Nice chess interview with Chess Hall of Fame inductee GM Andrew Soltis

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hello everyone,

Here is a nice chess interview with GM Andrew (Andy) Soltis Interview by Jim Eade (U.S. Chess Trust president). GM Soltis was the new inductee - along with GM Boris Gulko - at the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame that (re)opened in Saint Louis recently. 

"I don’t know when I was hooked, or why for that matter. Maybe it was for the reason Botvinnik gave: Some people like to think and chess is the best way to satisfy the urge." - GM Andy Soltis

Jim Eade: You were born in Hazelton, PA. in 1947. How did you learn to play chess?
GM Andrew (Andy) Soltis: I learned the moves from a book. I’ve forgotten the name but I had taken it out of the children’s section of the public library in the Astoria, Queens section of New York, where my family was living. I didn’t know anyone who played, much less anyone who could teach me, so for about four years chess remained one of many games I knew how to play but didn’t take seriously.


JE: How old were you, and who were your biggest influences?
AS: I must have been about 10 when I learned. Today that would put me about four years behind the curve for aspiring players. I never had a chess lesson, a teacher, coach or trainer. I remember when I read a Paul Keres column in Chess Life, in 1972, in which he said the way to become a strong player is to work with a strong instructor. He added that this must have been the way young masters of the day got strong. He named Karpov, Tukmakov, Huebner and several others _ including Soltis. I just smiled.


JE: When you first started, where could you play?
AS: I finally got to play around 1961 when there was a meeting, at the same Astoria library, of amateurs who wanted to start a chess club. They eventually rented quarters at a local church but the club only lasted a year or so. I also discovered that chess moves could be recorded and they appeared regularly in the New York Times, thanks to Hermann (cq) Helms. But I didn’t know what to make of, say, the opening moves of the Botvinnik-Tal world championship rematch. After all, why would anyone play 1 c4 to start a game? And what would possess his opponent to reply 1…g6 ?


JE: What was the organized chess scene like back when you first got involved?
AS: There wasn’t much of anything that could be called “organized.” The biggest events, by far, were the annual U.S. Championship, usually held around Christmastime at a midtown hotel, and the final Met League match, which was almost always a showdown between the Marshall and Manhattan clubs. I was a wallboard boy for a few games of one U.S. Championship and played regularly in the Met League, starting in the B division. My first big thrill was announcing a mate in eight moves, beginning with a rook sacrifice, against Bill Fredericks on first board in a Jamaica Chess Club-Marshall B team match. A few weeks later when Fischer spoke at the Marshall club, Carrie Marshall introduced me to Bobby and mentioned that game. “Eight moves?” he said. How could I give up chess after that?


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