The Israel mens chess team finished a best-ever fourth in the recent chess Olympics in Russia with fourth-board Boris Avruch scooping an individual gold medal for winning eight out of ten matches.
by Simon Griver
The recent arrival of nearly 800,000 new immigrants from the former Soviet Union has provided a badly needed shot-in-the-arm for Israeli chess. Five of Israels six-man team at the most recent Chess Olympics in Ilista near Volgograd in Southern Russia were new immigrants, as was the entire womens team, which finished a disappointing 16th.
Boris Avruch himself, 20, is currently serving as a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces; he immigrated to Israel three years ago from Alma Ata in Kazakhstan.
Amiram Kaplan, director-general of the Israel Chess Federation, cites this latest Olympic success as one of a series of achievements by Russian-speaking new immigrants in recent years. In 1996 Emile Sotovsky was the World Under-20 Champion, Eli Gershon was the World Under-16 Champion and Eli Volshner was the World Under-12 Champion. In the same year Dimitry Tiomkin won the European Under-20 Championships while Alexander Kondin took the gold in the European Under-16 Championships.
Kaplan sees Israeli chess as returning to its 1978 heyday when the mens team finished fifth in the Chess Olympics in Buenos Aires and the countrys women took the gold medal in the Chess Olympics in Israel itself. However, this latter achievement was diminished by the fact that the former Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite countries boycotted the games in Israel.
Kaplan stresses that competition in the 1990s has become much tougher, as the 15 republics which comprised the former Soviet Union have started competing as independent nations. "Nobody can match the former Soviet players," he explained, "whether in Israel or the CIS. In Israel, as in most of the West, chess is regarded as a hobby and not taken that seriously. Chess champions are relatively unknown. But in the former Soviet Union the game is taken very seriously and the top chess players become superstars and idols like pop stars and soccer players. So youngsters devote hours and hours every day to practicing chess."
In Israel there are 4,500 chess players participating in organized leagues, while 10,000 other players take part in school and club competitions. "And hundreds of thousands of other Israelis play chess at home with family and friends," added Kaplan.
Minister of Industry and Trade Natan Sharansky, who arrived from the Soviet Union in 1986, is a chess grand master. Imprisoned in Moscow on trumped up charges of spying in the 1980s, he would play chess in his mind to pass the time in solitary confinement.
"Due to the influx of immigrants, local leagues have more than doubled in size during the 1990s," said Kaplan. "At first this overwhelmed many of the local players. Some felt alienated in clubs that were dominated by Russian-speaking players. But in the long term standards have been improved. Today, many of the younger players have spent more than half of their lives here and act as a bridge between veteran Israelis and newcomers."
The local chess scene has also received a boost from former world champion Gary Kasparov, who frequently visits Israel (his father is Jewish), and donated money to the Kasparov Chess Center near Tel Aviv Universitys campus, which teaches chess coaches.
Kaplan is confident that Israels chess masters will have even greater successes at the next Chess Olympics in two years time.