Chess Programme on the BBC. Red Squares, a review.

[M.D.Crowther]

On the Line - Red Squares. BBC2 Documentary about Soviet Chess. 1 Sept 1993

Last night there was an interesting documentary on the Soviet domination
of chess broadcast by the BBC. The Programme was only half an hour, which
was unfortunate as the subject needed a little longer in my view.

Campomanes was interviewed on the programme. He said: "I thought I'd be
completely dismayed when they left, but on second thoughts I felt like a
big spine had been removed from my throat."

The Programme then talked about the Cultural value the early Soviets
placed on chess. (Slogans such as "Chess is a true weapon against
religious delusions.")

There was then an interview with an extremely fit looking 82 year old
Botwinnik who spoke of pride at the achievement of turning chess into a
game of the people during the 1920's. Baturinsky spoke of the game raising
the status of the country. There was then a very short piece of film
footage of Capablanca and Botwinnik analysing together (the commentator
implied from Nottingham, but it looked like one of the Moscow tournaments
to me). Botwinnik denies writing the famous letter to Stalin that was
published in Pravda after his joint first at Nottingham. The documentary
said that Botwinnik survived the purges (pretty obviously!!) unlike
several less well know contemporaries. (it showed some carved chess sets
from the gulags.) Botwinnik commented that in the 30's they didn't know
who to believe. Stalin or the people who were being purged. He said: "We
believed in Stalin, but the passage of time shows we were wrong."
Baturinsky talked of how he was amazed when he arrived in Moscow at the
height of WW2 to find the Moscow Championship still going on in spite of
the proximity of the Germans.

The Programme then moved on to the post war period, where chess became
both a case of National Pride and National Security. The Soviet Chess
Federation was answerable to the Soviet Sports Committee. Averbakh was
interviewed extensively about this period. He spoke of the 1953
Candidates, where as usual there was a KGB man to look after the players.
Averbakh describes him as being rather honest, requesting the players not
to discuss politics in front of him. Averbakh was the team leader when
Spassky went to Amsterdam. He recalls that Spassky told the Soviet
Ambassador precisely what he thought of the Soviet regime. Averbakh was
told that Spassky's behaviour was impossible to tolerate.

The programme spoke of Tal being removed from planes or generally being
denied invitations abroad. They told him once that because he at that time
wasn't married there was no "hostage" to ensure his return, so he couldn't
go abroad. More often there was no explanation. The program spoke to the
news editor of the Sports section of the main news. In 1972 when Spassky
lost he was ordered to give the story as low a priority as possible,
certainly not the first story.

The Programme then moved onto the Karpov period. This Communist party
member gained, according to the programme, the most power of any of the
World Champions, because he was seen as a safe pair of hands. Averbakh
claimed that before the best players had got the invitations abroad,
whereas in the Karpov period his supporters got the privileges. [I am
unsure whether this is any different from the Botwinnik or Petrosian
periods myself, except possibly in magnitude.] The Programme then talked
about the Gulko story, and his difficulties after applying to leave the
Soviet Union. One thing I didn't know was that there was a letter written
to Gulko's wife suggesting that he was having an affair. This was a KGB
attempt to undermine their solidarity.

The Programme went on to talk about Campomanes. Evidently, according to
Averbakh, the Soviet Chess Federation wanted to support Olafsson but
Karpov and the Kremlin wanted Campomanes. They talked about the favour
being repaid in the 1984/5 match. Campomanes is asked about this. He says
that the match was aborted: "Purely in the interests of chess. I am
convinced I wasn't wrong." The Programme said that in reality Demichev,
the man in charge of running the match and a Politburo member, gave the
order that the match should be stopped. Karpov is supposed to have said
that Kasparov was mentally difficient. They interviewed Mr Melik-Karamov
whose Ogonyok Newspaper published an article about information passing
from Kasparov's camp to Karpov's (it was posted in translation a while
back on rgc). There were no names mentioned on this programme. (indeed
some of the magazines in this country seem fearful of the libel laws too.)
Short, interviewed on the beach in Greece says that Kasparov comes from
the same Soviet stable as Karpov. He likes to present himself as a liberal
democratic European, but according to Short thats not where Kasparov is
coming from.

For a half hour programme this was not too bad. They didn't have the time
to go into the story any more deeply. I would comment that some of the
people who were interviewed do not have entirely clean reputations.
Baturinsky is a hate figure of many Soviet emigres and was Karpov's right
hand man for many years. Many emigres have no good word for Botwinnik and
the way he wielded the political powers as World Champion either. One
contemporary refers to Averbakh and Kotov as being members of the Chess
Mafia. I would hope that perhaps some British paper would follow up the
story and do some serious research into the many events in the post war
chess World.

Mark Crowther 2/9/93

[Steven Rix]

UK readers should watch out for the following future TV programmes:
Friday evening: Channel Four's preview;
Sunday evening: BBC2 preview;
Tuesday afternoon: Live coverage on Channel Four. Play starts at 3:30pm.

--
Steve Rix,
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Edinburgh.