Speed Demon: Alexey Vyzhmanavin

En biografi om den briljante, fargerike og tidlig døde russiske stormesteren Alexey Vyzhmanavin, med 70 instruktivt kommenterte partier og partiavslutninger. På sitt beste deltok han på Russlands vinnerlag i sjakk-OL '92.

Forlagets egen omtale:

Almost as fascinating as chess is the community of chess players. In every major city in the world, you are guaranteed to meet interesting people when you walk into a local chess club or chess cafe. This book pays tribute to one of those characters who gave colour to the chess world, the Russian grandmaster Alexey Vyzhmanavin.

The best chance to bump into Vyzhmanavin in the 1980s and early 1990s was in Sokolniki park in Moscow, playing blitz. You could meet him at the 1992 Chess Olympiad as a member of the winning Russian team. Or in the finals of the PCA rapid events of the 1990s, frequently outplaying his illustrious opponents with his fluent and enterprising style. In Moscow in 1994, he reached the semi-final, narrowly losing out to Vladimir Kramnik, having already beaten Alexei Shirov and Viktor Korchnoi. Commentating at a PCA event, Maurice Ashley described Vyzhmanavin in predatory terms: ‘He’s a dangerous one, looking like a cat, ready to pounce.

For this book, grandmaster Dmitry Kryakvin has talked to dozens of people, enabling him to give a complete picture of Vyzhmanavin’s life. The result is a mix of fascinating chess, wonderful anecdotes, and some heartbreaking episodes. The stories are complemented by the memories of Vyzmanavin’s ex-wife Lyudmila. They revive his successes but also reveal the dark side of this forgotten chess genius who battled with depression and the ‘green serpent’, a Russian euphemism for alcoholism. He died in January 2000 at the age of forty, in circumstances that remain unclear. The stories and games in this book are his legacy.

Innholdsfortegnelsen:

007 Foreword by Viorel Bologan

009 Preface

011 Chapter 1) The Self-Taught Guy From Moscow

032 Chapter 2) The Seven-Time Armed Forces Champion

048 Chapter 3) Goodbye, Army!

071 Chapter 4) 1988. The Wedding Flowers

076 Chapter 5) Among the Ranks of Grandmasters

100 Chapter 6) 1989. The Year of Happiness and Sadness

103 Exotic Cruises and the Hardships of the Soviet Qualifying System

121 Chapter 7) 1990. Life Is Beautiful and Wonderful!

124 1991. English Lessons

127 Olympic and European Champion!

140 Chapter 8) 1992. An Olympic Champion Now Lives in Our Home!

143 In the Elite Tournaments

158 Chapter 9) 1993. Fight for the Flat

162 Three Rounds Against Vladimir Kramnik

173 1994. The Blackout and the Dollar Rain

175 1995. The Flat in Moscow

178 1996--99. The Last Call

182 To the Genius of Chess

189 Appendix) Tournament Results

195 Index of names