Taimanov in ChessBase

There is an interesting retrospective interview with Mark Taimanov in ChessBase on the occasion of the former top grandmaster and concert pianist’s 85th birthday.

He is best remembered for having been steamrolled by Fischer in the 1971 World Championship Candidates match in Vancouver. Fischer’s result against Taimanov, 6-0 (six wins, no losses, no ties), was virtually unheard of in that level of chess. Daniel Johnson recounts in his wonderful book that Taimanov was reduced to a babbling psychological mess who could only repeat, “Fischer knows everything, Fischer knows everything…”

The Soviets were unwilling to accept that there was not some sort of political explanation for that kind of result, and stripped Taimanov of the considerable privileges the state afforded its top chess players. The pretext was a samizdat copy of Solzhenitsyn found in Taimanov’s baggage as he returned to Russia. But the fact that they even looked in his bags meant that they had decided that he no longer merited the kind of special treatment they ordinarily gave their grandmasters. He was later rehabilitated when it became clear that Fischer really was sui generis.

He’s also notable for having been a creditable concert pianist. Again, unlike in the West, in Soviet Russia, a top grandmaster didn’t really need a second career unless he wanted one.