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[Editor: For another point of view, read
Rick Kennedy's review.] This is the autobiography of Jaan Ehlvest (1962-), a leading grandmaster from Estonia who has now settled in the USA. Ehlvest has had a chequered tournament career. He won the European Junior Championship in 1983 and the championship of Estonia in 1986. He became a world championship candidate in 1988 losing only to Yusupov. In his distinguished career Ehlvest has beaten a number of GMs like Anand, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Shirov and Rajdabov. This brings me to the contents of the book. The
interview method whereby the author plays the role of a chess journalist,
asks himself questions and provides his own answers, was first seen in the
celebrated autobiography of Tal (Life and Games of Tal by Mikhail Tal, RHM
Press 1976). Tal fans were so mesmerized by the colourful narrative
that they failed to notice a number of omissions in the book. Indeed,
Tal was far from candid about his problems with authorities and his troubled
married life. In spite of Tal’s success with this method I do not
think it would work in an autobiography.
Jaan is a clinical psychologist by training. His scientific temperament lends itself to some deep analysis of the chess mind. But the factual trivia of questions and answers only slows down the pace of narration. So what we have here is rather a dry account of an otherwise eventful life. History buffs, however, would find it interesting. The rest of the world knows precious little about Estonia. Jaan’s account of Estonia’s domination by her powerful neighbours Russia and Germany makes fascinating reading. One also begins to understand and appreciate the nationalist aspirations of this proud land. Jaan has quite a few revelations to make on chess life in the Soviet era. A case in point is the following account of the Kasparov-Karpov rivalry:
(Both Kasparov and Karpov tied for the first place. There was to be a tie-breaker match. Unfortunately, it was called off. The whole story appears in the book, Garry Kasparov: On My Great Predecessors Part 2. Of course, Kasparov is silent on his own back door machinations before the last round.-NSH) Jaan also offers some wry observations on the way the system worked in the Soviet era:
Surely, Jaan cannot be so naïve as to give a clean chit to a controversial figure like Kirsan and it stretches one’s credulity to believe that chess players can be arrogant, but not Kirsan. To sum up, the autobiography, like the curate’s egg, is good in parts. But the games are pure gold. There are 48 games in this book, of which 41 are deeply annotated. By and large, the annotations are an ideal blend of explanatory prose and critical variations. The following game was played in dramatic circumstances:
More on the author: Born in Estonia, International Grandmaster Jaan Ehlvest became an International Master in chess by winning the European Junior Championship in 1983. After tying for the second place in the Zagreb Interzonal in 1987, he became a Grandmaster. In the first series of the World Cup tournaments, Ehlvest came fourth after World Champions Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, and grandmaster Valery Salov. In 1989, he won the Reggio Emilia super-tournament ahead of grandmasters Vassily Ivanchuk and Karpov. In the last World Championship in Delhi he finished on the top-16. Ehlvest’s highest international rating was 2660, and he has been one of the top-5 players in the world. In 2003, he won the World Open Championship. Ehlvest has been once elected as Zonal President of FIDE,
the World Chess Federation. He is currently an active participant in FIDE’s “Chess in Schools” and various training committees. He is
currently managing Ehlvest Chess Gates, an organization for teaching chess
to children.
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Indeed, this is an honest self-portrait with warts and all.
Unfortunately, this critical attitude is
largely absent when he speaks of the present FIDE establishment. The
following bit of panegyric on Kirsan says it all: Later I learned a
lot about him and still admire his patience and diplomacy in dealing with
arrogant chess players.
