MARK RUBERY CHESS

One of the more out of the ordinary chess players was the Greco-Russo-Franco-American GM, Nicolas Rossolimo (1910-1975). He is chiefly remembered today as the populariser the variation 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 that remains a very effective weapon against the Sicilian. Rossolimo gained the grandmaster title in 1953 and at that time he drove a taxi in New York, made a record of Russian folk songs and held a brown belt in Judo.

Rossolimo, N – Reissman, P

San Juan, 1967 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Bd2 Bxd2+ 8.Nbxd2 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Qb3 Nce7 11.0–0 c6 12.Rfe1 0–0 13.a4 b6 14.Ne5 Bb7 15.a5 Rc8 16.Ne4 Qc7 17.a6 Ba8 18.Qh3 Nf4 19.Qg4 Ned5 20.Ra3 Ne6 21.Bxd5 cxd5 22.Nf6+ Kh8

23.Qg6!! (An echo of Levitsky-Marshall from yesterday’s column)…Qc2 (23…fxg6 24 Nxg6+ hxg6 25 Rh3#) 24.Rh3

At the age of 55 he participated in the American Closed Championship where he crossed swords with the ultimate winner.

Fischer,Robert James - Rossolimo,Nicolas [C12]

USA-ch New York (10), 1965 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.e5 h6 6.Bd2 Bxc3 7.bxc3 Ne4 8.Qg4 g6 9.Bd3 Nxd2 10.Kxd2 c5 11.Nf3 Nc6 12.Qf4 Qc7 13.h4 f5 14.g4 cxd4 15.cxd4 Ne7 16.gxf5 exf5 17.Bb5+ Kf8 18.Bd3 Be6 19.Ng1 Kf7 20.Nh3 Rac8 21.Rhg1 b6 22.h5 Qc3+ 23.Ke2 Nc6 24.hxg6+ Kg7 25.Rad1 Nxd4+ 26.Kf1 Rhe8 27.Rg3 Nc6 28.Qh4 Nxe5 29.Nf4 Ng4 30.Nxe6+ Rxe6 31.Bxf5 Qc4+ 32.Kg1 1–0 ‘I read an awful lot in my childhood – my parents put together an enormous chess library for me which I practically assimilated in its entirety. The real breakthrough, however, coincided very closely with the moment I started to work with Andrey Mikhailovich Lukin – without him I really might have come to nothing. So the role of a trainer strikes me as very important – but there, of course, you have to get lucky. It’s also absolutely essential to play a lot, at least when you’re just starting out – until the age of about 20-22 you absorb new information with extraordinary speed, and simply playing gives you a great deal.’ (Peter Svidler fielding a question on how he developed as a player)