[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: Anand in Time Magazine

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
Anand in Time Magazine
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1214173859.shtml


   It's not an everyday occurrence when a chess champion is written about
   in the pages of the major media, at least here in the U.S., but it's
   even rarer that the player is the author of the published article.
   Still, blue moons occur, and world champion Viswanathan Anand [1]has
   written an article for Time Magazine on the history of chess. There
   are a few little digs at Russian/Soviet chess, enough to provoke a
   response from Ukranian GM Mikhail Golubev in [2]Chess Today. Here's
   Golubev:

     An article by the world champion Viswanathan Anand is published in
     Time Magazine. The main message is that chess comes from India.
     What must be useful to know for many readers - but, still, I (MG)
     have a feeling that Vishy exaggerates the problem a bit when he
     writes: "It's easy for Russians to imagine that chess began when
     they started to play it". Or: "I've heard the ownership of chess
     being claimed by Russians, Chinese, Ukrainians, Arabs, Iranians,
     Turks, Spaniards and Greeks".

     Well, in the Soviet Union it was absolutely known that chess comes
     from India. (Almost as known as the fact that Lenin was born in
     Ulyanovsk, i.e. Ulyanov was born in Simbirsk). It simply coincided
     with the interests of Soviet propaganda not to hide the truth,
     which confirmed to Soviet citizens that chess has some
     international value, and is not just a national game like lapta or
     gorodki. I remember that once a Soviet chess magazine published an
     article, the main point of which was that the Persian version also
     has a right to exist. But one or two such articles in all these
     years is not much. Regarding Ukraine, I am afraid I do [not] know
     anyone who claims that chess originated from our country. There
     should be no more such guys than such people who believe that
     Ukraine is a fatherland of elephants.

References

   1. http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1815747_1815707_1815674,00.html
   2. http://www.chesstoday.net/