THE MOST HONEST CANADIAN CHESS PLAYER OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
THE CANADIAN PLAYER MOST INSULTED BY A BRIBE
THE WORLD CHAMPION WHO DIED UNDER THE MOST MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES:
by Kevin Spraggett
originally posted on Chesstalk December 20, 1999
THE MOST HONEST
CANADIAN CHESS PLAYER OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Peter Biyiasis !
Peter represented Canada honourably twice in the Interzonals. At the '76
Interzonal in Manila he was preparing for a game when he heard a knock
on the door of his hotel room. He answered and found a GM standing there,
asking to be able to enter his room to speak to him.
He had a briefcase with him. Peter agreed.
The GM was a much respected international player. By contrast, Peter was
the typical struggling Canadian chess player, unappreciated,often ridiculed
and having always to try harder than the others just to pay his rent.
(He finished in the second half of the tournament, if memory serves) The
GM opens the briefcase and displays the contents: a pile of $100 US notes!
The GM makes the offer to Peter: give him the point and the money is his....
Tempting, but Peter declines!! (Bravo Peter)
The game between the two turns out to be a draw.
Peter later explained that while the money could have been put to good use, and might have
been accepted in a 'normal' tournament, as he was representing Canada in the Interzonal he
felt honour bound to refuse!
THE CANADIAN PLAYER
MOST INSULTED BY A BRIBE
Leon Piasetski !
While playing in some tournament in Spain in the spring
of '77, looking for a GM norm, Leon gets a knock on his hotel room door, and when he opens
it, to his surprise, he finds GM Gheorghiu standing there (No, he had no briefcase with
him.)
Surprised because Gheorghiu just happenes to be Leon's next round opponent...
(For those to appreciate what happens next, it must be held in mind that Leon comes from a
strict, well-to-do Jewish family in Montreal.)
Gheorghiu explains to Leon how important it would be for Gheorghiu to win this tournament,
and that he had better make certain that he starts winning right away!
Leon is not quite sure what Gheorghiu is getting at...
The Gheorghiu opens his wallet and offers Leon ....$5 US for the point!!
Leon is horrified!! (He had never been offered a bribe before, and while he might have
imagined it happening some day, he certainly couldn't have imagined it being for $5!)
Before I go on, please bear two things in mind: one, in those days the Canadian dollar was
worth more than the US dollar, and two, in Romania (Gheorghiu's country) $5 US was a
fortune!
Leon tells Gheorghiu to leave his room. He immediately makes a formal protest to the
tournament organizers.
In the game between the two Leon completely CRUSHES Gheorghiu!! (Bravo Leon)
epilogue
The tournament committee , selected to deal with the bribe offer, decide that nothing can
be proven.
The next year the tournament organizers send aninvitation to Gheorghiu, and nothing to
Leon!!
THE WORLD
CHAMPION WHO DIED UNDER THE MOST MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES:
Alexander Alekhine !
Alekhine died in Portugal (just outside Lisbon) in
1946. The 'official' account is that he choked on a piece of meat (while sitting down in a
big arm chair) and studying chess. There is even a photo of this: sure enough we can see
Alekhine laying limp in the armchair, with all of the pieces still upright on the board.
What is wrong with the official story? (I mean, apart from the fact that if a 'normal'
person was sitting down and choking he would get up and become quite frantic, possibly
even overturning the board and pieces in the process...!?)
The doctor who wrote the official death certificate (Dr. Antonio Ferreira, just by chance
an avid chess player himself) later told friends that Alekhine's body was found on the
street, in front of his hotel room! He had been shot! He said that government pressure had
forced him to complete the death certificate as it now exists. (Portugal was neutral
during the Second World War, and might have wanted to avoid any controversy)
According to well placed sources (including Spassky, who is married to a French woman who
worked in the diplomatic services ) the French Resistance created a super secret 'Death
Squad' after the second world war to 'deal' appropriately with those people on a black
list who had collaborated too willingly with the German Nazi's, once France was over run
by Germany.
Apparently the list was not less than 200,000 names!
Correspondence of Alekhine, shortly before his untimely demise, mentioned that he felt he
was being followed!
Alexander Alekhine's initials were AA, so that would put him at the top of any list!
Alekhine died within a day or two of the British Chess Federation voting to hold the
Botvinnik-Alekhine match...so if there was an assassin then he had to move quickly since
Alekhine was about to go to England!
The French government, even to this day, denies the existence of any such 'black list'!
(Of course, they also deny that any massacre of Algerians in Paris! The many bodies that
were found floating in the river were described as 'swimming' accidents or 'suicides'...)
The truth is out there!!