Natan Sharansky: How chess kept one man sane-Gulag master The prisoner who used imaginary chess to k

[mitty14u2]

Natan Sharansky: How chess kept one man sane-Gulag master, The prisoner who used imaginary chess to keep himself sane


Chess kept Russian human rights activist Natan Sharansky sane throughout his imprisonment by the Soviets, writes David Edmonds.

"Don't disturb me, I'm playing chess."

Natan Sharansky's jailers took that as powerful evidence that he was going - or had already become - quite mad. After all, in his punishment cell there was no bed, chair or table, let alone a chessboard and pieces. In fact, it was chess that kept him sane.

A human rights activist campaigning for the rights of Jews to emigrate to Israel, Sharansky was sentenced in 1977 on a fabricated charge of spying for the Americans. He spent nine years in a Siberian prison. Half of that was spent in solitary confinement and for more than 400 days he was locked in a punishment cell, given barely any food and clothes so thin that in the winter it amounted to a form of torture.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25560162

[dimbear]

1. If this story interests you, have a look at Stefan Zweig's last book "The Royal Game" or the

Chess Master or whatever that translation happens to be called.

Some say Zweig's best story.