MARK RUBERY CHESS
The following extract is taken from one of the greatest chess books to be published in recent times-Genna Sosonko’s widely acclaimed ‘Russian Silhouettes’. Here is a dark passage describing the final move of one of the most imaginative, if unheralded, players ever to grace the game Alvis Vitolins. Although only an International Master, Vitolins made many contributions to opening theory and was highly regarded by his Latvian compatriot Mikhail Tal. “Sigulda is one of the most beautiful places in Latvia. Mysterious sandy caves, the ruins of medieval fortresses and castles, an enormous park with ancient oaks divided by the swift-flowing Gauja with its precipitous banks. It is also good here in winter, when all is snowy and the trees are covered in hoar-frost. When the only thing sparkling in the sun is the white-blue ice of the hardened river, and it beckons, beckons to you, and there only remains the last jump. Like Luzhin (of Nabakov’s ‘The Defence’) who ‘at the instant when icy air gushed into his month,...saw exactly what kind of eternity was obligingly and inexorably spread out before him’. On a frosty day, the 16th February 1997, Alvis Vitolins threw himself down into this ice from the railway bridge spanning the Gauja river. The changing economic conditions in Russia were thought to be the impetus for this tragedy. Vitolinsh,A (2430) - Suba,M (2470) [B80] Erevan(15), 1980
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nf6 4.Nc3 cxd4 5.Nxd4 e6 6.Bb5+!? (This move is a speciality of Vitolins
against the Sicilian)... Nbd7 7.Bg5 a6 8.Bxd7+ Bxd7 9.f4 h6 10.Bh4 Qb6 11.0-0 Qxb2 (11...
e5 is met by 12.Bxf6 gxf6 13.Nd5) 12.Rf3 Qb6 13.Kh1 g5 14.fxg5 hxg5 15.Bg3 Ng4 16.Rb1 Qc5 17.Rxb7 Ne5 18.Nb3 Qc8 19.Bxe5 dxe5 20.Na5 Rb8 21.Qxd7+ Qxd7 22.Rxb8+ Ke7 23.Rb7 Qxb7 24.Nxb7 g4 25.Rd3 Bh6 26.Na4 Rc8 27.Rc3 Rxc3 28.Nxc3 Bd2 29.Na4 f5 30.Kg1 1-0 The following study was solved by the regulars at the Madeira Bar in 15 minutes…
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN
I search for depth in the game, I go to the deepness. I see layers that are unseen. During the game I try to go beyond rules and borders and at the same time create those rules. If I try to formulate it, I want to find innovative steps that will later turn into rules. That’s my motivation, to show that my game is not simply abstractionism, but something harmonious, that is not widely spread yet. (Levon Aronian)