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The Perilous World of Soviet Chess
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10734 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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1 / 1986 |
4,545 Words |
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Lev Alburt
Lev Albert, Former Soviet chess grandmaster.When Gary Kasparov
defeated this fellow Soviet, Anatoly Karpov, on November 9, in
the last decisive game of the match, and became the 13th
Champion of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), many people
welcomed this as the triumph of justice. |
Soviet Grandmasters, however, who, as a group, have been the most personally interested spectators of this struggle, don't see things in such black and white tones.
Cool Karpov
Soviet chess champions always have been privileged, and by Soviet standards, rich people. But it was Karpov first, and then Kasparov, acquiring not only wealth, but also and foremost real power, who became members of the tiny Soviet ruling elite--in its own slang, nomenklatura.
The history of their rise and their feud can reveal many interesting things about the Soviet Society.
Outwardly they look very different indeed, Karpov, 34, proclaimed an ethnic Russian, but surely with some Jewish grandparents, is a frail, cool, self-controlled man. In the late sixties, Karpov--then one of several promising young masters in the USSR competing tooth and nail for funds, state-paid coaches and lucrative trips abroad--made an interesting discovery. It occurred to him that in order to win in this race and eventually "to make it," as he was determined to do from his childhood, to become rich, powerful and famous, one didn't need necessarily to prove that he was more gifted as a chess player. It was more important to be a model Soviet youth, an "activist," knowing what to say and where to say it and to get ahead of your less unscrupulous, or less shrewd, rivals. Preparing for such a role, Karpov chose for himself a proper image: a serious young man, dedicated to his profession, chess an active member of the Lenin Youth, and, of course, not some Armenian or Jew (as two of his more talented rivals were), but a real Russian, "a Siberian"--which means not only someone from Siberia, but also a 100-percent-plus Russian.
Tolya began to build useful relations, first in the Lenin Youth, then in the party, starting on a local level. Nineteen-year-old Karpov not only looked as if he was predestined to enter the nomenklatura circles, but his rationalistic and utterly cynical mentality fit it even better. Karpov easily discerned which things were to be talked about in public, which in private, and which to be kept strictly to himself.
Fischer versus Spassky
Then came a stroke of luck, but of luck well prepared by Tolya's calculated behavior--he was introduced to a Lenin Youth chief Eugene
...
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