The chess games of Leo Tolstoy

Submitted by Etienne on Thu, 10/25/2007 at 9:48pm.

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) is considered by many as the greatest novelist of all times, his three major works are War and Peace, Anna Karenina and Resurrection. He also wrote several short novels and short stories. He was from a rich and famous family, had a lucrative propriety, a happy family and was revered as a writer, he had everything he needed to be happy. But later in his life he underwent a spiritual crisis, and he, who had never been religious, converted himself to christianity. He renounced his past works (this meant giving up a lot of revenues from his writings) and only kept his propriety because of his family. A circle of disciple started gathering around him, the most notable being Anton Chekhov, another famous russian writer. Tolstoy started, against his will, to become a kind of prophet and one of the most influential man in Russia. I remember a quote saying something like this: "Russia had two Tsars, and Tolstoy was the first." Even though he was openly challenging the Tsar and the Church in favor of a form of pacifist christian anarchism, the regime feared him for his influence among rich and poor and only went as far as excommunicating him. His last major work Resurrection was written to raise funds to allow a persecuted christian sect to move to Canada. He wrote several philosophical works dipped in religion and became an influence to Gandhi (the idea of passive resistance is originally from Tolstoy), with whom he maintained a correspondance, and Martin Luther King, jr. Tolstoy enjoyed chess and personally knew Aleknine, Lasker and Capablanca.

For more information and complete bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy

Aylmer Maude was a good friend of Tolstoy, he resided a few years in Russia, but was English. He translated Tolstoy's works in english.