Almost as fascinating as chess is the community of chess players. In
every major city in the world, you are guaranteed to meet interesting
people when you walk into a local chess club or chess cafe. This book
pays tribute to one of those characters who gave colour to the chess
world, the Russian grandmaster Alexey Vyzhmanavin. The best chance to
bump into Vyzhmanavin in the 1980s and early 1990s was in Sokolniki park
in Moscow, playing blitz. You could meet him at the 1992 Chess Olympiad
as a member of the winning Russian team. Or in the finals of the PCA
rapid events of the 1990s, frequently outplaying his illustrious
opponents with his fluent and enterprising style. In Moscow in 1994, he
reached the semi-final, narrowly losing out to Vladimir Kramnik, having
already beaten Alexei Shirov and Viktor Korchnoi. Commentating at a PCA
event, Maurice Ashley described Vyzhmanavin in predatory terms: 'He's a
dangerous one, looking like a cat, ready to pounce.' For this book,
grandmaster Dmitry Kryakvin has talked to dozens of people, enabling him
to give a complete picture of Vyzhmanavin's life. The result is a mix of
fascinating chess, wonderful anecdotes, and some heartbreaking episodes.
The stories are complemented by the memories of Vyzmanavin's ex-wife
Lyudmila. They revive his successes but also reveal the dark side of
this forgotten chess genius who battled with depression and the 'green
serpent', a Russian euphemism for alcoholism. He died in January 2000 at
the age of forty, in circumstances that remain unclear. The stories and
games in this book are his legacy.
