Mark Taimanov- An Optimist!
Hi, dear chess lovers!
I have not posted in a while, partly because of the natural rhythm of life, but also because of the humanistic crisis enveloping the world now. This crisis is not new, it has been going on for the last 77 years.....but that is another subject matter.
I have been drawn to the book of Taimanov's Selected Games......
And here I must pause...because I started playing tournament chess in 1972, riding the wave of the chess fever of the Spassky-Fischer World Championship Match.
By the time I heard about Taimanov, all I heard was that he had lost a match to Fischer by the score of 6-0. So, as an ignorant person that I am, my thought was: "Taimanov must not be very good!".
One year later, a neighbor, who was a National Master, gave me a copy of Euwe's version of the 1953 Zurich Candidates' Tournament.....in German! Now, mind you, I am from Puerto Rico, and we did not speak German there. Mostly Spanish and English.
By using some logic, I could tell what some words meant, and get some sense of what the comments were expressing.
Now, Taimanov played in that tournament, but I was too young to register.....
One thing I learned today is that Taimanov was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine!....which in view of what is going on right now, becomes somewhat significant.
Early life[edit]
Taimanov was born in Kharkiv, where his parents studied at the time. They moved to Leningrad when he was six months old.[3] His father Evgeny Zakharovich Taimanov was Jewish;[4] his family escaped to Kharkiv from Smolensk during World War I. Evgeny was a student at the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute and later made a career as a head engineer at the Kirov Plant and the Hydraulic Plant, but left it to work as an engineer at the Leningrad Conservatory and various Leningrad theaters after his brother and his wife's relatives were imprisoned in 1937.[5]
Taimanov's mother Serafima Ivanovna Ilyina came from an Orthodox Russian family; she studied at the Kharkiv National Kotlyarevsky University of Arts.[6][7][8][9] As a piano teacher she later introduced her son to music. Mark was the eldest of three children. When he was ten, he performed as a young violinist in the Soviet children's film Beethoven Concerto that was released in 1936, to practice for his role Taimanov studied the violin for a year, many years later when on tour, Isaac Stern met Taimanov, and complimented on his violin playing in the movie saying that all the young actors "didn't even know how to hold the violin properly. Only once I saw a violinist who did it, in the film Beethoven Concert".[10][11] During the Great Patriotic War he and his father evacuated to Tashkent shortly before the Siege of Leningrad started; his mother along with his two siblings decided to stay in the city and had to survive the siege up till their evacuation in March 1942.[6]
(- from Wikipedia)
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KHARKIV
Kharkiv (Ukrainian: Ха́рків, IPA: [ˈxɑrkiu̯] (
listen)), also known as Kharkov (Russian: Харькoв, IPA: [ˈxarʲkəf]), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.[6] Located in the northeast of the country, it is the largest city of the historic Slobozhanshchyna region. Kharkiv is the administrative centre of Kharkiv Oblast and of the surrounding Kharkiv Raion. The latest population is 1,433,886 (2021 est.).[7]
Kharkiv was founded in 1654 as Kharkiv fortress, and after these humble beginnings, it grew to be a major centre of industry, trade and Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. At the beginning of the 20th century, the city was predominantly Russian in population, but after the Soviet government's policy of Ukrainization the city became populated mainly by Ukrainians with a significant number of Russians.[8][9] Kharkiv was the first capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, from December 1919 to January 1934, after which the capital relocated to Kyiv.[10]
Kharkiv is a major cultural, scientific, educational, transport and industrial centre of Ukraine, with numerous museums, theatres and libraries, including the Annunciation and Dormition Cathedrals, the Derzhprom building in Freedom Square, and the National University of Kharkiv. Kharkiv was a host city for UEFA Euro 2012.
Industry plays a significant role in Kharkiv's economy, specialized primarily in machinery and electronics. There are hundreds of industrial facilities throughout the city, including the Morozov Design Bureau and the Malyshev Tank Factory (leaders in world tank production from the 1930s to the 1980s); Khartron (aerospace, nuclear power plants and automation electronics); Turboatom (turbines for hydro-, thermal- and nuclear-power plants); and Antonov (the multipurpose aircraft manufacturing plant).
Kharkiv was a major target of the Northeastern Ukraine offensive in Russia's invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022. During the Battle of Kharkiv, the city was designated as a Hero City of Ukraine.[11]
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Kharkiv- Freedom Square (in times of peace)
Kharkiv- 2022
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There is a wonderful article about Taimanov-
https://chess24.com/en/read/news/mark-taimanov-dies-at-90
But, what motivated me to write a post about Taimanov? Well, the following position,
one of the most wonderful and artistically pleasing ones that I have ever seen.....
Taimanov writes about 38....Ng3+,
"Perhaps one of the most beautiful moves of my entire chess career. Without any cover at all,
the Knight throws itself under a double attack, in order to liberate its rook!
White resigned, since the capture with the queen allows the decisive win of the rook at b1,
while after the capture with the pawn Black forces inevitable mate by the paradoxical
manoeuvre of his rook from a1 to a8.
Here the geometrical motif creates a truly aesthetic impression, as the rook,
as though enveloping the entire board, moves around the corners a1-a8-h8
to attack the king at h1!
A memorable game for me!
In this game, Karpov was 26 years old and Taimanov was 51 years old.
Taimanov with his future wife, Lyubov Bruk!
Taimanov in the movie
"Beethoven's Concerto"
And then you became famous for playing the role of the violinist in the film “Beethoven’s Concerto”. But how did an 11-year-old boy play a violinist in a film, despite being a pianist?
They gave me a teacher, who in a short space of time taught me not only how to hold the violin elegantly and correctly, but also to play some fragments of Beethoven’s concerto. I had to learn the fingering with my left hand on the fingerboard and bowing with my right. It seems I managed – even in close-ups you can’t see anything wrong.
Many many years later the wonderful American violinist Isaac Stern came to give concerts in Russia. We were on good terms and spent a lot of time together. He once shared his impressions with me after a master class in the conservatory: “You’ve got a lot of talented young violinists, but strangely they all have a very dull and inartistic way of holding the instrument. I’ve only once in my life seen a young Russian violinist who really held the violin elegantly. That was in the film “Beethoven’s Concerto”. “Isaac”, I said, “that wasn’t a violinist, that was me!”
And in 1937, when the Zhdanov Palace of Young Pioneers was opened I was among those invited for that event as the “film star” Mark Taimanov. The Director of the Palace asked me where I wanted to study. And an internal voice prompted me to reply – in the chess club. (Rossijskaja Gazeta)
I encourage all to buy the book "Taimanov's Selected Games". His games have a sparkle of joy and musicality that is quite uncommon. He reminds me in this respect of Keres, who also had that celebratory, fireworks character to his game.
Peace.
