Friendly Chess
Submitted by
on Wed, 07/15/2009 at 9:28pm.
Who are the world's friendliest people? It's a matter of opinion, of course, but many nations qualify. I like the Irish who are a particularly cheerful lot—as long as you're not orange in a green pub, or vice versa; and the Kiwis are up there too, especially on their home turf. The Pinoys—that's Filipinos to you—are possibly the most happy and engaging people I've ever met, and a race of chess enthusiasts to boot; and never forget the Hungarians, who I've always found to be helpful and charming.
We Australians like to tell the world we're friendly, and usually we are, but that's not everybody's opinion. I once overheard an American tourist in tropical Cairns complaining to his wife that, “These are the most uncourteous people I've ever met.” I would have explained that we are really dis-courteous, but thought that might have added to his woes. But whether un – or dis-, score zero for the Aussies.
So who wins my unofficial poll?
The Russians, of course.
If you find that surprising, let me give a couple of examples.
At the height of the cold war my wife and I were dancing at a German weinkeller in Sydney's Kings Cross and at the end of festivities were “auf weidersehning” like everybody else (it was an intimate, friendly nightspot, popular with the local German community). We said, “Auf weidersehn” to three guys at the next table and one of them said, “Non Allemand. Russki.” It led to an animated, unintelligible, conversation for they spoke no English and we spoke no Russian. Fortunately we'd all had so much to drink that it didn't matter and we parted the best of friends.
But that one experience isn't enough to qualify the Russians as the world's friendliest people. That honour belongs to a chess.com friend—a Muscovite—who recently sent me a package of Russian chocolates. They were delicious! And that was one of the friendliest, most unexpected things that anybody has ever done for me. (Don't ask for his name: you go and find your own Russian.)
Of course, this is a chess blog and in Caissa's chequered world there are only two kinds of people—yourself and everybody else. And a friendly person at the chess board is somebody who allows you to win a game.
It could be argued that Alexander Tolush wasn't being very friendly in this brevity from the 1948 USSR Championship but, on the other hand, Vladimir Alatortsev was quite obliging.
Of course, not all Russians are chess-friendly and Alexander Alekhine (I wrote about him under Alexander Who?) was one of the unfriendliest of all. Long before their world championship matches Alekhine gave Max Euwe a taste of things to come in this twelve move quickie at The Hague in 1921. It's described as a “free game” so I assume it was, in keeping with the theme of this post, a “friendly”.
Here's another unfriendly action from a very friendly guy. It's a very short demolition job Boris Spassky inflicted on Harry Golombek at Bucharest in 1953.
So, while I still think the Russians are very friendly people, I don't necessarily expect to see much evidence of it in the black-and-white jungle.
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