Soviet Chess Primer (Chess Classics)

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After my expected answer, he explained that if I played in the Army Championship, I would win my junior (under 20 years old) board for sure and therefore bring our Siberian Military District many points in the competition between all the military districts of the Soviet army. Ilya Maizelis’s masterpiece is the definitive introduction to the game of chess. It has inspired generations of Russians to take up the game, including arguably the two greatest players of all time, the 12th and 13th World Champions. In the original Russian, this landmark work is simply called “Chess”– no other explanation was considered necessary. The Soviet Chess Primer is a modern English translation of Maizelis’s witty introduction to the royal game. From the other side I knew that if I miss what could have been the opportunityof my whole life, I would never forgive myself for being a coward. So, trying to compose myself I said: "Thank you sir!" -- hoping that my trembling voice didn't give up my emotional state.

But today I am going to tell this big bad secret only to the readers of Chess.com. The story from my youth will be the best explanation of this secret. You seem to waste a lot of time making off-topic comments...more than most. You should use that time study chess instead...unless the comment is useful and not off-topic.

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The authors argue tragic examples like these are ultimately stopping society from moving forward, and therefore, if more people stopped playing chess and became socially and politically conscious, forgo their democracy for a large bureaucratic apparatus such as the Soviet state, then we could explore space, together. I thanked him for his trust into my abilities. To be fair, I indeed won the junior boardahead of Ivanchukthe year before (1987) as well as the year later (1989), where I scored 12.5 out of 13 games. Still I insisted that I would prefer to play in the World Junior Championship. Now let me ask you a simple question. It is a well-known fact that the Soviet team won practically every single event it played. I am talking about chess olympiads, European and world championships, etc. This new edition of a timeless classic includes an original foreword from the 2nd World Champion, Emanuel Lasker, as well as an introduction from the most celebrated chess trainer of modern times, Mark Dvoretsky.

At the end of 1980s, I was drafted to the Soviet army and sent to the city of Novosibirsk, which was located in the Siberian Military District. Taking the opportunty, let me assure you my dear readers that contrary to popular belief, there are no bears on the streets of Siberian cities. Many chess authors promise to reveal "the hidden secrets of the Soviet chess school," and yet, somehow I haven't seen the biggest secret revealed. Maizelis’ book is fascinating, especially for the reader interested in chess culture and history, but it is not a primer by any stretch of the imagination. Despite my reservations about the title, The Soviet Chess Primer is a fine book and its acclaim is deserved." The main contribution of the Soviet School of Chess was not the style of players but their emphasis on rigorous training and study of the game, i.e. considering chess a sport rather than an art or science." Most Quality Chess titles are original works, but from time to time the company puts out translations of older classics not available in English. This book, which was first published in the mid-1930s, has been continuously in print since then, appearing in several updated editions.

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The famed Soviet school of chess has produced hundreds of grandmasters and dozens of world champions. Thousands of chess coaches teach their students using "the Soviet training method." Wikipedia gives it a try: " chess experts in the USSR described the Soviet School of Chess as a fast-paced, daring style of play best exemplified by the young generation of postwar players."

It is quite notable that Lasker opines, “The perfecting of technique alone is a thankless task. What it perfects is a dead capability, suited to winning games against ignorant opponents and nothing else – where as the faculty of thinking and conceiving plans remains constantly alive and can bring benefit in the most unexpected manner, not only in chess but in life itself.” Then he asked me if I could guarantee that I would win a medal in the World Junior Championship. I immediately remembered a similar situation that happened before the final Candidate match of 1974 between Karpov and Korchnoi. The winner was going to play the world championship match vs. Fischer.Botvinnik’s example and teaching established the modern approach to preparing for competitive chess: regular but moderate physical exercise; analysing very thoroughly a relatively narrow repertoire of openings; annotating one’s own games, those of past great players and those of competitors; publishing one’s annotations so that others can point out any errors; studying strong opponents to discover their strengths and weaknesses; ruthless objectivity about one’s own strengths and weaknesses." Maizelis is said to have had a close relationship with Emanuel Lasker, and even translated Lasker’s Manual of Chess into Russian. The second world champion wrote the foreword to the original publication, “The Meaning of Chess,” in which he gives a brief historical account of the game and describes the virtues of playing. For instance, he writes “A chessplayer is greatly benefited, and his culture enhanced, by the fact that he accustoms himself to struggle in the very process of playing, and that he trains himself to form indispensable plans on the basis of much experience.” However, in the last decade, the Russian team (which consists of the players who were raised and trained by the same Soviet chess machine) hardly won any Olympiads, despite of being heavy favorite in every single one of them.