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Chess and Commentary

11:12 AM, Nov 29, 2007 • By MICHAEL GOLDFARB
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Gabe Schoenfeld had a post up yesterday at his Commentary blog Connecting the Dots about a recent visit by Natan Sharansky to the magazine's offices. Schoenfeld challenged the one time Soviet dissident to a game of chess. Perhaps I found this more interesting than most--when I was at school, I spent most of my time shooting pool and playing chess--but Shoenfeld was actually able to play Sharanksy to a draw. Sharansky once played Gary Kasparov to a draw, which by Shoenfeld's logic seems to mean that he, too, might be able to play Kasparov to a draw. If I'd managed the same feat, I'm sure I'd be thinking the same way:

In our second game, I had the black pieces. I steered into one of my favorite lines of the rock-solid Caro-Kann. Before too long, I was able to exchange off some of Sharansky's most actively placed pieces and then I managed to win one of his central pawns, obtaining a very strong position. On his 24th move, Sharansky made a blunder and gave up a second pawn. The game was now all but won.

But my opponent proved to be nothing if not resourceful, and unfortunately, through inaccurate play, I helped him along. As I pushed my pawns forward he managed to maneuver his rooks onto the seventh rank, whereupon I agreed (prematurely, it turns out) to a draw. At a score of 1/2 to 1 1/2, I ended up with the same result against Sharansky that Garry Kasparov had obtained against him, a score that left me immensely satisfied that I had been able to lay a finger on this remarkable Russian, Israeli, Jewish hero.

If you're a fan of the game, you'll certainly enjoy Schoenfeld's piece.

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Update: The video, via Jewcy's Cabal...