I do try to note here for your edification on any links, however tenuous, between Mormonism and chess. This past weekend reading Frank Brady’s new book on Fischer I was pleased to find that the teenager, living alone in his Brooklyn apartment while his mother traipsed around the world, liked to listen to religious programming on the radio. (Page 119.) This included Music and the Spoken Word, featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He preferred, however, the radio show of Herbert W. Armstrong and subsequently became engaged with his Worldwide Church of God.

I’m not aware of evidence that he exhibited any further interest in Mormonism.

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.

Sister Blah2 kindly alerted me to this item, in which Daniel Peterson announces his project of putting up a web site containing the testimonies of LDS gospel scholars.  He suggests similar ventures in other fields: “I think there ought to be similar on-line collections of testimonies from athletes, executives, farmers, housewives, morticians, retirees, chess players, stamp collectors, everybody.”

Unfortunately, I am not aware of any LDS professional chess players.  If I’m wrong, and you’re an LDS top grandmaster, please post your testimony in the comments.

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Cool anecdote from this Susan Polgar profile of Rex Sinquefield, rich guy that bankrolled the posh club that just hosted the US Chess Championship.

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Speaking of chess, here’s one of my favorite chess videos:

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