Chess Archive...

The Woman from Arkangel'sk...

One of the hidden benefits to working for a U.S. travel agency as their permanent Moscow representative in the mid-70s was finding myself in a country where chess was taken seriously. Whereas chess interest in the United States received a temporary boost as a result of Bobby Fischer's win over Boris Spassky in 1973, the resulting 50,000-or-so peak membership of the U.S. Chess Federation could not compare in size or in enthusiasm with that of the 3-million strong Soviet Chess Federation.

I still recall my first visit to the old Moscow Chess Club. It was November 1975, and the weather was getting cold. I left my coat in the ample cloakroom in the lobby and went upstairs into what, were I baseball fan, would represent Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, and the Cooperstown Hall of Fame all rolled into one. I peeked in through the door of an auditorium and saw former Champions Spassky, Petrosian, and Tal on the stage of the main auditorium; they were playing a round of the Alekhine Memorial Tournament. The walls of the Club were dark, polished wood and decorated with photographs, caricatures, and various artwork (was it there I saw an oil of Lenin playing chess?).

In the playing rooms, those who could not fit in the auditorium were either analysing the positions faced by the grandmasters on stage, or playing skittles games. I ended up sitting across the board from an attractive, dark-haired woman a few years my senior, Natalia Konopleva. I do not recall the result of our game that night (I think I lost, but only after a great struggle, I'm sure), but we struck up an acquaintaince. I was one of the few Americans she'd ever actually met, and very likely the only one that played chess. As Bobby Fischer was king of the chess world at that time, this instantaneously added about 350 rating points to my playing strength, methinks. My job made great demands on my time for what remained of my stay in Moscow that year, and I was not able to visit the club or Natalia again until April 1976.

In April, we met at my hotel, the Rossiya off of Red Square, and I bought her lunch. I was impressed with her fearlessness; compared to the few other Russians I knew, Konopleva was the only one to openly associate with me (skeptics among my friends demurred, claiming she was a KGB "plant," but I digress...). Since the previous November, I'd learned (by reading the weekly chess newspaper "64") that Konopleva had been an All-Union Girls Champion in the late 50s.

After lunch, we exchanged souvenirs. I gave her a copy of Fischer's complete games, and she gave me a book on endings by Lisitsyn. Her personalization of the inside front cover is shown above; it reads:

Alex, 

  May this book 
  help you become 
  the strongest chessplayer 
  among American 
  translators of Russian. 
  Given as a lasting souvenir 
  from a faithful admirer of R. Fischer. 

4/2/76 Konopleva

We also played the following game.

[Event "Skittles game"]
[Site "Moscow, Russia"]
[Date "1976.4.2"]
[White  "Alex Lane"]
[Black  "Natalia Konopleva"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[Opening "Sicilian Defense"]
[ECO  "B40"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.Bd3 d5 7.e5 
  {ECO suggests 7.ed5 Nxd5 [Konopleva suggests 7....Qd5] 
   8.Ne2 Ne6 9.O-O e5 10.Nxd5 Qxd5, with an unclear result. 
   Euwe-Alekhine, Pistyan 1922} 
7...Nfd7 8.f4 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Qb6 11.Nf5 Bc5 12.Nxg7?! 
  {Hey! It's a skittles game!} 
12...Bxe3+ 13.Kh1 f5 
  {Cautious.} 
14.Nxe6 Nb4 15.Bxf5! Nxe5 16.Bxh7+ Kxh7 17.Qh5+ Kg8 18.Qg5+ Kf7 
19.fxe5+ Kxe6 20.Qg6+ Kxe5 21.Qg3+ Bf4 22.Rae1+ Kd6 23.Rxf4 Rxf4 
24.Qxf4+ Kc6 25.Qf6+ Kc7 26.Qe7+! Bd7 27.Qxb4! Qxb4 28.Nxd5+ Kd6 
29.Nxb4 
  {Clearly, White has a won game. In short order, it is also
   clear that White's endgame skills are not adequate to the 
   task at hand.} 
29...a5 30.Nd3 b5 31.c3 Rc8 32.a3 Bf5 33.Ne5 b4 34.Nf7+ Kd7 
35.Re5 bxc3 36.bxc3 Rxc3 37.h3 Bxh3 38.Rxa5 Be6 39.Ng5 Bg8 
40.Ne4 Rc1+ 41.Kh2 Kc6 42.Ra8 Be6 43.Ra6+ Kd5 44.Nd6 Bd7 
45.Nf7 Ke4 46.a4 Bc6 47.g3 Ke3 48.Kh3 Bd7+ 49.Kh4 Rc4+ 
50.Kh5 Rxa4 51.Rxa4 Bxa4 52.g4 Be8 53.Kg6 Kf4
}
1/2-1/2

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