Their father had played chess too. "Father used to beat us at first," Vladimir Ilyich once told me, "but then my brother and I got hold of a chess manual and started beating him. ###>«Au début, c'était toujours le père qui gagnait, contait Vladimir Ilitch, mais, un beau jour, mon frère et moi nous nous procurâmes un manuel du jeu d'échecs et ce fut à notre tour de gagner.