Overview

First published in Russian in 2004 and now available in English for the first time, The Lubyanka Gambit is a classic work investigating the darkest side of chess history in the Soviet Union. It is the culmination of nearly two decades of research by Correspondence Chess Grandmaster, historian and human rights campaigner Sergei Grodzensky, whose own father was sent to the Gulag in Stalin’s times. It describes the careers and life stories, based on archival documents and witness testimony, of Soviet chess composers, players and famous amateurs who were repressed by the Soviet authorities, ending up either executed or sent to the Gulag. Featured names include Lazar Zalkind, Arvid Kubbel, Vladimirs Petrovs, Petr Izmailov, Georgy Schneideman, Nikolai Krylenko and Natan Sharansky, among many others. The theoretical contribution to the history of composition is one key theme in this work. The Lubyanka Gambit also looks in detail at the historical context of the purges of chess players and describes how chess was played by prisoners in the Gulags and internal exile. Perhaps the icing on the cake is provided by Grodzensky’s personal memories of the Soviet Union’s foremost Gulag writers Alexander Solzhenitsyn (his schoolteacher) and Varlam Shalamov (his father’s close friend). This book contains 72 full games and fragments analyzed by the participants, contemporaries, the author and other leading players, as well as 145 computer-checked compositions.

Full Product Details

Author:   Sergei Grodzensky
Publisher:   Limited Liability Company Elk and Ruby Publishing House
Imprint:   Limited Liability Company Elk and Ruby Publishing House
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 23.00cm
Weight:   0.495kg
ISBN:  

9785604177006

ISBN 10:   5604177008
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   05 August 2022
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Contents Index of Games.......................................................................................................... 6 Foreword by Alexander Yakovlev......................................................................... 8 Introduction by the Author.................................................................................... 9 Chess and Soviet Totalitarianism........................................................................11 Chess Composers......................................................................................................30 Lazar Zalkind – A Debt of Conscience..............................................................30 Arvid Kubbel – Kubbel’s Brother......................................................................55 Mikhail Platov – Co-Author of “A Beautiful Thing”.....................................89 Sergei Kaminer – The Interrupted Song........................................................100 Pavel Neunyvako – “To the Madness of the Brave...”..................................111 Mikhail Barulin – He didn’t Sign Anything..................................................123 Over the Board Chess Players..............................................................................137 Vladimirs Petrovs – “A Star Prematurely Extinguished”...........................137 Petr Izmailov – The First Champion of Soviet Russia...............................164 Georgy Schneideman – The Surname That Cost His Life.........................199 Mikhail Shebarshin – From Trade Union Champion to BelBalt Gulag Champion.........................................................................218 Nikolai Salmin – A Life Cut Short at Thirty.................................................233 Hoisted by their Own Petard................................................................................236 Nikolai Krylenko – The Rise and Fall of the Supreme Commander.......236 Vladimir Fridberg – The Fate of the Prosecutor..........................................252 Rodion Shukevich-Tretyakov – Devoted to the Revolution....................257 Chess in the “Destructive-Labor Camps”..........................................................261 Introduction...........................................................................................................261 The Gulag Prisoners – “Vorkuta, Vorkuta, a Wonderful Planet...”..........264 Varlam Shalamov – Chess in the Life and Work of the Author of Kolyma Tales...................................................271 Alexander Solzhenitsyn – As I Remember Him...........................................284 Vladimir Levitsky – Champion of the Step Gulag.......................................295 Solovki Special Purpose Camp – The Original Gulag................................301 Georgy Brenev – A Career Split in Two.........................................................303 Natan Sharansky – The French Defense, Lefortovo Variation.................310 Afterword................................................................................................................318 Epilogue – Bullet Chess......................................................................................320

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Author Information

Sergei Grodzensky, born in 1944 in the Gulag city of Vorkuta, gained the Soviet Master of Sport title for over-the-board chess in 1985, and the international grandmaster title for correspondence chess in 1999. He twice won the All-Russian Problem and Studies Solving Olympiad (1963 and 1964) and has also won composition competitions. Grodzensky has represented Russia in world and European championships at correspondence chess. He is the author of over 600 articles covering the history and theory of chess, as well as 17 books. Outside chess, he made a career as a professor of engineering, gaining a doctorate in 2002.

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