Yuri Averbakh

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JustinHorton
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Yuri Averbakh

Post by JustinHorton » Sat May 07, 2022 2:30 pm

Has died at the age of 100, according to FIDE.
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David Sedgwick
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Re: Yuri Averbakh

Post by David Sedgwick » Sat May 07, 2022 2:35 pm

Justin beat me to it by two minutes, so I have moved my intended thread starter over here verbatim.

I have just heard that the world's oldest Grandmaster, Yuri Averbakh, died earlier today at the age of 100.

https://eprimefeed.com/sports/worlds-ol ... ies/81124/

In 2002 I had the pleasure of attending his 80th birthday lecture to the endgame study group Arves in Belgium. Before that I met him in Croatia in 1997, when he was the Deputy Chief Arbiter at that the European Team Championships in Croatia.

Earlier in the 199os he was the Chief Arbiter at the breakaway World Championship match between Kasparov and Short in London.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Yuri Averbakh

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Sat May 07, 2022 6:42 pm

Had to happen some day soon, but sad news nonetheless.

Was the final survivor of the epochal 1953 Candidates tournament, amongst many other things.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

Mike Wiltshire
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Re: Yuri Averbakh

Post by Mike Wiltshire » Sun May 08, 2022 10:52 pm

Yuri was one of life's great guys. Not only a brilliant chess player but very well versed in the history of the game as well, having been a regular attendee at meetings of Chess Collectors International until covid stopped our meetings two years ago.

He once told me that in his research he had discovered that noughts and crosses had an earlier written history than chess. I will treasure my draw with two pawns down but with opposite coloured bishops in a simultaneous display against him.

Neville Twitchell
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Re: Yuri Averbakh

Post by Neville Twitchell » Wed May 11, 2022 7:42 pm

Is he the longest lived GM? I mistakenly thought Lilienthal had lived to 100 but looked him up and see he died aged 99.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Yuri Averbakh

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Wed May 11, 2022 8:05 pm

Yes, the longest lived GM and possibly longest lived FIDE titleholder of any kind.

(though he was maybe just beaten to it there by Austrian FIDE Master Anton Kinzel, born in January 1922 and possibly still alive)
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

Leonard Barden
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Re: Yuri Averbakh

Post by Leonard Barden » Wed May 11, 2022 9:04 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote:
Wed May 11, 2022 8:05 pm
Yes, the longest lived GM and possibly longest lived FIDE titleholder of any kind.

(though he was maybe just beaten to it there by Austrian FIDE Master Anton Kinzel, born in January 1922 and possibly still alive)
I was watching when Bob Wade defeated Kinzel in nine moves in England v Austria at the 1962 Varna Olympiad. https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1243208

Mick Norris
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Re: Yuri Averbakh

Post by Mick Norris » Fri May 13, 2022 9:46 am

How he fell in love with chess
Late in 1935 I visited the Moscow Chess Club for the first time, and there I was fortunate enough to listen to a lecture by the great endgame expert Nikolai Grigoriev. It made an indelible impression on me. When Grigoriev explained his pawn studies, moving the pieces on the demonstration board with his thin, artistic fingers, I sensed, rather than understood, the great depth and beauty of chess, observing with my own eyes how human thought spiritualises these little wooden pieces, and they, like real actors, begin performing miraculous spectacles, capable of touching the most sensitive parts of the human soul. It was this perception of chess as an art that finally linked me with it. I wanted to understand chess and study it.
Back to 1935. In the following 87 years of his life, the new chess lover will become Grandmaster, USSR Champion, second of several World Champions, World Championship arbiter, President of the Soviet Chess Federation, successful author, recognized historian, and, of course, study composer, like his mentor.

Unfortunately for chess, the 4-time Moscow Champion, tournament organizer, journalist, and genius composer, Nikolai Grigoriev, wouldn't have the same longevity. At the age of 43, he tragically died from cancer aggravated by the torture inflicted by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. His studies remain immortal.
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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Yuri Averbakh

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Wed Aug 03, 2022 11:45 pm

Danny King's column in the August 2022 CHESS ('How Good is Your Chess?') is a game by Averbakh.

Danny recounts in the introduction how he played Averbakh in 1990, and the game was a wild draw (where Danny King was "getting routed" after 20 moves), and after the game Averbakh said to King that he had had that position in 1963!

Here is the game (Danny describes it as "great fun, but quite unsuitable for this test" and leaves the reader to go find it for themselves, so I did just that):