In Soviet times, there was the Order of Friendship of the Peoples and the King. The order, a healthy glimpse of two meters in diameter, was cooked in the middle of the ship's superstructure, and our king was not simple, and the chess champion - the world champion Anatoly Karpov, who took the chief over our steam ship.
The idea of taking care of the sailors walking in the sea under the Order of the Friendship of the Peoples came to the chess king clearly not by itself, but chief assistance Anatoly Evgenievich provided in good faith: he visited our hot boat, which stood in the port of St. Petersburg, gave a ship library, ate lunch in the cabin company and won chess from all willing.
A couple of months later, as a chess player who played with Karpov himself, I was sent as a team to some city chess tournament from my native sailing.
At all my modest attempts to protest that I am not interested in chess, preferring domino, I was objected that in our sports team is under-completed, I will be there for the bar and wins from me no one expects.
Do you know the rules? The coach looked at me with anxiety.
Well, approximately, I answered unsure.
"Fight for the center, at the first opportunity, make a rally and at your advantage immediately go for an exchange," he advised me.
Its advantage is unlikely. I did not agree.
The chess tournament struck me with its organizedness: tablets with the names of the participants, chess clocks and notebooks to record the moves. Here is my first rival – a bald uncle in a gray jacket with a keen look over his glasses.
- Boris Arkadievich, - he presented himself, decoding his initials on the tablet.
– Sergey, – I sneaked and we shrugged each other’s hands.
“Well, young man,” he asked, sitting at the chess table, “who did you play last time?”
- With Anatoly Evgenievich Karpov, I honestly answered.
“But,” surprised my opponent and continued, “you have black, turn on the clock.
Matt he put me only an hour and a half, on 31 moves.
After handing over the sheets to the judge, we went to the dining room together. At lunch, my visavi asked for a long time about my chess career and about my last game with Anatoly Karpov. Having learned that I do not have any chess titles or titles, he was noticeably amused and went on to dessert.
The second game, playing black, Boris Arkadievich won me in 8 minutes.