Okay, chess may not be the best source of humour. There is one joke that is better-known that any other in the world. And it has the habit of creeping up on you and pouncing when you least expect it. I first encountered it in chess circles in 1986, but by far the best rendition was by the editor of the Russian chess magazine "64", Alexander Roshal. We will come to it in a moment.
Alexander Roshal was born in Moscow in 1936. His father was arrested when he was one year old, charged with writing the first constitution for the state of Israel. Soon after that he was shot. Alik's mother spent 18 years in a prison camp and exile. He got to know her when he was nine, and lived with her in Kazakhstan until he was 16. He was proud of his heritage and always said: "I am a Russian Jew".
In 1968, together with then world champion Tigran Petrosian, Roshal joined a chess weekly, which as publisher and editor-in-chief he turned into the world-famous magazine "64-Chess Review." He also worked as a special correspondent for TASS, All-Union Radio and Television, reporting on international tournaments and world chess championship matches.
Roshal arranged himself with the Soviet government and, under Brezhnev, was allowed to travel all over the world. In 1986 his magazine published excerpts from Nabokov's autobiography Other Shores, and he was severely punished for this. But, as always, he bounced back to gain his previous respect and prestige as the foremost chess journalist in Russia.
This picture shows Alexander Roshal during a postmortem between Kramnik and Kasparov in Linares 2003
I met Alexander at numerous such events, and we became friends. He had great admiration for me because I would greet him as Alexander Borisovich. I was the only person in western circles who knew how to use the Russian patronymic. Our encounters were always most informative – mostly for me. Alexander was an encyclopedia of chess history. As a chess trainer he had brought up generations of famous players. With a vocabulary of just a couple of hundred English words, he was able to narrate like no other I have met. Listen to him talking about the young Anatoly Karpov:
Our encounters were also full of fun and humour. Once I got Alexander to tell me The Great Russian Chess Joke. It is universal – approach any Russian chess player and ask him to tell you a joke, and it will inevitably be the first they come up with. The joke is funny, especially when you hear it for the first time. Listen to Alik's rendition. Here is a full transcript:
Maybe one of the best anecdotes in chess. In beach one man play chess with dog. Against dog. Many people say "Oooh, very clever dog!" He say "Why clever? I score 3:1!"
I last met Alik in 2007. Before we left the tournament he gave me a quick hug. That was unusual, and I was a little surprised. But he told me it was a farewell – he had pancreatic cancer, which he called the disease of chess players. Alexander Borisovich died on May 21 2007 at the age of 71.