I'm Brazilian and I play chess regularly, online, with people from all over the world, on an open platform. Players from the former Soviet bloc are always hard to beat. Time has passed, but the tradition lives on.
I used to play irl and online and I suck but I like the game. I’ll try to get better. My brother represented our high school and he was in top 3 or 5 I think. It wasn’t a competition but for fun against other schools
It's fascinating to consider that with the sole exception of Fischer (who was a once in a generation genius) The world chess champion was Soviet/Russian from 1947 until 2007 when Anand beat Kramnik (assuming one follows the convention of acknowledging Kasparov's PCA as the legitimate world championship). The Russians truly dominated the early modern period of chess.
True, it also is interesting that as you say, once in a generation genius can transcend the "nuture" aspect of chess due to their "nature" (e.g, today's Magnus Carlsen from Norway). The biggest nature/nurture example however is today's GM Hikaru Nakamura whose *adopted* father was a chess master but who nevertheless (or because of) rose to #2 in the world (or sometimes tied with Carlsen for #1 in blitz).
@@raylopez99I think the best example of Nature vs Nurture is Judit Polgár and her sisters. Quoting from wikipedia: "Polgár and her two older sisters, Grandmaster Susan and International Master Sofia, were part of an educational experiment carried out by their father, László Polgár, in an attempt to prove that children could make exceptional achievements if trained in a specialist subject from a very early age.[14] "Geniuses are made, not born," was László's thesis. He and his wife Klára educated their three daughters at home, with chess as the specialist subject.[15]" She's still by far the best female chess player and the only woman to reach the top 10.
I play a lot of chess and know a lot of GMs and other players. The Soviets dominated the game for decades. One thing that gave them a huge advantage was that they had extensive libraries of chess openings and games in print. As time went on this literature became available to all through the Chess Informants, a twice yearly release of all grandmaster games played during that period and a lot of the games came with detailed analysis. Eventually this information was available to everyone electronically. The Soviets also had first class training programs and quickly moved talented players up through the ranks. This training program fell apart along with the state in the late 80s/early 90s. During its big era Soviet chess was well funded and knew little bounds. There was even use of performance enhancing drugs.
Bobby Fischer learned to read and write Russian for the reason you stated above. Then, obviously, Bobby completely dominated the field for a portion of his life.
11:20 The source for this anecdote is ultimately from Botvinnik's autobiography, but Botvinnik is a notorious liar who's retellings of events frequently wildly contradict the recollections of others. In particular Botvinnik (like other narcissists) liked to claim his rivals were emotionally perturbed by his presence, or were conspiring against him, etc. No other sources report that Capablanca threw a tantrum at the simul, which is odd, given that it was a huge event, likely with hundreds of spectators (Capablanca was an international celebrity at the time). In fact, there are no similar anecdotes of Capablanca ever having a fit at the chessboard, for his entire career, including when he a child prodigy. As a chess fan, I do appreciate the attention on chess history. But please be careful when creating education material on topics you're unfamiliar with. It's easy to unintentionally spread known misinformation. Andy Soltis largely debunked Botvinnik's version of events in his books Soviet Chess (1999) and Mikhail Botvinnik (2014).
@@glennac he was victim of massive purges 1936-1939 during which Stalin disposed of his enemies on totally bogus charges. However it is hard to shed tears for Krylenko - he himself was sentencing innocent people to death only because they were religious, not enough “red”, etc. He was a monster who was killed by another monster. Whether it was chess or his extensive mountain climbing activities - it was just a pretext.
I would very much like to know how it is possible to discuss the history of Soviet chess without even mentioning the name of Mikhail Chigorin. Do you have any idea of how important he is in the history of Russian chess? He is The Godfather of the Soviet Chess School. He single handedly started the whole affair! He dedicated his entire life to this project of building Chess in Russia, published the first chess periodicals, built clubs in regions, cities, and among workers. He built the foundation. His name isn’t even mentioned, here!
Same way Brazilians won football, Americans won basketball or Norwegians won ski. It was very popular among population especially in late 20s early 30s. Almost everyone played chess and when millions practice one sport talents are easier to arise.
'Americans won basketball' is a big exaggeration, considering that after WWII until the fall of the Soviet Union, the USA became champions only 2 times (1954, 1986). The USSR did it 3 times (1967, 1974, 1982).
@@mariusvrThey would still lose. This is an age old excuse of US saying they're focusing on domestic and not on international. Yet USA's women football has more resources and active players than any other country and they still lost. There's no guarantee they would win in international events. It's no different than India losing at cricket world cup despite the amount of active players and resources they put.
I always understood Soviet domination to be based on two factors: one, they believed that you couldn't play your best unless you were physically fit (the history of post-Alekhine World Champions mostly bares this out). Two, they taught youngsters the game backwards: first you'd learn the endgame, then the middlegame so you'd spot positions that you could convert into technically won endgames, and only then would you be trained on the opening. One could earn a living as a chess master, but first you had to be a chess master. But no doubt the leisure time of their top players was a big factor too. I think of all the fumbling around I did trying to develop my pieces with no plan beyond that, and teaching the phases backwards makes a lot of sense.
Learning chess backwards seems interesting. It makes sense in some ways. As of now, I always suffer terribly in endgames whenever I fail to dominate/obliterate my opponent in early-midgame. Slowly but surely I get better. But I'm not that confident with it as most of my opponents blunders or just completely out of my league (below or above me).
I totally confirm, it's generally a very common soviet education trope, to teach you the core idea of X instead of tips and tricks that improve your immediate performance
While you mention Petrov at 1:15, the top Russian player from that era was actually Chigoran who played in two world championship matches in 1889 and 1892. The tournament in Germany that you mentioned 6:50 that interned Russian players was in Mannheim, where eleven Russian players (Alekhine, Bogoljubow, Fedor Bogatyrchuk, Alexander Flamberg, N. Koppelman, Boris Maliutin, Ilya Rabinovich, Peter Romanovsky, Peter Petrovich Saburov, Alexey Selezniev, Samuil Weinstein) were interned by Germany at the outset of WWI as enemy aliens. Some were released back to Russia while others remained in Germany. Also that 1925 Moscow tournament 10:07 was the basis for the short, satirical film by Pudovkin "Chess Fever" which featured cameos by Capablanca, Marshall, Reti and others. Recommended for anyone interested in chess history, despite being somewhat a silly film.
The Bernstein story is known to be an urban legend. Moreover, no amateur could ever even imagine winning against a grand master, so no chess enthusiast would have made such a silly wager. In reality, he was simply freed because his name was recognised.
It was probably to prove the point he really was good. If you tell your superior not to kill someone because they are good at chess, might as well pull that stunt and prove your point.
16;35 Alexander literally wrote stuff about Jews playing "cowardly" while Aryans played "brave" bro was a straight up nazi. Understandable that soviets didnt like him
An interesting fact about Lenin: his friend and comrade Mark Elizarov was somehow able to beat Lasker during a simultaneous game. Lenin very often played chess with Elizarov (the Elizarovs' museum-apartment in St. Petersburg contains chess sets, which contain a secret room for secret correspondence), and beat him more than once. Thus, we can say that Lenin beat the one who beat the world chess champion :)
That is true. I’ve been to the Elizarovs’ museum apartment (I live on the same street that it’s located on, which is incidentally called Lenin Street). The chess sets are incredible.
Both Bobby Fischer and Bent Larsen learned the russian language in the 1950ies, in order to get the best current knowledge. We all know Fischers incredible strength, but should not forget Larsen as the worlds most succesfull tournament player in a number of years.
It is a beautiful story that demonstrates indisputably that talent is built through diligent and continued effort. Soviet chess, at its peak, produced some of the greatest players of all time. Just like the Soviets did decades ago, Indians today are developing a state chess program.
Stalin also liked chess. I have seen one of his sets at a museum in Georgia. He helped promote the game and the KGB was always present in tournaments outside the URSS where soviet players were. There is a book about it: The KGB plays chess.
Soviet enormous area and huge mass population also become major role. they have Tigran petrosian from Armenia, Tal from Latvia, Kasparov from Armenia/Azerbaijan area. The same factor also happen in helping US and India chess elite rise. America with a lot and diverse population like Hikaru, Caruana, Wesley
@@kaustubhraizada yeah, but indians only became significant players in the chess world since about 2 decades ago, and only vishy anand was the formative best indian player in the beginning. Only about now india has multille strong prodigies and players, in time to overtake russia as a stronger chess playing nation.
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa Among the highest rated "US" players, we have Wesley So (born in the Philippines and played for the Philippines until 2014), Leinier Dominguez Perez (born in Cuba and played for Cuba until 2017), Levon Aronian (born in the Soviet Union, played for USSR and then Armenia, only switching to the US in 2021). Even Fabiano Caruana, who was born in the US, learned his chess in Italy, became a super-GM while an Italian, and only switching to the US in 2015.
I read in Josh Waitzkin's memoirs that the Soviet players played dirty in tournaments. They employed psychological tricks like tapping chess pieces against the table to break his concentration. He got around this by "flowing" with the anger he felt at them and incorporating it into his game.
Josh Waitzkin was not born until 1976, and became and international master in 1992 (he never got GM), I don't know that he was playing much against the Soviet masters...
@@wandregisel6385 I think it might have been former Soviet Eastern Bloc players. I don't know. I just remember in his memoirs he was up against players from these Soviet/ex-Soviet regions and they played dirty.
Thank You for the video! Just as usual there is common problem to prononce russian surnames with correct accent. Also - as an example of point for chess popularisation - "living chess play" on Palace square in Leningrad (St.Petersburg) in 1924 could be mentioned in addition to the video (knights - horsemen, rooks - cannons with 3 soldiers). In Russian Empire such "living chess" were first played in 1796, and Soviet Union revitalized such theatrical games in 1921 in Smolensk.
The actual chess at 9:28 is horrendous omfg. (for anyone wondering. 1.g6 g5 2.f3 Nf6 3.Bh3 d5) It looks hilarious if you put it on a board in front of you, the colors of the squares are also wrong, the knight they put on f6 should be on a dark square, smh)
So two soviet prisoners were having a conversation First one goes "Hey I heard there was world chess championship and our fellow man made it finals" And second one replies " Yeah I lost"
I saw a Fischer game I've been unable to find since where he opens with his king pawn, and spends the next six turns moving his king out to circle in front of the pawn and then back to safety again. I don't know if anyone can actually understand Bobby Fischer.
@@spodule6000 You're right :) But I'm still glad he did not give up the towel like many do. I don't speak Russian but clearly the order of syllables and consonants is mostly predefined.
@@hieronymusbutts7349are you sure it wasn't a Carlsen game? This isn't exactly what you described but it reminds me of this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q_6Zl1jNWYQ.htmlsi=ihcXhn_oJH731dzy
@@hieronymusbutts7349 I've seen the game you're referring to. That was one of the timed games Fischer purportedly played over the internet in the 90s. But I believe the truth was found to be that it wasn't actually Bobby Fischer
3:49 where is the source on Lenin losing to Bogdanov here? Sources I'm finding state this game not only went to Lenin but caused a political ripple where Bogdanov was finally expelled from the Bolshevik party after years of antagonism to Lenin, thus ending the influence of Bogdanovism on Soviet communist theory.
0:54 I'd like to know the page where that quote is taken from. It was about a cantury before russia decided to borrow it's neighbours name and historic heritage.
Ilyin-Genevsky didn't die outside of St Petersburg - he died outside of Leningrad, because that's what it was named at the time. The German Siege of Leningrad (which lasted well over two years) was one of the most horrific events in a military theater (Eastern Front) that was by far the most blood-soaked of the war. A family friend was born during the Siege. Her live birth and subsequent survival as a baby was considered a miracle. 1.5mm people died in the siege - it's widely considered a top candidate for the most destructive siege in all human history.
Indeed a terrible person considering his comments after Sept. 11th. He spent quite a long time in the Armstrong cult expecting Jesus' eminent return to save them from a second holocaust, however, some now say Fisher had autism/Asperger and was forced into the cult. It sounds like within the cult the foundatons were laid for his antisemitism, but I may be wrong about that.
@@SoaringSuccubus Telling Bobby Fischer he's not worth mentioning would've been extremely upsetting to him. The man was composed of ego and not much else.
A vid on why China chess is very strong at the moment would be interesting despite it not being popular and not really entrenched in their culture as opposed to other games like Go. Team's world champion, women's world champion and men's world champion all currently (although we know MC is the strongest player rn and would be a favorite against Ding).
I don't think the era of strong Chinese chess is going to last though. The current players are very good (Ding at the top as current World Champion and a former 2800 player, several others in the 2700s, top two women players being Chinese). But looking at the Juniors, I don't see anyone coming. The top Juniors are Indians, mixed with Iranians and Uzbeks, a few Europeans, and first/second-generation immigrants of Asian ancestry in the US. As you mentioned yourself, chess isn't the most popular board game in China. Chess is only third most popular behind Xiangqi and Weiqi.
@@pineapplesareyummy6352 it's definitely not going to last. They'll still be strong but not as dominant. The women's can be strong for the foreseeable future and then a prodigy like Lu Miaoyi can lead. But she'll be up against another brilliant young prodigy like Alice Lee. Country's chess strength seems to come and go in waves, India has a lot of up and coming talent to watch for and seem to be next.
The shenanigans of Soviet Chess would make for a much longer of a video. By the time Botvinnik won the 1948 Tournament, he was actually past his prime. One factor in his win in 1948 was Keres losing four straight suspect games to him. Suspicions are that this was the price Keres had to pay to be allowed to play after playing in Nazi Germany tournaments and trying to escape to Sweden as the Soviets were back in Estonia to "liberate" it. The 1951 Championship which was drawn by David Bronstein. When one's dad has been imprisoned in the gulags for the crime of having the last name of Bronstein, you might have to tank a game or two to keep the authorities happy. And the 1962 Candidate's Match where 3 of the Soviets would draw each other with nearly all draws under 20 movies to reserve their playing strength, the #1 target: Bobby Fischer. Bobby wrote a short article in Sports Illustration on "How the Russians Cheat at Chess". As a result, FIDE changed the Candidate Match Tournament to head to head matches.
I have an Estonian note with Keres face on it, issued in the early 1990s. Ironically, despite nearly every other post-USSR country, it actually rose in value and did not depreciate.
Paul Keres might be the best chess player in history to have never been World Champion. That being said my favorite player of that era was the Latvian Mikhail Tal.
@@massacregaming9682 considering that a large amount of the Party higher ups were Jews, and several prominent Jews did just fine in the CCCP it really doesn't make much sense that he would be imprisoned because of his Jewish heritage, which is what was implied here.
I played as a youngster and loved the game. I made first chair in a public high school. Went to a tournament with a fancy local private school, and got slaughtered by a kid who apparently memorized openings. I ran out of time. That kid became the city champ later so I felt a bit better. I still goof around on chess sites. I rate 1600 now and that’s just modest ability. I think I’ve peaked lol.
Well, FIDE, at first place was fully owned by Soviets and chess became a very political subject during the cold war. It took a genius no less than Fisher to single-handedly beat them, despite this (after the system of candidate tournaments have been changed to candidate matches, which he insisted on, so that Soviet players couldn't collaborate). Korchnoi almost achieved this too, but KGB was too strong in this case. If you are interested in some non-propagandistic historical chess material, read Sosonko.
And, trust me, multiple soviet writers wrote short stories and novels about this. I remember reading quite a few of them back then. Another, even greater legend was the way Dinamo Kyiv soccer team defeated a German team during world war 2. They were warned that they would be executed if they dared, and so they were.
why do you have to say dumb shit like “their society was inherently backwards so that’s why they wanted chess” like just talk about chess you frame it so weird
Maybe you should also look into Russians in math, physics, chemistry, psychology, literature, cinema, etc. Every single field they touched they made seminal contributions...
Excellent video and very well researched. I saw some of this covered in Kotov and Yudovich's book The Russian Chess School, but that book is not exactly a credible objective source. It must have taken quite an effort to gather all the material covered in this video.
Bobby Fischer held Kotov in very regard as a Soviet chess master. He could be seen conversing with Kotov at some of the early tournaments in his career.
@@robertthompson9574 No denying Kotov was an excellent player. See his game against Szabo in Zurich '53. But his book isn't exactly an unbiased source.
Loool socialism is not only doable but desirable in contrast to the broken capitalist economy of today 😂 commodity capitalism is teetering on the verge of extinction
Krylenko sacrifices his Rook to take Lenin’s Pawn. It was a sacrifice for the Proletarian Revolution. 1938: Stalin sacrifices Krylenko for the Revolution.
Okay, very nice video, loved the extra informations, but "[Russian] people lacked the cultural awareness and values to work together to overthrow capitalism and build socialism"? Bro, there were no values, NOTHING to overthrow, there was no capitalism in Russia at the time of the Bolshevik takeover (except for those at the very top of the food chain - quite literally -, but this class of people remained after the country became communist). It was still a very feudal society and economy. The first time ever in history that capitalism has reached Russia was only after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Capitalism was emerging steadfastly during the Alexander III reign and it was there even before him. By the time of the February revolution, Russian empire was not as capitalist as some other empires it fought numerous wars against. But easily more capitalist than Ottomans and Qing for instance. This is a spectrum, you know. You can google Witte's reforms to get an idea of deliberate capitalism building.
Four day ago, a person with nickname virgilthemob1242 wrote the best commentary, about your good video. This person was born in former Soviet Union. He/she wtote that chess was another tool of manipulation of the Soviet people. I live in Brazil. @@Asianometry
@9:28 the kings and queens are on the wrong squares 🤦 If you placed them randomly you'd have a 50% chance of getting it right, but stock photos/videos somehow get it wrong 100% of the time.
Might this be explained by the fact that many stock photos have been flipped or reversed - not always detectedable when clues like text or symbols are not present in the images.
@@glennac incorrect, a mirror image would still show the pieces on the right tile, it would just have the board reversed. You would still have to put the pieces in the wrong place in the first place to mix up the setting of the king and queen in mirror image. The Queen always gets her own colour.
Yikes! That board at 9:30 is set up wrong, with the kings and queens reversed. And if set up correctly, the first moves are nonsensical: 1. b4, b5, 2. c3, Nc6 3. Ba3; but I gave the video a like anyway because it's at least 90% accurate.
Please try to find & present the interesting life of Jacek Karpinski (in regards of memory paging invention) i promise this will be interesting - as without paging there would not be computers as we know them.
"Culturally educate" I mean sure, that was their excuse but really, the party was just filled with a bunch of weird gloryhounds that saw an international game and decided " we NEED to own this shit"
I'm from Russia and once played in a local state tournament in Pennsylvania. When I got a draw with another guy after a sweaty 3 hr long game, he asked me about my origin. After I told him, he was like "damn, I just knew it you came from somewhere around there". I was honored.
When I was in grad school, I had an Estonian colleague. He had been born and raised in the Soviet Union, but when it collapsed, he emigrated west to continue his studies. Once we were chatting at lunch "talking shop": theoretical Computer Science, that is. I said in passing half-jokingly that the Soviet system must have had _some_ redeeming qualities, given their advanced level in mathematics research and education. In fact, I was giving a kind of underhanded compliment, because he was in fact very good in math, even by grad school standards. He looked me very sternly in the eyes and explained: In that system, you had to careful and not say what you really thought. This made many fields of study intolerable; for instance, a Soviet historian had better tiptoe faithfully the official party line (whatever it was this week) lest he fell and lost much more than his job. Mathematics was safely above politics. (Physics was almost as good, except that there you might have to design missiles for a living...) Hence it drew not only mathematical prodigies but also multi-talented people with high general intelligence. More and better applicants lead in turn to higher results in any University. And indeed, in the decade following the collapse of the Soviet Union the previous East-West gap in mathematics skills had narrowed markedly, because now these general intelligence youths could - and would - choose freely also other fields like law, economics, sociology,...
As a rule in an authoritarian regime fields that deal with human interactions like history are risky. Fields that don't like math are safe(r). History is a very dangerous profession.
Chess is a great way to expand how much the mind can hold. I feel that this mental strengthening has always been important to the Russian culture. It's definitely required to play the long con.
Ok, so it's not literally a giant machine full of robots shaped like chess pieces. I thought maybe it was for a minute. I'm not too disappointed... I guess...
I wish you had mentioned... I watch for the info and alluding to such with out naming feels like some sort of secret. I'm assuming you mean Deep Blue? but no idea based on the photo at the same time being from the 70's
The kremlin: we want to be world leaders in all critical technologies, from aviation, to computing, to healthcare Rick from pawn stars: best I can do is Chess
