MARK RUBERY CHESS

One of the living legends of chess, the Hungarian GM Lajos Portisch, gave a rare interview to Albert Silver on Chessbase.com of which follows a few snippets.

Q: How would you characterize your own style in chess?

LP: Positional. I was always very positional. Unfortunately I started very late. I was only twelve years old when I started to play the game, and it was a very slow development as I was born in a small town in Hungary. There were no books, no computers of course, nor even chess clocks. This is why I am not so good at rapid chess, and blitz is even worse. We were unable to play blitz games when I was a child since the club itself only owned three clocks, and they were hidden from us. The director of the club was afraid that if he let us use them he would be unable to play a team match. So I couldn’t practice with the clocks. Tactically I was very weak in the beginning, just like Spassky, who it is said was also very weak tactically, though he started much younger than me.

Q So in the mid nineties Bobby Fischer was still in Hungary?

LP:

Yes, he stayed here for quite a long time. He very often came to visit us, my poor wife, who died ten years ago and me. She was a good cook, and when Bobby came she always served him a good dinner. Bobby ate only once a day but quite a lot.

One evening, before we ate we were analysing a complicated line and couldn’t find the solution. We then ate and after we had done he said, “Lajos, give me five minutes to rest.” There was a sofa in the living room where he lay down, while I sat in front of a chessboard studying. After five minutes he jumped up and made a terribly strong move without hesitation. Maybe while he was resting he was still analysing blindfold, but I don’t think so. He was just very strong, even then. That was Bobby.

Q: How did you store all your information? I was told that you had a card filing system with photocopied or even hand-written games. Your famous “kartotek”. LP: Yes, I had my own notes. Now it is easier because I have a printer so I can easily print games, but everything was hand-written at that time. Regarding computers, let me share my principles and ideas. When I analyse I want to see the chess pieces in front of me, and I don’t want to see a chessboard on the screen. Let me tell you, for example, how Petrosian used to work. He always did his own analysis for the next round’s preparation, and always on a very big chess set. This is also what I like, though the size of the chessboard is not so important, maybe it was important to Petrosian. I certainly want to see the chess pieces in front of me, and not through a video screen. Also when I get a game from ChessBase, I never look it over on the screen, I would rather print it on my printer, then get my chessboard and play it over on the board. For example, when young players come to me for help, and sometimes bring their own computer, I never look at the screen. I don’t want to see the computer when I am analysing. When I make a move that the computer also suggests, I am sometimes told, “Lajos, you are playing like the computer.” And I’ll reply, “Is that a compliment or an insult?”

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