GG Ismailov

Azamat Ismailov is a retired manaschi, a reciter of the Manas, the world's longest epic poem, who performed its half-million lines from memory for forty years. He describes himself, often, as the quiet one at the table, a claim that survives roughly until he opens his mouth, after which the description becomes difficult to defend, and regulars have learned to bring a second coffee. At the board that same stamina shows itself as patience, venerable and warm, and he matches every position with a story that somehow always turns out to be relevant. Wise and generous with an opinion, full of the cadence of the old poem, he holds that a game without conversation is barely worth finishing.