Taylor Kingston respondendo a um comentário de Vidmar, escreveu no grupo rec.games.chess.misc o seguinte texto sobre a impossibilidade de um «assassinato estalinista» em Portugal de um «xadrezista bêbedo».
Vidmar: I think when the book The KGB Plays Chess comes out, there isn’t going to be a heck of a lot of difference between them, except perhaps for murder.
- You don’t think Kirsan had that woman whacked?
I believe he did.
Taylor Kingston: Come on. Is there the least bit of evidence that any Stalinist assassins offed Alekhine in 1946 like they did Trotsky in 1940? I will admit it’s plausible on a certain level, but that’s a far cry from saying it actually happened.
In 1946 Stalin was busy enough consolidating his vast new territories and millions of new subjects in eastern Europe, plus trying to get the secret of the atomic bomb by espionage, plus tryingto restore the domestic discipline the war had disrupted, not to mention other important matters. Why should he waste time and effort on a washed-up alcoholic has-been chess player in Portugal just when his annointed golden boy Botvinnik was about to kick AAA’s ass and take the title fair and square?
With something like this, armchair speculation is just air. You must have evidence, or you have nothing.
Várias lendas sobre a origem do Xadrez podem ser encontradas facilmente na internet ou em livros, mas a que mais me interessou foi a de Sissa, um brâmane indiano, que havia criado o Jogo para curar o tédio de um certo rei.
