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Adisa Banjoko (AB): Nick, tell me about your journey to chess and how you ended up at Mechanics Institute.
Nick de Firmian (NF): I started chess back in the old days. Bobby Fischer was king then, popularizing chess across the country and around the world. I got a bit hooked on it.
I came up to the Bay Area from college. I discovered this old institution here, the Mechanics Institute. It has been around since the gold rush days. There is big chess tradition here. I went to different places. I went to New York. I went to Denmark. I played a lot of times for the US Olympic Team. But about five years ago, I came back to San Francisco and started our scholastic chess program with the Mechanics Institute. We’re in 20 schools and getting chess in more schools. It hadn’t been as organized, especially when compared to other areas like New York or parts of Europe. So, we are really happy with the response here.AB: I have to say that it is an amazing place. I always knew the Mechanics Club was here. But it was not until I actually went to St. Louis (for the Living Like Kings show) that I began to reflect on the legacy in my own backyard here in San Francisco. John tell me about your journey in chess and how you got here.
IM John Donaldson (JD): It was 1972. Like a lot of people my age the Fischer vs. Spassky match drew us in. It was on TV every night. It was everywhere. Shortly after that, my friends and I saw a notice for chess club. We joined up. Those people are still my friends forty years later.
That really got me started off. I went to school at the University of Washington. I am not a Bay Area native. In the fall of 1998, I accepted the position as Chess Director here. It was kind of a dream come true. There are not many clubs in the United States like the Mechanics. Probably the Marshall Chess Club in New York is one with similar stature. We have tournaments here every week. We have classes here on the weekends that are free to the public. On Tuesday nights, we host tournaments over one hundred people coming from all over the Bay Area. We have one guy who drives out all the way from Fresno for the tournament. So, it is pretty exciting. AB: It is indeed pretty amazing to be sitting here. You can feel the energy in the room. I was just talking to one of your members, Guy Robertson, about games he played with legends like Mikhail Tal and Korchnoi---right here! That is amazing stuff---to not just be looking at the photo or reading about it. You are sitting in the room where these games happened. I want to talk with you about Russian chess. I think the Russian chess machine is still very much a mystery. It is very magnetic and psychologically threatening. You guys have been on the US Olympic Team. You have beat various top Russian players, and I want to hear about that experience. I am curious to know how you guys prepared for them during your Olympic 2016 win. NF: The Russians were always the best---from WWII all the way to the turn of the century. Even later until a few years ago, simply because it was their culture. They had a lot of state support. They would get great talents and really develop those talents. I remember first meeting people and, even back then, it was still the Cold War. And you were a little suspicious. But then you got to know people, like Boris Spassky. He is one of the most wonderful people you will ever meet. Just warm, friendly. In fact, when he played Bobby Fischer, people were very surprised at what a great guy he was. They thought, “Why should we nuke this country?” [chuckles]. AB: Tell me John, when the Americans are going to be playing Russians? What do you know going in? JD: You know, first off, they will be one of the top teams. They were at the recent tournaments in Baku and Azerbaijan. Even though the names of the countries may change, they still have that great tradition. They still have a huge amount of state support. Maybe not from the government now, but by rich oligarchs. It is in their culture. They are always going to be one of the top teams.![](/sites/default/files/wp-thumbnails/2016/12/ChessLifeOlympicGold-492x640.jpg)
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