MARK RUBERY CHESS
The Romanian Grandmaster, Mihail Marin, is one of the most prolific and renowned chess authors today, particularly in the medium of DVDs. He gave the following interview on Chessbase of which follow a few extracts.
CB: You are famous for your deep analyses and your portraits of famous players of the present and the past. How did you get interested in chess history, and what can we learn from the games of the past?
MM: How many times have we heard old people (not necessarily chess players) talking nostalgically about “The good old times”. And I believe that irrespective of the historical circumstances they are always right! In the old times they were young and nothing can replace that, not even if the new times are objectively ten times better. I grew as a chess player by being enlightened (or rather dazzled) by a series of true giants. I used to play over their games again and again, but I was too young to understand the whole depth and essence of their play and their thinking. With my articles and books dedicated to players from that period I try to catch up a bit, although I sometimes feel a lifetime is not enough for that...
Leaving subjective feelings aside, I believe that the period of the ‘50s to the ‘70s led to a wealth of great and unique games. In their approach to chess as an art and a science, players from those times had a few advantages compared to those from today. The time control was very generous, allowing you to search for the truth over the board, the schedules of strong tournaments generally included many free days allowing you to regain energy and the games were adjourned allowing you to do thorough endgame analysis... At the same time, players were forced to stay fit mentally as a lot of tournaments lasted for several weeks and there were no computers to help with the analyses! And in the time before Elo grandmasters could play without the crippling rating obsession, sacrificing everything they wanted on Caissa’s altar.
CB: You wrote about so many players - do you have a favourite, a role-model, a player that deeply influenced your play and your style?
MM: Almost every player I wrote about influenced my style, at least for the usually short period until I found another model! I am not sure what to make of this: do I lack personality, being some sort of a chess chameleon, or is this rather a sign of a high degree of adaptability, following the sun-flower’s example, which is able to get the maximum of light throughout the day?! Memory is subjective, but I believe writing about Mikhail Tal had the strongest impact on my play. His games freed my play from inhibitions and prejudices, and I felt to have tactical wings. For my more recent years as a player I would also add Korchnoi to this list. For me, emulating Korchnoi’s personality in my games means playing according to the good old principles, established long before the era of the computers, being free of the need to prepare for hours and hours and remembering tons of lines. Sometimes this goes so far that I do not decide before the game what opening to play but wait with my choice till the clocks are ticking.
In the following game when Romania faced South Africa in the Baku Olympiad, one wonders if his choice of the Pirc Defence was on the spur of the moment… Kobese,W (2350) - Marin,Mi (2572) [B08] 42nd Olympiad 2016 Baku AZE .2016 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.h3 0–0 6.Be3 c6 7.a4 Qc7 8.a5 Nbd7 9.Be2 e5 10.dxe5 dxe5 11.Bc4 Re8 12.Ng5 Re7 13.Qd2 Ne8 14.Bb3 Qd6 15.Qe2 h6 16.Nf3 Nf8 17.Qd2 Qxd2+ 18.Nxd2 Ne6 19.Ne2 Nd4 20.Nxd4 exd4 21.Bf4 Be6 22.Bxe6 Rxe6 23.0–0 Nf6 24.f3 g5 25.Bh2 Nd7 26.Nc4 Ne5 27.Bxe5 Bxe5 28.Rfd1 c5 29.Ra3 Rc8 30.Rb3 Rc7 31.Kf2 h5 32.Rb5 h4 33.Ke2 f6 34.Kd3 Kf7 35.Ra1 Ke7 36.a6 Rxa6 37.Rxa6 bxa6 38.Rb8 Ke6 39.Re8+ 0.5-0.5
In the following position Kasparov came up with possibly the worst move of his chess career when he played 1…Bc8