(1) <Maxim Gorky (born in <1868> as <Alexei Maximovich Peshkov>; died in 1936)> did not play chess.

(2) On the photo two players (sitting opposite to each other) are <Lenin> (on the left) and <Alexandr Alexandrovich Bogdanov> (born as <Malinovsky>) - the one who opposed Lenin in philosophical discussions from his purely scientific viewpoint.

(3) <Maxim Gorky> himself on this photo is watching the game, standing by. His wife (or one of his girlfriends) is standing next to him. The rumors identified this lady as <Maria Fyodorovna Andreeva>, the ex-wife of the other Russian writer, Leonid Andreev.

(4) The last but not least: looks to me like the text of this game is made up; at least I had never seen it for all 40 years of my life in the USSR.

Taking into consideration how crazy the soviet propaganda was about Lenin - collecting every piece of the toilet paper that might have been used by the <*leader of the working class of the whole world*>, either way, including his <*brilliant and <valuable> notes*> - this propaganda could have hardly missed such a game.

By the way, I recollect that there had been entirely different masters (not too famous) who played precisely those moves in the 20-th century.

"Gorky invited Ilyich to Capri (where Bogdanov, Bazarov and others were living at the time) in order to come to a general agreement [on certain ideological disputes], but Ilyich did not want to go – he had a presentiment that no understanding was possible.

. . .

Yielding to Gorky's urgent requests, however, Ilyich did go to Capri in May, but he spent only a couple of days there. The visit, of course, brought no conciliation with Bogdanov's philosophical views. Ilyich afterwards related how he had told Bogdanov and Bazarov – "I'm afraid we'll have to separate for two or three years," and how Maria Fyodorovna, Gorky's wife, had laughingly called him to order.

Gorky's place was filled with a crowd of noisy bustling people playing chess or boating. Ilyich did not have very much to say about this trip. He spoke mostly about the beautiful scenery, the sea, and the local wine, but was reticent about the talk on painful subjects that had taken place there."

His novels - IMHO (In MY Humble Opinion) full of quite a bitter taste - mostly are boring.

Indeed true for later leaders. Maxim Gorki had anything but easy life himself and he was in Capri because he had lung problems due to tuberculosis and to a selfinflicted wound (trying to commit suicide when he was young). He left Russia because of that and because of some disagreement he had with commies aka bolsheviks. Later in life Gorki returned, was celebrated during Stalin and quite possibly poisoned by Stalin's aparatus.