Russian Silhouettes Quotes

“During the championship of the Soviet Union in Leningrad in 1947 a group of players signed a collective letter in which Keres was branded a ‘collaborator’ and a ‘fascist’, and only out of malice master Klaman tossed out a phrase after a win against the Estonian grandmaster: ‘Well, guys, I’ve bumped off a fascist!”
― Genna Sosonko, Russian Silhouettes

“He showed little interest in his health or his appearance, or in what others thought of him. He was as from another planet, and there was only one thing that really excited and interested him: chess.”
― Genna Sosonko, Russian Silhouettes

“Beliavsky told me that, when he scolded Misha for giving to the Sports Committee almost all of his prize of several thousand dollars for winning the World Blitz Championship in Saint John, Misha simply replied: ‘Well, they asked me for it and I gave it to them.”
― Genna Sosonko, Russian Silhouettes

“The night before the last round, the leaders of the Soviet team tried to persuade me not to play in that match. The conversation took place on various levels, from ‘the possibilities of obtaining entry visas to our country are not unlimited’, to ‘don’t forget that you still have a sister in Leningrad’. They did not manage to convince me. ‘I am playing for Holland, not against the Soviet Union’, I repeated, which was not entirely true. A short line from a Soviet newspaper – ‘in the USSR-Holland match, Polugaevsky’s game on board two ended in a draw’ – was my reward: after my departure, my name could not appear in the Soviet press. A report in the Leningrad sports paper, about how 1st-3rd places in the 1973 Dutch Championship were shared by Enklaar and Zuidema, is something that I retain to this day.”
― Genna Sosonko, Russian Silhouettes