Small Scenes with Big Players Behind the Old Iron Curtain


Yuri Averbakh has been influencing many important aspects of chess for the better part of a century.


AVERBAKH AT 90 Yuri Averbakh, the world’s oldest living grandmaster, turns 90 this month. He was of worldwide impor- tance in no fewer than four areas of our game—playing, writing, coaching, and governing. He won the Moscow Championship in 1949, became a grandmaster in 1952, and was a candidate for the world championship at Zurich in 1953. He competed in the USSR championship (the most powerful national chess championship that ever existed) 16 times, winning the title in 1954, ahead of a constellation of now legendary stars—including Mark Taimanov, Viktor Korchnoi, Tigran Petrosian, Efim Geller and Salo Flohr. He tied for first in 1956 with Boris Spassky and Taimanov. In 1958, Averbakh qualified for the Potoroz interzonal, barely missing the cut for the candidates tournament. For decades he edited the highly influential Shakhmaty v SSSR (Chess in the USSR) and Shakhmatny Bulletin (which Bobby Fischer called the world’s best chess magazine). The publication of Averbakh’s five-volume Com- prehensive Chess Endings cemented his reputation as a renowned expert on the endgame. As a trainer and second, he aided, among others, four world champions—Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Tal, Petrosian, and Spassky. Averbakh held important positions within the Soviet Chess Federation, becoming its president in 1972.


Over the next few pages, Macauley Peterson provides a brief profile of Yuri, while Al Lawrence reviews Averbakh’s autobiography, just this year translated into English.


12


Chess Life — February 2012


uschess.org


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