Sure enough, three years later, Che was dead, the casualty of that unsuccessful guerrilla foray in Bolivia fifty years ago today.ġ.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 This is the razor-sharp Sicilian Sveshnikov – but it wasn’t always the case! It started life as the Lasker/Pelikan variation, named after the former world champion, Emanuel Lasker (who first brought it to prominence against Carl Schlechter in their 1910 title match) and the Czech IM, Jiri Pelikan. I would rather play chess like you or make a revolution in Venezuela.” Pachman reply was somewhat prophetic: “Look, Commandante, of course, it’s interesting to make a revolution, but playing chess is much safer.” And in 1966, he was the inspiration behind Cuba staging the Havana Chess Olympiad – again organised through his government office – which many agree to be one of the best Olympiads on record.ĭuring the 1964 edition of the Capablanca Memorial, Che famously paused between the moves in an offbeat game with the Czech grandmaster Ludek Pachman: “You know comrade Pachman, I don’t really enjoy being an minister. In 1962, as a government minister, Che was also responsible for initiating and organising a memorial tournament honouring the great Cuban chess hero, José Raúl Capablanca (world champion from 1921 to 1927), that’s held annually. While the writer takes you through the winding roads of Che’s life, what comes over very clearly is the unquestionable love that this revolutionary and guerrilla fighter had for chess which, in his own words, he unabashedly referred to as “mi segunda novia” (my second girlfriend).
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In the 2013/6 issue of New in Chess, Adam Feinstein expands on the Marxist revolutionary’s lifelong and abiding passion for chess, in his must-read feature Che and Chess.