![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Woman from Arkangel'sk...
Dec. 20th, 2013 12:14 amIf you don't play chess, this may sound silly to you, but 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, well... taken seriously. Whereas chess interest in the United States had received a temporary boost as a result of Bobby Fischer's win over Boris Spassky in the 1973 World Championship match, 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 venerable 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 and their opponents were playing a round of the Alekhine Memorial Tournament. As I continued to walk around the premises, I noted how the walls of the Club were dark, polished wood and decorated with photographs, caricatures, and various artwork (if memory serves, there was even an oil painting of Lenin playing chess).
In the playing rooms, those who could not fit in the auditorium were either analyzing the positions shown on the giant chess diagrams that hung above each table, or playing informatl games, called "skittles." I ended up sitting across the board from an attractive, dark-haired woman a few years my senior.
I learned that her name was 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. And since 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 (now gone), which was located not far from Red Square, and I bought her lunch. I was impressed with her fearlessness. Compared to the several other Russians I knew, Konopleva was the only one to openly associate with me (skeptics among my friends demurred, claiming this behavior proved 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 that lunch, we exchanged souvenirs. I gave her a copy of Fischer's complete games, and she gave me a book on chess endings by Lisitsyn, after having personalized it for me.
Her personalization of the inside front cover is shown above; it reads:
I do not know how it happened, but the other day, her name popped up out of the blue, and a Google search turned up a rather short Wikipedia article devoted to her career, which apparently had peaked by the time I met her. The article informed me that she died on March 15, 2011, in Moscow, of "extreme hypothermia" ("сильного переохлаждения").
In my mind, this description of her demise is rather clinical. Did she freeze to death in an unheated apartment? Had she slipped on some sidewalk ice while coming home from a late night spent partying and not been noticed until it was too late?
Our paths crossed very briefly, but I was saddened to hear the news.
RIP
I still recall my first visit to the venerable 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 and their opponents were playing a round of the Alekhine Memorial Tournament. As I continued to walk around the premises, I noted how the walls of the Club were dark, polished wood and decorated with photographs, caricatures, and various artwork (if memory serves, there was even an oil painting of Lenin playing chess).
In the playing rooms, those who could not fit in the auditorium were either analyzing the positions shown on the giant chess diagrams that hung above each table, or playing informatl games, called "skittles." I ended up sitting across the board from an attractive, dark-haired woman a few years my senior.
I learned that her name was 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. And since 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 (now gone), which was located not far from Red Square, and I bought her lunch. I was impressed with her fearlessness. Compared to the several other Russians I knew, Konopleva was the only one to openly associate with me (skeptics among my friends demurred, claiming this behavior proved 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 that lunch, we exchanged souvenirs. I gave her a copy of Fischer's complete games, and she gave me a book on chess endings by Lisitsyn, after having personalized it for me.
Her personalization of the inside front cover is shown above; it reads:
Alex,We even played a game that day, which ended in a draw:
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
[Event "Skittles game"]That game was the closest I ever got to beating her, out of the couple of dozen games we played.
[Site "Moscow, Russia"]
[Date "1976.4.2"]
[White "AlexPGP"]
[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 suggested 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
I do not know how it happened, but the other day, her name popped up out of the blue, and a Google search turned up a rather short Wikipedia article devoted to her career, which apparently had peaked by the time I met her. The article informed me that she died on March 15, 2011, in Moscow, of "extreme hypothermia" ("сильного переохлаждения").
In my mind, this description of her demise is rather clinical. Did she freeze to death in an unheated apartment? Had she slipped on some sidewalk ice while coming home from a late night spent partying and not been noticed until it was too late?
Our paths crossed very briefly, but I was saddened to hear the news.
RIP
