Karjakin in turn is not afraid to say what he thinks. Karjakin made headlines earlier this year after calling his Russian compatriot Daniil Dubov a “traitor”.
Last year, Doebov was on the team that helped Norwegian Magnus Carlsen prepare for the world title match against Ian Nepomniashchi – from Russia, yes. Incomprehensible, according to Karjakin.
Dobov’s decision to help Carlsen was criticized from various quarters in Russia. Poetically, Russian chess coach and journalist Sergei Shipov joined the riot: “Seeds of discord have been sown in the Russian team.” This created major cracks in the Russian chess team – a country that was still so united at the chessboard in Soviet times.
Chess as a war metaphor
From 1948 to 2006, the World Chess Champion came from the Soviet Union (and later Russia). With grandmasters such as Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky, Anatoli Karpov, Garri Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, Russian chess became world famous. The Russians embraced their grandmasters en masse.
In the hottest times of the Cold War, there was only one American who broke through Soviet hegemony: Bobby Fischer. Wounded pride among the Russians. The chess games that Fischer fought with Spassky for the world title in 1972 were symbolic of the Cold War.
Watch a 2003 NOS documentary about Bobby Fischer, ‘the Errant King’.
