Cover Story / Golden Age


I


n the last few years leading up to World War II the United States was one of the strongest chess nations in the world.


In the four consecutive Olympiads held


from 1931 through 1937, the USA fielded the squad that captured the gold medal. The names of the players on those rosters are well known in the annals of American and international chess history: Frank Marshall, Reuben


Fine, Samuel Reshevsky, Isaac Kashdan, Al Horowitz. After the seventh Olympiad, held in Stockholm in 1937, the


U.S. endured a 39-year-gold-medal dry spell encompassing 14 consecu tive Olympiads. Even the teams led by future World Champion Bobby Fischer could manage no better than two silvers. That streak was broken in 1976 when the USA at long last found them selves on the top podium again, although the win was tainted by the fact that at this Haifa, Israel, Olympiad only 48 teams showed up—and none of them from the chess powerhouse nations of eastern Europe. From the late 1930s until 1972 there were only a handful of


serious world championship contenders hailing from America. Reshevsky was invited and partic- ipated in the 1948 world championship tourna ment, and Fine was invited although he ultimately declined to partici pate. Ultimately the title was captured by Mikhail Botvinnik, beginning a 24-year reign by five different Soviet players. That reign was briefly interrupted


Alexander Goldin (It was a good year to be named Alexander!), Gregory Kaidanov, Igor Novikov, and Boris Gulko. At first during the Soviet diaspora which led to this influx of


talent there was some animosity on the part of the American- born players. Most famously GM Joel Benjamin, who, reacting to the announcement of Gata Kamsky’s defection at the end of the 1989 New York Open, said in a New York Times interview, “No, I don’t appreciate it. When a Soviet defects, it is always a big story, even when they’re not strong at all. But when an American player does well, it is not a big deal. It is important to be objective about the results.” Some of this ire was no doubt due to the fact that the story of New York born-and-raised GM John Federowicz actually winning first place in the tournament was mostly overlooked in favor of the defection story. Those opinions seem to have mellowed with time however,


“The strong


from 1972-1975 by the singularity that was Bobby Fischer, and then another 32 years of Soviet-bred champions ensued as first Anatoly Karpov, then Garry Kasparov, and finally Vladimir Kramnik held the crown. It was not until Indian GM Viswanathan Anand won the world championship tournament of 2007 that a cham pi on who was not Soviet-raised emerged. After the short stint of Fischer’s turn at the top (see sidebar,


competition from immigrants certainly made us better players.” ~ GM JOEL BENJAMIN


“1972 Wasn’t A Golden Age?”), the USA did produce a handful of strong players such as Yasser Seirawan and Larry Christiansen. Mostly, however, these were the doldrums of American-raised chess talent. (For the purposes of this article, if a player took their first serious chess steps in the U.S. then they are being considered “homegrown” even if they may have been born in another country (e.g. Seirawan, Hikaru Nakamura, Alex Lenderman, etc.). During that time, however, something momentous began which


planted seeds for the future. Starting in the late ’70s and continuing through the ’90s, there was an influx of players to the U.S. from the Soviet-bloc countries. Heavyweights such as Lev Alburt, Gregory Kaidanov, Alex Yermolinsky, Leonid Shamkovich, Anatoly Lein, Roman Dzindzichashvili, Boris Gulko, Alex Onischuk, and many more began calling America their home. This was the time of the saying, “our Russians versus their


Russians” and culminated with the 36th Olympiad held in Calvia in 2004 where the American team entirely consisted of former Soviet-bloc players: Alexander Onischuk, Alexander Shabalov,


38 July 2015 | Chess Life


and these days when asked about that segment of American history, GM Benjamin says, “The strong competi tion from immigrants certainly made us better players.” GM Federowicz agrees, adding that, “Those guys helped me a lot. They made it harder, but they made it better. That’s just the way it was.” In addition to the opportunity


to play against the newly-arrived strong professionals, the opportunity to both train and analyze with them contributed to the development of the American-born players. “Dzindzi helped me a lot. Not only playing, but analyzing,” said Federowicz, who also thanked Bill Goichberg for running so many events in those days. “If it wasn’t for Goichberg, where would I have played those guys?” During this same time, as the


existing American players got stronger and became more well- rounded thanks to their new


counterparts, the next generation began arriving in maternity wards. This next wave was not only able to play against the strong former Soviet competi tion but also the much-improved American- raised players such as Benjamin, Federowicz, and Nick de Firmian. Additionally, these kids were taught using the methods of


the Soviet school of chess, naturally enough as their trainers were former members of that school. This resulted in a new crop of American grandmasters. One of that group, Josh Friedel, said that these methods of training have “definitely strengthened chess here,” although he was quick to point out that in his opinion the opportunity to play the stronger competition helped as much or more than the training. Perhaps the strongest and most well-known of those trainers,


GM Gregory Kaidanov, who came to the United States in 1991, agrees. “I believe both are impor tant. However, only in the last 10 years or so chess lessons became so popular, so I would say that playing strong opponents was the bigger and undeniable benefit.” All of these ingredients stewed in the pot of chess development.


Players such as Nakamura, Ray Robson, Daniel Naroditsky, Sam Sevian, Alex Lenderman, and Sam Shankland emerged,


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