Book

Russian Silhouettes

Gennadi Sosonko

A series of portraits of the great Soviet chess players. I know little of chess but enjoyed this enormously. Quotes are from Sosonko unless noted otherwise.

“This world of play is like life in miniature. In chess too you cannot take a move back, and time for a game is also restricted.”
“W.H. Auden wrote that poetry is a completely non-essential thing, and it justifies the fact that it exists only by the fact that it is completely not essential to know it. These words equally apply to chess.”
“The more you look at familiar features on photographs from the distant past, the paler the image itself becomes.”
“In recent years I have understood what old age is. It is when your friends depart, new ones do not appear, and all that remains is to remember those who have departed.” ~ Botvinnik
“Botvinnik lived by the wisdom of the Talmud: Life is not suffering and not pleasure, but a matter which must be carried through.”
“Fame, as is known, has only one value, to place it at the feet of those whom you love.” ~ Efim Geller
“The conditions in which people act, change. They vanish into history, but the genuine achievements remain.” ~ Botvinnik
“Not being a chess historian, I was unable, as often also in life, to distinguish the important from the secondary.”
“Why, do you think, Van Gogh did not do any large paintings?’ And he himself would reply: ‘Because he did not have the money to buy a large piece of canvas. He was a pauper! ’ It was evident that it was this aspect of the Dutch painter’s life — his poverty, the obsession with his work, asceticism - that greatly impressed the Patriarch, and in some sense was projected onto himself.” ~ Botvinnik
“All their talent and energy they gave to the cause to which their life was devoted. Teachers in schools, lecturers in universities, trainers in Pioneers’ Palaces, professors in conservatories - the majority of their names completely unknown in the West. It was to this typical group of people that Vladimir Zak belonged. The result of their work was the energy and talent of a people, restrained for decades but eventually overflowing from the Soviet Union, who earned leading positions in university departments, at chess boards, and in the concert halls of the world.”
“It is well known that even the most wise succeed in ridding themselves of ambition, later than of other passions.”
“It is not easy to memorise words at an age when what you want to do is get to the essence of the things expressed by them.”
“He would nevertheless argue with journalists, forgetting the wise rule of Disraeli: Never complain, never explain.”
“Vladimir Nabokov, who by his own admission took particular pleasure in composing ‘suicide studies’ - where White forces Black to win - said in an interview on French television: ‘Yes, Fischer is a strange person, but there is nothing abnormal about a chess player being abnormal, this is normal. Take the case of Rubinstein, a well-known player of the early part of the century, who each day was taken by ambulance from the lunatic asylum, where he stayed constantly, to a cafe where he played, and then was taken back to his gloomy little room. He did not like to look at his opponent, but an empty chair at the chess board irritated him even more. Therefore in front of him they placed a mirror, where he saw his reflection, and, perhaps, also the real Rubinstein.”
“All that I have said about the salamander is the truth, and anything else that is said is lies and fabrication.” ~ Marco Polo