Evans On Chess. December 29, 1995. Copyright Chesstours. All rights reserved. Reprinted courtesy of Chess Life Magazine. INTERVIEW WITH GM EDWARD GUFELD By GM Larry Evans (The gregarious and controversial Gufeld, 59, has written 53 chess books. He served as a spokesman in FIDE for the Soviet Union and was widely viewed as a loyal supporter of the Communist Party in the bad old days. Recently he won the Los Angeles Open and shared first in the USA Senior Championship. This interview took place in Reno where he tied for second at the 13th Western States Open last October.) EVANS: What do you think about chess in America? GUFELD: I love America! Chess is a subject that should be taught in school, as in Russia. It is an art, not just a game. But you must show children the beauty in chess. It is wrong, wrong, just to teach them variations so they can win games. Q. Do you plan on returning to Russia? A. Of course. My mother is there. I'm visiting my sister in Los Angeles. But I see work for myself here because I am absolutely the best chess coach in the world. I know how to share my knowledge. Q. How hard is it to earn a living at chess in Russia now that the government no longer subsidizes players? A. I can tell you that playing chess is not a profession, it is a gamble. But chess has many mansions. You don't need to be a grandmaster or even a great player to make a living at it. You can teach it, write about it, organize it. Q. As a FIDE official, what is your opinion of president Campomanes? A. I understand you are talking about what happened at the Moscow congress when his old enemy Gary Kasparov got him elected to a fourth term. I don't know whether Campomanes is good or bad. I only know everybody criticized him when he stopped the Kasparov- Karpov match in 1985. Maybe he did it to help Karpov even though it turned out to be against Karpov. I don't care. I only know Campomanes saved chess. I was at the press center. I saw that both players lost a lot of weight during their marathon; after 48 games Kasparov was going crazy and Karpov was a nervous wreck. What if one of them died because the match continued? Would it be good for chess? Have a look. One dead and one crazy! Q. But wasn't Kasparov still in very good health? A. No! Very bad health. They were both in terrible shape. Q. They both said they wanted to continue the match. A. For me chess is art. I can only tell you that Campomanes saved chess by the wrong he committed in stopping the match. Q. You were very close to Karpov, were you not? A. Yes. And also Kasparov. Q. Karpov was widely criticized for playing two title matches against Korchnoi while the defector's family was held hostage inside the Soviet Union. Yet Karpov made no attempt to get them out. As a sportsman, should he not have insisted that his government release Korchnoi's family before play began? A. What Karpov could do, I do not know. But for me it's a surprise that you talk like this. Yes, I'm also not happy that Korchnoi's family could not go. But I ask you: When they finally came out, why did he immediately divorce his wife? Q. That's another question. A. No. It's the same question. Q. It's a question of sportsmanship. Korchnoi's son is beaten in a gulag on the eve of their second match in Merano to send his father a message -- lose or else! A. I don't know. I believe it was done against Korchnoi, but ask yourself why they put his son in a gulag. It was all done by the Constitution, my friend. [The famous Stalin Constitution of 1936 which defined "anti-Soviet propaganda" as a crime.] Q. Did you ever discuss this matter with Karpov? A. Never. But I do not see what he did wrong. Q. Kasparov once told me that Karpov did indeed have the power to get Korchnoi's family out if he wanted to. A. I also believe that if Karpov had tried, he might have helped. But it is not 100% sure. Q. Surely Karpov had a lot of power. He could pick which players went abroad and who didn't. A. Other Soviet world champions had the same power. Except only maybe Tal did not use it. Look at what Botvinnik, Smyslov and Petrosian did. Kasparov too. Karpov was like all the rest. Q. What about the match between Karpov and Fischer in 1975 that never took place? A secret document surfaced from the Soviet archives saying that Karpov was ordered to negotiate in bad faith by placing one obstacle after another in Fischer's path. A. I only can tell you that Fischer is my close friend and I very much respect him. I wrote a book called "Fischer As I Knew Him." It is absolutely not true that Karpov didn't want to play him. He is a materialist. He likes money. When they proposed $5 million, he wanted some of it. Believe me! In my mind Fischer was stronger in 1975 and would have won, but Karpov was right to say that he didn't want to give him a 10-8 advantage. Q. But every Soviet champion had an even bigger advantage than Fischer asked for. They had draw odds and a rematch clause. Even today Kasparov made the PCA rules giving himself draw odds. A. My view is Fischer was right to ask for an advantage and Karpov was right to refuse it. I agree with both of them. Q. Do you think the champion should have an advantage? A. Yes. Q. FIDE has not yet arranged the Karpov-Kamsky match that was supposed to take place in 1995. Do you think it will be played? A. Of course. I can make a bet with you. Q. Who's the favorite? A. Maybe equal, but I think Kamsky's youth gives him the advantage. Look at how he crushed Kramnik and others on his way to the top. I believe that he was not prepared physically for his second match with Anand. Q. Kamsky said the PCA only gave him eight days between Anand in Las Palmas and his last FIDE match against Salov in India. A. Yes, I know, the PCA did not give him enough time. But as far as I'm concerned, my friend, the more matches the better. I'd like to see them add Judith Polgar to the mix. For me chess is art, it doesn't matter how many world champions there are. Genius players produce great games. Q. What about the Anand-Kasparov match? What did they produce? A. It had one great game -- the tenth. But never in history have we seen such a bad match. I'm not against draws, only the kind of draws they made. It was not fighting chess. My good friend Arnold Denker said players ought to be punished for making draws like that. How? By money? I believe there is only one way. In every tournament we must have prizes not only for the sporting results but also for brilliant games. Players who are out of the running now have no incentive to create fighting chess. Q. What do people in Russia think about the character of Kasparov and Karpov? A. People think they are both geniuses, and their names are always linked together. Karpov is not liked, but he doesn't care what they say about him. Kasparov is more popular and also more egotistical. I keep telling him to use all his energy for chess instead of wasting it on stupid political games. Q. What does he say? A. He says he cannot do anything different, that he has no choice. But have a look. He never finishes what he starts. He started the GMA, then dropped it. He fought Campomanes for ten years, then broke rules to get him elected president of FIDE for four more years. He even started a political party in Russia! Q. Kasparov said he has political ambitions. Is it possible he could be elected president of Russia? A. (Shocked) No! Not possible. Q. Who do you think is the greater player: Fischer or Kasparov? A. They are both geniuses, but we can only compare them with other players in their own time. I think Fischer was further ahead of his contemporaries than Kasparov is now. Q. Fischer did it all by himself. He worked alone. Kasparov has a team of helpers feeding him ideas. A. I agree. But chess today is very different. There are computers, much more information is available to everyone. Fischer was driving an antique car and Kasparov is in a high speed model. Q. You were Maya Chiburdanize's coach before and after she became women's world champion in 1978 at age 17. At Dubai in 1986 she got a lot of bad publicity when FIDE gave 100 free rating points to every woman in the world except Susan Polgar, who was ranked number one. It was reported that Campomanes, who was opposed by Kasparov and badly needed electoral support from the Soviet bloc, approved this deal in order to make Maya number one. You were there. What can you say about this incident? A. This is so stupid. They say Maya got it because she was second on the list, I say she got it because she was world champion. Q. But FIDE closed the supposedly open women's committee meeting where this was discussed and even threw out an American reporter. A. I don't remember this. I only know they changed the system. Maya is so nice, she's nothing but good and very religious. I am sure she had nothing to do with any political deal. Q. There was a recent report that she planned to enter a convent. A. I believe she changed her mind because important people in Georgia told her she was a national diamond, greater even than the president, and that she had a duty to keep playing chess. Q. Is is true she donated about $35,000 in prize money from her last title match with Xun Jie to the church? A. Yes, it is true. Q. Thank you, Grossmeister.