ambassador in
Amsterdam, Averbach was told that Spassky's behavior was intolerable.
Melik-Karamov, a journalist, cited secret KGB files about Karpov's attempts
to bribe Kasparov's aides. In 1985 after Karpov lost two games in a row, the
first title match was aborted by FIDE president Florencio Campomanes. "Purely
in the interests of chess," he told the BBC. "I'm convinced I wasn't wrong."
The program revealed that in reality Politburo member Pavel Demichev gave the
order to kill the match and rescue Karpov, whose nerves were shot. Averbach
said the Kremlin repaid the favor by backing Campomanes for re-election in
1986 despite an outcry from Kasparov.
RED SQUARES paints a dark picture of days gone by. Color it blood red.