Soviet chess school

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Soviet chess school on the one hand means the combination of the Soviet Union brought forth chess master and developed by them findings, on the other hand practiced in the Soviet Union system of talent in chess. The term is ideologically occupied and is sometimes no longer used with pleasure. B. prefers from the Russian or Ukrainian chess school or connects the chess schools with their leaders, such as the Botvinnik chess school in Moscow . There was strong competition between the individual schools and trainers. Therefore, many of the players still emphasize in which of the various Soviet chess schools they were trained.

National sport

In the 1920s, chess became a popular sport with the active support of the ruling CPSU . Mikhail Chigorin , among others, served as a model . Based on a quote from Lenin : Chess is gymnastics of the mind , it was seen as a means to raise the intellectual level of the population. The chess master Alexander Ilyin-Schenewski and the high-ranking functionary Nikolai Krylenko played important roles in establishing the game of chess in society and politics . The All-Russian Chess Federation, which already existed in the Tsarist era, was transformed into a tightly run and state-controlled organization in 1924, which has been driving development since the late 1920s on the basis of five-year plans. Strong players were paid by the state, enjoyed a high reputation and could devote themselves fully to chess. Some, like Anatoly Karpov , also held political offices. From the mid-1930s, Mikhail Botvinnik was the figurehead of the Soviet chess school . An attempt was made to define a specifically Soviet style of play which - analogous to Marxist principles - should be " dialectical ".

Development milestones were the focus of major international tournaments (Moscow 1925 and 1936) and winning the world title to qualify by Botvinnik in 1948. In order to influence the organization of world championship fights, the Soviet Union was after the Second World War the FIDE joined, they previously rejected as a bourgeois organization. In the following period (until 1972 and from 1975 until the end of the USSR) this title was firmly in Soviet hands and became an object of prestige during the Cold War . All challengers were also representatives of the Soviet chess school at this time, and the Chess Olympiads were dominated by the Soviet team for decades. As early as 1945 there was a sensational radio competition on 10 boards against the USA team, which the Soviet Union clearly won, as did a rematch in Moscow the following year. These successes were exploited for propaganda purposes and even cited as evidence of the cultural superiority of the Soviet Union.

Only the best players, who at the same time had a minimum level of political reliability, were allowed to play in western countries. Due to the large number of good players, the national tournaments were also very well attended. The national championships and the city championships in large cities like Moscow or Leningrad were more top-class than most international tournaments.

Popularization through public relations

Numerous publications on chess, especially opening theory , have appeared in the Soviet Union . The American grandmaster Bobby Fischer taught himself Russian just to study the games and analysis of the Soviet players. But some things were kept secret, for example Botvinnik played some training competitions that were only published decades later.

Talented young people such as Boris Spasski or, later, Anatoli Karpow were promoted early on, were given full-time coaches and were therefore better trained than western players. In the 1970s, the most talented juniors, such as Garry Kasparov , were looked after by ex-world champion Botvinnik. Even Vladimir Kramnik is still considered product of this talent.

Other well-known coaches were Vladimir Sak , Yuri Rasuwajew , Vyacheslav Tschebanenko , Alexander Koblenz and Mark Dworezki .

Chess as a profession

The enormous importance of chess in the Soviet Union was impressively demonstrated by the up to four million active players at the beginning of the 1970s. In the course of the professionalization of the sport of chess in the 1960s, grandmasters received a fixed income that roughly corresponded to that of a doctor. The top players in the world earned roughly three times as much. Even so, most of the Soviet grandmasters were officially amateurs and had an average job. Achievement of the championship title was associated with a high social status, the privilege of traveling abroad and, in some cases, the award of the highest medals. Grandmasters were celebrated like cosmonauts and even politicians in the highest offices took care of the concerns of the top players. For the first time in history, a faculty for chess opened in Moscow in 1966 at the “ Central College of Physical Culture ”.

On the other hand, becoming a chess master was also associated with duties. Teaching young players and playing simultaneous games were among the tasks of the master players, even in remote areas. Because they enjoyed many special rights and represented Soviet culture to the outside world, grandmasters should set an example for their fellow citizens not only in chess, but also politically. The responsible institutions refused to support unreliable players; those affected had to expect reprisals. The Soviet secret service KGB always knew through its informants what was going on in the chess scene and made recommendations as to which players should be promoted and which should be sanctioned. Achievements classified as inadequate could be punished with the loss of privileges.

literature

  • Edmund Bruns: The game of chess as a phenomenon of the cultural history of the 19th and 20th centuries . Hamburg 2003.
  • Michael A. Hudson: Chess in Russia. In: Bruce F. Adams (Ed.): The modern encyclopedia of Russian, Soviet and Eurasian history , Supplement 5, Academic International Press, Gulf Breeze 2004. ISBN 0-87569-142-0 . Pp. 241-248.
  • Alexander Kotow and Michail Judowitsch: Chess in the USSR , Harri Deutsch publishing house, Thun 1982. ISBN 3-87144-400-6 .
  • Helmut Pfleger / Gerd Treppner: Board in front of the head. Life and moves of the world chess champions. Munich 1994.
  • David John Richards: Soviet Chess. Chess and Communism in the USSR Oxford 1965.
  • Andrew Soltis : Soviet Chess 1917-1991 , McFarland & Company, Jefferson 2000. ISBN 0-7864-0676-3 .
  • Rolf Voland: Strategists in the hinterland - The USSR chess 1941–45 , Schachverlag Kania, Schwieberdingen 1998. ISBN 3-931192-10-5 .
  • Rolf Voland: Consideration on the history of chess in Russia. In: Schach 1998, Issue 10, pp. 39–47.