MARK RUBERY CHESS

One of the more witty grandmasters gives his slant on perhaps the darker side of our beloved game:

“People in general don’t realise how serious the consequences of chess poisoning can be. It usually begins as innocent pleasantry, with a schoolboy as a rule, showing off mostly, and encouraged by his parents too. But what begins as a game all too often turns into a bad habit, an urgent need that these people soon can’t do without. They lose all interest in the world around them, and at the places where they meet they associate with anyone indiscriminately. What follows is a rapid decline. They no longer have a fixed abode, and they begin to neglect themselves, eating only peanuts and appetisers while imbibing gigantic quantities of coffee. Their eyesight deteoriates, as well as their sense of smell and hearing. In the end financial hardship compels them to leave a nomadic existence which can take in the whole worldfrom Montreal to Moscow, Bucharest to Buenos Aires, in an all-consuming passion for the only thing that really counts for them.”

The above was taken from ‘J H Donner-The King’ that contains selections of the Dutch GM’s most remarkable writings.

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“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting. (George Orwell)

The tactician knows what to do when there is something to do; whereas the strategist knows what to do when there is nothing to do. - Gerald Abrahams