Honor of the chess crown. Honor of the Chess Crown Vysotsky playing chess with a fisher

I shouted: "Are you stunned there? -
Dropped chess prestige! "
I was told in our sports department:
"Yeah, great - you will protect!

But keep in mind that Fischer is very bright -
He even sleeps with a board - the strength is in him,
He plays cleanly, without blots ... "
Nothing, I'm not a gift either, -
I have a knight's move in reserve.

Oh you muscles of steel
My tenacious fingers!
Eh, carved, painted
Wooden boats!

My friend, a football player, taught: "Do not be afraid -
He is not used to such partners.
Don't worry about the rear and center,
And play along the edge - straight ahead! .. "

I went for a run, for a hundred meters
I drove the weight in the bath, I sleep well,
We had hockey training ...
In general, after this preparation -
I will crush him without a mat!

Oh, you are strong palms,
Strong back muscles!
Oh, you are my horses, horses,
Oh, you cute elephants!

"Do not rush and, most importantly, do not bend over, -
This is how the boxer talked to me.
Do not go into close combat, work in the corps,
Remember that your crown is straight. "

The honor of the chess crown is on the map, -
He will not escape defeat:
Tal and I played ten games -
In preference, in a point and in billiards, -
Tal said: "This one won't let you down!"

Oh, the relief of the musculature!
Deltoids are strong!
What are his light figures to me,
These horses and elephants!

And in the buffet, closed for others,
The cook reassured: "Don't be shy!
You with such a wonderful appetite -
You will swallow all his horses at once!

Sit down before the long road -
And take a backpack with food.
Prepare Easter cake for two:
This Slate - though ingenious -
And I suppose it's not a fool to eat! "

Oh we are tough nuts!
We will bring the crown!
I go to sleep - like a pawn,
I wake up as a queen!

As soon as they arrived, they sat down immediately.
The chips are all in advance.
Photo reporters swooped down -
And they blind, and they want to confuse them.

But me and at home - who will put it?
Reporters can't knock me down! ..
Inability to help me:
This Slate will never be able to
Guess what I'm going to walk with.

Dropped to walk him, bully, -
They say he is a white master! -
Made a move from e2 to e4 ...
Something familiar to me ... Well, well!

Move behind me - what to do !? It is necessary, Seva, -
At random, like in the taiga at night ...
I remember that the queen is the most important:
Walks back and forth and left and right, -
Well, horses like - only with the letter "G".

Eh, thanks to a factory friend -
Taught how to walk, how to hand over ...
It turned out later - I'm scared
Played a classic opening!

I watched everything so that there was no mistake,
I remembered all the cooks in anguish.
Eh, change pawns for glasses -
Quickly it would have cleared up on the board!

I see he's aiming the fork -
He wants to eat - and I would eat the queen ...
Under such a snack - yes a bottle!
But you must not drink during the match.

I'm hungry, judge for yourself:
Here they have only coffee and an omelet, -
The cells are like circles before the eyes
I confuse kings with aces
And I confuse a doublet with a debut.

There is a sign - so I'm taking the risk:
First time I should be lucky.
Yes, I will torture him, I will go -
I would only have to fool the lady!

I don’t moan, I don’t calve, everything is like cotton wool.
You need to hit something - it's time!
How to beat? The boat is scary
To the right in the jaw - it seems a bit early,
Inconvenient - first game.

He destroys my defense -
Old Indian - at the moment -
It reminds me vaguely
Indo-Pakistani incident.

Only in vain is he joking with our brother,
I have a measure, even two:
If he finishes me with obscenities,
I have it - through the thigh with a grip,
Or - a knight's move - on the head!

Slate began to indulge in tricks:
Get up, run and - back;
He offered to change the tours, -
Well, if only he would not be afraid of me -
I bench press one hundred and fifty!

I measured his figure with an eye,
And when oh

In January 1972, he wrote The Honor of the Chess Crown, a ballad song in two parts - Preparation and The Game. It was performed by him several times and gained great popularity.

From an interview with the famous film director Stanislav Sergeevich Govorukhin (Chess in the USSR magazine, No. 10, 1990):

“Volodya didn’t actually play chess (just like, say, billiards. In the film“ The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed, ”we taught him to hold a cue - for a duel between Zheglov and Smoked). Once, shortly before the Spassky - Fischer match, we were resting with him in Bolshevo, in the House of Creativity of Cinematographers. They began to compose a detective story, but the plot went on with a creak, and in the end it all crumbled with us.

We spat on the script - each went about his own business: I was skiing, and in the morning he sat down to paper. On the table was a pack of Winston, his favorite cigarettes, and he wrote. This was his whole rest ... After a while Volodya muttered:

- Tell me about chess.

"Yeah," I thought, "a song about my favorite chess will appear soon." He was just in the sports strip of his work.

I began to explain: the game starts with the opening ... there are different beginnings ... for example, the King's Gambit, the King's Indian Defense ... To warn him against mistakes in a future song, I said that amateurs, unlike professionals, call a rook a tour, a bishop an officer ...

“That's enough,” said Volodya. - It's enough!

I was offended - with such a chess baggage to start a song about chess?

He fell silent for a day and a half, wrote something in light large letters, took the guitar, plucked the strings. Exactly so - I did not select the melody, but as if I was just plucking the string, looking somewhere at one point. On the second day, by evening, the song was ready. It was called The Chess Crown Honor. She disappointed me at first. I don't know what I expected, I remember, I was even offended for chess. Well, what nonsense is this, in fact:

We played ten games with Tal - Preference, point and billiards, - Tal said: "This will not let you down!"

A week later, Volodya and I boarded the train. I went to Odessa, he - to Kiev. He had two concerts there. Of course, I stayed in Kiev and went to the concert with him. On it he decided to try the Chess Crown in public for the first time. What happened to the audience! People writhed with laughter - and I along with them - crawled from chairs to the floor ...

The funny cannot be shown to one person, the funny must be tested on a large and friendly-minded audience. After the story with Chess Korona, I understood this well.

And of course, he didn't need to know anything about chess. Because this song is not about chess, but about life. Vysotsky does not have songs about the sea, about the sky, about the earth. All of them are about our life. About Us".

In the second half of the 60s, Robert James Fischer (USA) became one of the strongest chess players in the world. The Soviet Union underestimated the new rising star. It was "Homo novus" in the chess world, which had to change the attitude towards the ancient game. The talented young man with extraordinary ease broke the established traditions and quickly approached the borders of Kingdom-64, where Soviet grandmasters reigned supreme, led by the X world champion Boris Spassky. Fischer took over the leadership since 1969, despite the fact that the Soviet masters prophesied that Bobby - that was his diminutive patronizing name - would only be memories of him once he came under fire from the Soviet chess machine.

Meanwhile, Bobby calmly approached the throne, he took one prize after another, and in very prestigious tournaments: Havanna (1965), Santa Monico (1966), Ohrid and Monte Carlo (1967) ... your Olympic team board. Having the status of a player ╧ 1, at the World Chess Olympiads (and they are held every two years), he fights on the first board of the team against the strongest chess players in the world.

At the Olympics of 1960, 1962, 1966, 1970, he won 40 victories, ended in 18 meetings in a draw and only lost seven games.

In "Kingdom-64" they got worried - the next cycle of matches of candidates for the chess throne began. The threat came from the matured Bobby - he wanted to try on the champion crown. A “fear of fisheries” began: the American’s games are analyzed, “surprises” are being prepared in his favorite openings, “muscles are being pumped up” in physical training ...

Funny? Will now be. He defeated M. Taimanov and B. Larsen, famous grandmasters standing in his way, with the same dry score - 6: 0!

But the optimists were not discouraged. They believed that Fischer's triumphal march would be stopped by Tigran Petrosyan, nicknamed "iron" for the fact that he rarely lost. Alas! All Petrosyan could do was to impose a viscous positional game on the American striving for champion laurels. Fischer quickly figured out the situation and began to dictate his own rules. The opponent lost with a score of 6.5: 2.5. In accordance with FIDE rules, Fischer won the right to play a match with world champion Boris Spassky. The excitement has risen ...

... The "alien" from the American New World appeared in Reykjavik, Iceland in the first half of July 1972. He arrived 9 days late for the match. Spassky was already waiting for him.

I shouted: “Are you stunned there,
We've dropped chess prestige! "
"Yes! - said in our sports department. -
That's fine, you will protect.

But keep in mind that Fischer is very bright,
He even sleeps with a board, the strength is in him.
He plays cleanly, without blots ... "
Nothing, I'm not a gift either,
I have a knight's move in reserve.

Oh you muscles of steel
My tenacious fingers.
Eh, carved, painted,
Wooden boats.

The hero of Vysotsky's poems all the time is, as it were, in a situation that is experiencing him. From him is required not only intelligence, nobility and humanity, but also the ability to act, in many areas of sports activities with full effort to overcome everything. Vysotsky's favorite image is a horse, and in the poetic system - overcoming difficulties and obstacles, sometimes - comfort, benefits of conformism. The rejection of the existing order of things is vividly expressed, for example, in The Hunt for Wolves (1968). The poem-song took shape then instantly, as a ripe reaction to malicious articles addressed to him. The power of influence of this poetic document of the era is so great that it overshadowed all samizdat verses and songs of "tape literature" ...

... A new sensation was caused by the "Honor of the Chess Crown". She encouraged Soviet chess fans, and when Fischer lost two games in a row at the start, the fans were completely inspired, rejecting "capricious Bobby" as a serious contender for the world crown ...

My friend, a football player, taught: “Do not be afraid,
He is not used to such partners.
Don't worry about the rear and center,
And play straight along the edge ... "

I started running at the 100m.
I drove the weight in the bath, I sleep well,
We had hockey training ...
In a word, after this preparation
I will crush him without a mat.

Oh you strong palms
Strong back muscles.
Oh you, my horses, horses,
Oh you, cute elephants.

Shows a keen interest in conventional, fantastic forms of the image. It is clear that this is a reaction to the "predestined subject matter of works", decorativeness, to the earthiness of official plausibility, which were introduced into Soviet poetry. It began to manifest itself vividly after the publication of "The Master and Margarita" by MA Bulgakov, whom he called his favorite writer.

In the poem "Honor of the Chess Crown" irony and fantasy remove boring "realities", reveal stereotypes of thinking. The poet feels the moral inferiority of the class postulates of socialist realism, stunning with a grotesque-fantastic question: can a character who strives to replace chess with boxing get to a match with Fischer?

"Do not rush and, most importantly, do not bend over, -
This is how the boxer talked to me, -
Do not go into close combat, work in the corps,
Remember that your crown is straight. "

Honor the chess crown on the card,
He will not escape defeat.
Tal and I played ten games
Preference, point and billiards.
Tal said, "This one won't let you down."

Oh, the relief of the musculature!
Deltaids are strong.
That I have light figures
These horses and elephants?

The hero of the socialist realism literature of the 60-70s was actualized on "selfless struggle with shortcomings, on overcoming problems arising from the moral imperfection of people." A new generation of Soviet people grew up in a socialist society, and the thesis of the struggle against the remnants of capitalism turned out to be untenable. But there were remnants of socialism. The image of a morally imperfect conformist, adapted to the socialist way of life, was already urgently needed. The "engineers of human souls" were to expose him.

And in the buffet, closed for others,
The cook reassured: “Don't be shy,
Yes with such a great appetite
You will swallow all his horses.

So, take skewers with you,
The main thing is food, old man.
But don't eat heavy pieces:
Those figures are fools for the stomach.
Elephants are good for barbecue. "

Everything will be quiet and deaf,
And for everyone there is time trouble
There are forces of spirit
And a nice uppercut.

Vysotsky's parody chef-conformist is not at all the one who adapts to the regime of power. His credo is vital and indestructible and fits into two words: prosperity and prosperity. Isn't that what every Soviet person dreamed about?

The moral impasse of the satirical chef is not that he works in the buffet, “closed for others,” where the pantagruel paradise is embodied. The tragedy is that he has to do everything with a glance, feed on rumors about how the world lives outside of his horizons.

... Former world champion Mikhail Tal does not appear in The Chess Crown Honor by accident. He was one of the elite of Soviet sports, but did not have his honestly earned dollars, although he won thousands in foreign tournaments for decades.

Having received a package with dollars and an envelope with a bank check, he returned to his hotel and had to go straight to his room, where an “employee” was impatiently awaiting him, taking away up to 90 percent (!) Of the fee in favor of the state.

This monstrous system first cracked after Tal was determined to leave the envelope that belonged to him. The feat of the ex-champion was to Vysotsky's liking ...

Did Tal play with Vysotsky? The grandmaster left such memories that shed light on this question: “I never could have imagined that my meetings with Vladimir Vysotsky, my acquaintance with this amazing person, would be of interest to the reader, otherwise, even then, on the days of my acquaintance, I would have written everything down in more detail. But who knew ...

And we met him under the following circumstances. It was in the spring of 1963. Not long before that, I was offered to participate in the Botvinnik-Petrosyan world championship match as a chess columnist for the Sovetsky Sport newspaper. They decided to give me the opportunity to recoup, since the previous match Botvinnik - Tal was commented on by Petrosyan.

Then the name of the young artist Vladimir Vysotsky was already well-known. Naturally, with the addition of a lot of legends, but the name was on everyone's lips.

As it turned out, the commentator of the match has more free time than his participant, and when I was offered to go to some company and was told that Volodya would be there, I, of course, found the time.

We were introduced to each other, and after two minutes I had the feeling that we had known him for a thousand years. There was absolutely no importunity. It's just that a person came to you as a very old friend, and it was contagious and extremely mutual.

There were a lot of people there, I didn't remember all of them. Whether Volodya wanted it or not, he was always in the spotlight. With the insistence of a provincial, almost everyone who entered at the third, fifth, tenth minutes asked Volodya to sing something. And Volodya categorically did not refuse anyone. Some of the songs I completely remember from that time.

Sometimes Volodya "left". He was present, but absolutely "left". A glance from under the brows, most likely, directed into oneself. Looks - does not see. Monosyllabic answers. They told me: the man is busy. Well, at night or in the morning a new song appeared.

He did not suppress, but brought people closer to him. There was no suppression. It seems as if his bravado sometimes bore a mimicry character. He looked shy.

I think that Volodya had many friends. But for all his, if you will, he kept his distance from general availability. To him there, inside, he allowed very few. I don't think he let me go there. Its dominant feature is colossal benevolence. For him, any person was good, very good, as long as he could not prove the opposite.

What were our conversations about ... And what are his songs about? Literally everything. In these cases, as the chess players say, he willingly played with black. Any conversation, on any topic, supported, picked up, developed. He had an absolutely magnificent gift - to wind up beautifully. If he was carried away by something - and he was carried away by a lot - then the conversation went on a colossal nerve. Not screaming, but on the nerve.

During performances, I am often asked how I got into his song and is it true that I played with him "ten games - preference, point and billiards." I probably got into the song because of the rhyme, because "we played with Flor ..." probably didn't sound. Vysotsky and I did not play all the games mentioned in it. But few people know that we played two games of chess with him. I remember well that in the second I always strove to offer a draw ...

The song, in my opinion, I heard soon after it was written. Fischer and Spassky had not yet sat down at the chess table. The reaction is enormous!

Then our meetings became much less frequent. And Volodya was more busy, and I did not often come to Moscow. I called him several times. I have been to performances.

When I listened to new songs - and the records were spreading with great speed - I always found in them the warmth and absolutely incredible trust that was so manifested in our relationship in the spring of 1963 ”.

Before the performance of the cycle “The Honor of the Chess Crown,” he said from the stage: “We are all waiting for the outcome of the fight between Spassky and Fischer - if it takes place, of course. We are all nervous - this meeting will be or not. We all have thoughts about this. Everyone thinks: "Oh, if only me! .." Some people even dream. One person told me how he had a dream, how he played with Fischer. It gave me the idea to write a song. "

And then came deep disappointment.

... Boris Spassky lost the world championship match. Robert Fischer defeated him with a score of 12.5: 8.5 (seven wins, eleven draws and only three losses). Spassky fiercely resisted, trying to seize the initiative in the game. But in vain!

The team accompanying Fischer explained their late arrival in Reykjavik with financial difficulties. This knocked his opponent out of the saddle, sent the judges and organizers of the fight into a shock. Then something incredible happened: Fischer lost the first game and did not show up for the second (due to the noise of TV cameras in the playing hall - Fischer's complaint) - this is also "zero points" ...

Vysotsky's song reflects the fans' confidence in Spassky’s superiority: “Inability will help me,” “Eh, thanks to a factory friend - he taught me how to walk ...” and “It turned out too - I played a classic opening out of fright!”

The last line says that he knew well the satirical novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov "12 chairs". It describes how the cheerful rogue O. Bender, posing as a grandmaster, gives a simultaneous game in the village of Vasyuki. It turned out that he had eighteen "Spanish parties", in twelve principles - the defense of Philidor was formed. And he played chess for the second time in his life.

So it is with Vysotsky, but he took this literary device from life. As taken from life and the slang of fans of chess in Moscow courtyards. For example: "queen" - queen, "fork" - double blow, "rounds" - rooks, "officers" - bishops, "chips" - pawns, "Slate" - Fischer, etc.

It has become customary to say about Vysotsky that in his songs he reproduced "the instant response of the" street "to what happened", and in a swift, rhythmically harsh and rich intonation form. It is deliberately simple and close to colloquial speech, to the slang of the environment in which the hero lives. However, the impromptu treatment of his monologue is deceiving. Behind it hides the face of a "plebeian" charming author - clever, cunningly cunning and trusting. For Vysotsky, poetry is not so much a poetic vision of an event as an expression of his human essence. In the last verse, the line "Eh, we will bring the cow" is not so neutral. This is an allusion to the history of the struggle between A. Alekhin and M. Eive. The fifth world champion Euwe reigned in 1935-37, winning the match against Alekhine with a score of 15.5: 14.5. To regain the crown, Alekhine stopped drinking. Preparing for the rematch, he observed the regime, was content with milk from a cow and returned the champion title - 15.5: 9.5 ...

Lines “Dropped to walk him, badass, They say he is a white master. He made a move from e2 to e4, Something familiar to me ... well, well! .. "confirms what has been said. The fact is that in the first game Spassky played White and made the first move not e2 - e4, but d2 - d4. This was unexpected for Fischer. But that's not the point. Fischer lost the first game because of the hastily made 29th move:… Cd2: h2 ?? We put two question marks - in chess notation, this means a gross error.

Boris SPASSKY - Robert FISCHER

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5.e3 OO 6. Bd3 c5 7. OO Nc6 8.a3 Ba5 9. Ne2 dc4 10. Bc4 Bb6 11.dc5 Qd1 12. Rd1 Bc5 13. b4 Be7 14. Bb2 Bd7 15. Rac1 Rfd8 16. Ned4 Nd4 17. Nd4 Ba4 18. Bb3 Bb3 19. Nb3 Rd1 20. Rd1 Rc8 21. Kf1 Kf8 22. Ke2 Ne4 23. Rc1 Rc1 24. Bc1 f6 25. Na5 Nd6 26. Kd3 Bd8 27. Nc4 Bc7 28. Nd6 Bd6 29. b5 Bh2 30. g3 h5 31. Ke2 h4 32. Kf3 Ke7 33. Kg2 hg3 34. fg3 Bg3 35. Kg3 Kd6 36. a4 Kd5 37. Ba3 Ke4 38. Bc5 a6 39. b6 f5 40. Kh4 f4 41. ef4 Kf4 42. Kh5 Kf5 43. Be3 Ke4 44. Bf2 Kf5 45. Bh4 e5 46. Bg5 e4 47. Be3 Kf6 48. Kg4 Ke5 49. Kg5 Kd5 50. Kf5 a5 51. Bf2 g5 52. Kg5 Kc4 53. Kf5 Kb4 54. Ke4 Ka4 55. Kd5 Kb5 56. Kd6

Spassky's successful start soon turned into a trap, which Fischer lured the world champion onto an impassable path ...

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nc3 g6 7.Nd2 Nbd7 8.e4 Bg7 9.Be2 0–0 10.0–0 Re8 11.Qc2 ((stronger) 11 .a4) 11 ... Nh5 (A stunning move! Black voluntarily spoils his own structure, getting in return the advantage of two bishops and piece activity on the kingside.) 12.Bxh5 gxh5 13.Nc4 ((the strongest maneuver for White) 13.a4 Ne5 14 .Nd1! (Found a little later by Svetozar Gligoric; this is the only way to fight for an advantage)) 13 ... Ne5 14.Ne3 Qh4 15.Bd2 ((more careful) 15.f3!) 15 ... Ng4 16.Nxg4 hxg4 (Black not only straightened out their pawns, but also put White quite constrained.) 17.Bf4 Qf6 18.g3? (serious weakening of white squares; should have played) (18.Bg3 h5 19.f3! (19.Nb5)) 18 ... Bd7 19.a4 b6! (19 ... a6 ?! 20.a5!) 20.Rfe1 a6 21.Re2 b5! 22.Rae1 ((The weakness of the white squares near the white king affects at) 22.axb5 axb5 23.Rxa8 Rxa8 24.e5 dxe5 25.Rxe5 b4 26.Ne4 (26.Ne2 Qg6!) 26 ... Ra1 + 27.Kg2 Qa6! ) 22 ... Qg6 23.b3 Re7 (pushing the e4-pawn puts White in a critical position) 24.Qd3 Rb8 25.axb5 axb5 26.b4 (threatened b5-b4 and Bd7-b5) 26 ... c4 (26. ..cxb4 27.Na2) 27.Qd2 Rbe8 28.Re3 h5 29.R3e2 Kh7 30.Re3 Kg8 31.R3e2 (It's time to remove the ripe fruit) 31 ... Bxc3 32.Qxc3 Rxe4 33.Rxe4 Rxe4 34.Rxe4 Qxe4 (the weakness of the white king and the strength of the passed c4 pawn determine the assessment of the position) 35.Bh6 Qg6 36.Bc1 Qb1 37.Kf1 Bf5 38.Ke2 Qe4 + 39.Qe3 Qc2 + 40.Qd2 (40.Ke1 c3! 41.Qg5 + Bg6) 40 .. .Qb3 41.Qd4? ((Much more stubborn) 41.Ke1 (after which it is possible) 41 ... Qf3 42.Qg5 + Bg6 43.Qe3 (43.Be3 c3!) 43 ... Qh1 + 44.Kd2 Qxd5 + 45.Ke1 (, and without two pawns could still be resisted. A different color is a different color.)) 41 ... Bd3 +! After 42.Ke3 Qd1 (White loses the bishop. And the retreat to e1 is not good because of the capture on b4 with check. White resigned.)

Edvar Mednis, an American grandmaster who commented on the match, wrote: “The Fischer phenomenon cannot be considered something frozen. When it seemed that he could endlessly use his limited repertoire in the match with Spassky, he made sensational changes to it. With Alekhine slyness, he caught Spassky by surprise ...

I see he's aiming his fork
He wants to eat. And I would eat the queen ...
Eh, with this snack and a bottle!
But you must not drink during the match.

He has written and sang over 600 songs. Addressing the eternal questions of being, he goes from familiar, sometimes trivial situations and raises their meaning to the eternal ...

Some "responsible workers" from Soviet culture disdainfully and arrogantly reacted to the work of Vysotsky. He was not an order bearer, did not have the title "honored" or "national". Only after his death was he awarded the State Prize ...

Years go by, but his songwriting is still as exciting as his unique voice touches by the indissolubility that connects feeling and word. A romantic poet, an uncompromising maximalist, he was looking in the chess cycle "Honor of the Chess Crown" not for an interpretation of the openings after the move e2 - e4, but for the expression of time in a specific event that worried people. “Vladimir rarely played chess ... and badly. But he treated chess with reverence, was aware of the main competitions. In chess, as everywhere and always, he was interested in the human, ”recalls his close friend, Taganka Theater actor Vsevolod Abdulov.

Chess had no overwhelming importance for him at all. It seems that he did not need to know anything deeply about them. Why did he need, for example, to understand Ponziani's intricate opening or Aldin's counter-gambit, Benoni's defense or English opening ... After all, he sang not about chess, but about life.

Marina's father Vladi was a passionate chess player. He, Vladimir Polyakov-Baydarov, a volunteer pilot who came to France during the First World War with the Russian Expeditionary Force, loved chess, seeing in it a reflection of the tactical and strategic plans of the opposing sides. He fought in the army of General de Gaulle against the Nazis, and during the calm hours he played chess, trying to relieve tension.

Marina did not inherit this gift from her father, but she learned to play and sometimes spent time at the board. In 1957, when she came to Russia for the first time, she bought an elegant chess set made of Ural stone - a tribute to her father and a memory of the country in which she found her friend.

However, in the house in Mason-Laffite (France), the Ural craftsmen's handicraft did not become a reason for chess battles, but on the other hand, it fit well into the cozy interior of the living room. True, the moment of the family meeting at the blackboard was recorded, not without the help of a reporter. The photo, which captured Vysotsky and Vladi at the chessboard, went around French magazines: readers of the gossip were madly anxious to know what the stars are fond of ...

During Taganka's tour in France in the fall of 1977, Hamlet was shown in Marseilles, among other performances. The very first performance almost fell through due to Vysotsky's delay. Lyubimov is in a panic ... Finally, someone remembered that Vladimir Semyonovich praised one seaside tavern-tavern, where he made friends from port workers and foreign sailors. Running to the tavern - and indeed: polyphonic noise, and in the center with a guitar! There is a violent element around him, where “the full voice of“ Russian Villon ”reigns. On the same evening, he brilliantly played the play, receiving an enthusiastic ovation from grateful spectators and a severe unprintable censure from his main director ...

And there was also a crowded hall in Paris, in Elise Montmartre, where it was clear without translation what Vladimir was singing about on a high emotional note. The Parisians accepted the song monologue of the Soviet poet, and Paris - this theater of the streets - became his city for him.

Marina, on the other hand, began a dangerous game with power. Shuttle trips began between the houses located in Moscow and Paris, foreign tours. All this pleasantly complicated creative life and caused a "toothache" for "Soviet ideologists" who were losing control of the bard, who suddenly swallowed a sip of freedom without their permission ...

The time in which he lived and worked did not know any historical turns - socialism was "improving". The society was sucked in by mud, turning into a stagnant swamp.

Vysotsky needed a fresh wind. The troublemaker of stagnation immediately fell into the category of people who were called "restricted to travel abroad." When this barrier was broken and he visited the "jungle of the West", he formed his own opinion about those people who emigrated from the country.

He did not avoid meeting with his fellow tribesmen - emigrants from Russia, for he understood the complexity of the intertwining of human destinies. In one of his most successful films, Two Comrades Served (1968), he starred as a white officer who, after bloody battles with the Reds, decides to leave Russia on a steamer forever. The loyal handsome horse remains on the shore, but seeing that the owner is sailing away, he rushes into the sea after the steamer.

An officer who has come to despair that life is losing its meaning, suddenly realizes that life is impossible without Russia, and he ends scores with her. “What songs I sang to her about the Far North! I thought: "Here's a little bit, and we'll be on you", but I sang in vain about the neutral strip - she deeply does not care what kind of flowers there are. " These lines by Vysotsky answered the provocative question: should we go to the West?

He understood that the West itself would not fundamentally change anything in his life, and without Russia he would have new responsibilities. The worst thing is that even there he will be an outcast, but he has lost his roots, and is therefore incapable of creativity. For Vysotsky poet-singer, this is deadly. He understands that this will be the fate of a horse that could not bear the loss of a loved one. he lived in "internal emigration", being with his soul on one side and with his heart on the other side of an artificially divided planet ...

In the song "Game" of the cycle "Honor of the Chess Crown" the duel with Fischer ended in a draw. In reality, the result was different. And not because he composed it on the eve of the match and, naturally, could not predict its outcome. Although the Soviet Union believed that Fischer was doomed.

Internally, the poet did not doubt whom to give preference to, but his soul demanded peace, love and harmony ...

Familiar with the theory: the song mentions the King's Indian Defense. But it is not mentioned to decipher which game (opening) the opponents played. During Vysotsky's time, the Indo-Pakistani conflict over Kashmir erupted again. It was tied for a long time, difficult and never untied - just like the King's Indian Defense in chess. It has become popular in practice, and in theory, actual. Invented at the end of the 19th century and named in the 1920s by S. Tarkover, it has taken a firm place in the repertoire of masters and grandmasters. It is used to conduct a complex maneuverable game in order to outplay the enemy ...

As you know, Fischer won the match. After two defeats, he played the next 11 games (!) Strong and confident. Having seized the lead, the American finished with a margin of 4 points!

***

... Twenty years later, in 1992, when everyone had already calmed down and began to forget this match, there was a bolt from the blue. In the era of Kasparov's reign, the legendary Fischer, breaking his vow of silence, agreed to play a match with the same Spassky for a large sum. There were sponsors. But this is already a farce: a rash-trained Fischer and Spassky, who lost a lot of what he could ... Fischer "shook the old days" and showed that he was quite at the level of "new chess". Spassky lost a number of principled games, and then the match - 5:10.

***

... Vysotsky was overwhelmed by the passion of acting. He created in his work that new character “Homo novus”, the need for which had already begun to mature in the 60-70s of the last century. The time in which the poet lived and worked was hostile to him with its stagnant thought, when "Passions fade under the moon in an ordinary airy slurry ..." it turns out to be a general principle of reaction to Soviet reality, which reached ordinary human age, after which nothingness came.

I shouted: “Are you stunned there? -
We've dropped chess prestige! "
I was told in our sports department:
“Yeah, great - you will protect!

Oh you muscles of steel
My tenacious fingers!
Eh, carved, painted
Wooden boats!

My friend, a football player, taught: “Do not be afraid -
He is not used to such partners.
Don't worry about the rear and center,
And play along the edge - straight ahead! .. "

I went for a run, for a hundred meters
I drove the weight in the bath, I sleep well,
We had hockey training ...
In general, after this preparation -
I will crush him without a mat!

Oh you are strong palms,
Strong back muscles!
Oh, you are my horses, horses,
Oh, you cute elephants!

"Do not rush and, most importantly, do not bend over, -
This is how the boxer talked to me. -
Do not go into close combat, work in the corps,
Remember that your crown is straight. "

The honor of the chess crown is on the map, -
He will not escape defeat:
Tal and I played ten games -
Preference, point and billiards, -
Tal said: "This one won't let you down!"

Oh, the relief of the musculature!
Deltoids are strong!
That I have light figures
These horses and elephants!

And in the buffet, closed for others,
The cook reassured: “Don't be shy!
You with such a wonderful appetite -
You will swallow all his horses at once!

Sit down before the long road -
And take a backpack with food.
Prepare Easter cake for two:
This Slate - though ingenious -
And I suppose it's not a fool to eat! "

Oh we are tough nuts!
We will bring the crown!
I go to sleep - like a pawn,
I wake up as a queen!

Comments (1)

Chess Crown Honor
I. Preparation - Nerve. A variant of the title - "How It All Happened".
In the early version, after the sixth stanza, it was:

I will not say that it was without hiccups:
There were anonymous letters and calls, -
I'm just annoyed by all this,
Only fists combed back.

They even scared early in the morning:
“Fischer could have with his left foot -
With the Capablanca chess machine
He himself is like a clockwork tank ... "
Nothing, I'm groovy too!

So here you go: take skewers with you, -
The main thing is food, old man! -
But don't eat heavy pieces:
For the stomach, those figures are fools, -
Here are elephants - good for barbecue!

Fischer Robert (b. 1943) - American chess player, world champion in 1972-1975. In 1972 he won the candidates' matches between the Soviet grandmasters M. Taimanov and T. Petrosyan, and then won the title of world champion, beating Boris Spassky. The cycle "Honor of the Chess Crown" was written before the match "Spassky-Fischer", for which the Soviet press was actively "preparing", trying to discredit the American grandmaster. Tal and I played ten games. - Tal Mikhail Nekhemievich (1936-1992) - grandmaster, world chess champion in 1960-1961. His commentary on the song: “During performances, I am often asked the question: how did I get into his song and is it true that I played with him“ ten games - preference, point and billiards ”. I probably got into the song because of the rhyme, because “we played with Flor ...” probably didn't sound. Vysotsky and I did not play all the games mentioned in it. But few people know that we played two games of chess with him. I remember well that in the second I always strove to offer a draw ... I think I heard the song shortly after it was written. Fischer and Spassky had not yet sat down at the chess table. The reaction is colossal! " (M. Tal. He willingly played black // Vladimir Vysotsky. Four quarters of the way. P. 24).

II. Game - Nerve.
In the early version, instead of the sixth stanza, it was:

He has queens, rooks - pieces! -
And elephants are dangerous and strong.
All my figures are fools:
I have queens and tours,
Officers are not elephants!

From the memoirs of S. Govorukhin:
“... Volodya grunted:
- Tell me about chess.
"Aha," I thought, "a song about my favorite chess will appear soon." He was just in the "sports strip" of his work.
I began to explain: the game begins with the opening ... the beginning is different ... for example, the King's Gambit, King's Indian Defense ... Volodya did not play chess. To warn him against mistakes in a future song, I said that amateurs, unlike professionals, call a rook a tur, an bishop an officer ...
- Enough! - said Volodya. - It's enough.
I was offended - with such a chess baggage to start a song about chess?
He fell silent for a day and a half, wrote something in small round letters, plucking the strings. Exactly so - I didn’t select the melody, but as if I was just plucking the strings, looking somewhere at one point. On the second day, by evening, the song was ready "(S. Govorukhin. Such a life cannot be called short // Vladimir Vysotsky. Four quarters of the way. P. 98).
Indo-Pakistani incident. - The military conflict between India and Pakistan in Kashmir periodically escalated in the 1960s-1970s and continues to the present day.

I. Preparation

I shouted: “Are you stunned there?
Why have you dropped your chess prestige! "
And they told me in our sports department:
“Yeah, great - you will protect!

But keep in mind that Fischer is very bright,
He even sleeps with a board - the strength is in him,
He plays cleanly, without blots ... "
Well, nothing, I'm not a gift either,
And I have a knight's move in reserve.

Oh you muscles of steel
My tenacious fingers!
Eh, carved-painted
Wooden boats!

My football player friend taught: “Do not be afraid -
He is not used to such partners.
Don't worry about the rear and center,
And play along the edge - straight ahead! .. "

Well, I put my weight on running, on the hundred meters
I drove the weight in the bath, I sleep well,
We had hockey training ...
Well, in general, after this preparation -
Yes, I will crush him without a mat!

Oh you strong palms
Strong back muscles!
Oh you, my horses, horses,
Oh you white elephants!

"Do not rush and, most importantly, do not bend over", -
This is how the boxer talked to me.
“You,” he says, “don't go into close combat, work in the corps,
And remember that your crown jewel is straight. "

The honor of the chess crown is on the map!
And he will not get away from defeat:
Tal and I played ten games -
Preference, point and billiards.
Tal said: "This one won't let you down!"

Oh, the relief of the musculature!
Deltoids are strong!
Oh you, light figures,
Oh you, horses and elephants!

And in the buffet, closed for others,
The cook reassured: “Don't be shy!
You, - he says, - with such a wonderful appetite
You will swallow all his horses at once!

You sit down in front of a distant road -
And take a backpack with food.
Prepare Easter cake for two:
This Slate - although he is a genius,
And I suppose you are not a fool to drink and eat! "

Oh we are tough nuts!
Oh, we will bring the crown!
We go to bed - like a pawn,
But wake up - the queen!

II. The game

Just arrived -
sat down immediately.
The chips are all in advance.
Photo reporters swooped down -
And they blind, and they want to confuse them.

But me and at home - who will put it?
Reporters can't knock me down! ..
Inability to help me:
This Slate will never be able to
Guess what I'm going to walk with.

Dropped to walk him, bully, -
They say he is a white master!
Made a move from e2 to e4 ...
Something familiar to me ... Well, well!

Move behind me - what to do ?! It is necessary, Seva, -
At random, like in the taiga at night ...
I remember: the most important thing is the queen -
Walks back and forth and left and right
Well, horses like - only the letter "G".

Eh, thanks to a factory friend -
Although he taught how to walk, how to hand over ...
It turned out later - I'm scared
Played a classic opening!

I watched everything so that there was no mistake,
I remembered all the cooks in anguish.
Eh, change pawns for glasses -
Quickly it would have cleared up on the board!

I see he's aiming the fork -
He wants to eat. And I would eat the queen ...
Eh, under such a snack - yes a bottle!
But you must not drink during the match.

I'm hungry, judge for yourself:
All they have here is coffee and scrambled eggs.
The cells are like circles before the eyes
I confuse kings with aces
And I confuse a doublet with a debut.

There is a sign - so I'm taking the risk:
First time I should be lucky.
Yes, I will torture him, I will go -
Yes, I would only deceive the lady!

I don’t moan, I don’t calve, everything is like cotton wool.
You need to hit something - it's time!
How to beat? With a boat - it's scary
To the right in the jaw - it seems a bit early,
Somehow inconvenient - the first game.

... And he destroys my defense -
Old Indian - at the moment
It reminds me vaguely
Indo-Pakistani incident.

Only in vain is he joking with our brother,
I have a measure, even two:
If he finishes me with obscenities,
So I got it - through the thigh with a grip
Or a knight's move - over the head!

Slate began to indulge in tricks:
Get up, run and - back;
He offered to change the tours,
Well, if only he shouldn't be afraid of me,
When I lie down, I press one hundred and fifty!

So I measured his figure with an eye,
And when he announced shah to me -
I bared my biceps inadvertently,
He even took off his jacket to be sure.

And instantly the hall became quieter,
He noticed that I was getting up ...
Apparently, he was not up to the chips -
And the vaunted notorious Fisher
He immediately agreed to a draw.

We congratulate chess lovers on April Fool's Day and invite you to remember the songs of Vladimir Vysotsky dedicated to chess. The song is called "The Honor of the Chess Crown". As Vladimir Semyonovich said, the song consists of two "series". Relatively speaking, the first part is called "Preparation" - the hero of Vysotsky is preparing for the tournament with the world champion Robert Fischer, and the second part is called "The Game".

We post both the video and the lyrics. Moreover, we will find out how true the phrase “We played ten games with Tal” is. Did Vysotsky actually play with Tal? We will receive an answer from the lips of Mikhail Tal himself.

"Honor of the Chess Crown" - Part 1 "Preparation"

"Honor of the Chess Crown" - part 2 "The Game"

Mikhail Tal about Vladimir Vysotsky and the first part of the song "Honor of the Chess Crown".

So, as Mikhail Tal himself said, he played a couple of chess games with Vysotsky, but they didn’t have to play “point”, “preference” and “billiards”. Tal was not fond of billiards and did not play it very well.

Lyrics

"Preparation" (part 1)