Grigory Levenfish
Encyclopedia
Piotrków
Piotrków may refer to the following places in Poland:*Piotrków Trybunalski, a city in Piotrków County, Łódź Voivodeship*Piotrków Kujawski, a city in Gmina Piotrków Kujawski in Radziejów County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship...
– February 9, 1961, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
) was a leading Jewishhttp://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/jews.html Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n chess grandmaster of the 1920s and 1930s. He was twice Soviet champion
USSR Chess Championship
This is a list of all the winners of the USSR Chess Championship. It was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winners...
- in 1934 (jointly with Ilya Rabinovich
Ilya Rabinovich
Ilya Rabinovich was a Russian chess master.-Biography:In 1911 Ilya Leontievich Rabinovich tied for 1st with Platz in Saint Petersburg...
) and 1937. In 1937 he tied a match against future world champion Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...
. Levenfish was also a well-regarded chess writer.
Biography
Born in PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, then part of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, he spent most of his formative years in St. Petersburg, where he attended the university and studied chemical engineering
Chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...
. His earliest recognition as a prominent chess player came when he won the St. Petersburg chess championship of 1909, and played in the strong Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary
Karlovy Vary
Karlovy Vary is a spa city situated in western Bohemia, Czech Republic, on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá, approximately west of Prague . It is named after King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who founded the city in 1370...
) tournament of 1911, although he made a minus score in the very strong field. His play at the time was compared to that of the great master Chigorin
Mikhail Chigorin
Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin also was a leading Russian chess player...
. Into the next decade, he continued to perform well in local tournaments, most notably winning the Leningrad Championships
Leningrad City Chess Championship
The Leningrad City Chess Championship is a chess tournament held officially in the city of Leningrad, Russia starting from 1920. The city was called Petrograd from 1914 to 1924, then Leningrad until 1991, and Saint Petersburg afterwards...
of 1922, 1924, and 1925 (jointly). At a national level too, he enjoyed an excellent record at the Soviet Championship
USSR Chess Championship
This is a list of all the winners of the USSR Chess Championship. It was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winners...
; third in 1920, second in 1923, co-champion at Leningrad in 1934 (tied with Ilya Rabinovich
Ilya Rabinovich
Ilya Rabinovich was a Russian chess master.-Biography:In 1911 Ilya Leontievich Rabinovich tied for 1st with Platz in Saint Petersburg...
at 12/19), and outright champion at Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
in 1937 with 12.5/19.
Salo Flohr
Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr was a leading Czech and later Soviet chess grandmaster of the mid-20th century, who became a national hero in Czechoslovakia during the 1930s. His name was used to sell many of the luxury products of the time, including Salo Flohr cigarettes, slippers and eau-de-cologne...
won. In a Soviet-only tournament at Leningrad 1936, he placed third with 8.5/14. Participation in the Leningrad-Moscow training tournament of 1939 resulted in a shared 3rd-6th place finish, with 10/17, behind winner Flohr and Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...
.
In match play, he drew with Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...
in 1937 over 13 games, and beat Vladimir Alatortsev
Vladimir Alatortsev
Vladimir Alexeyevich Alatortsev , was a Russian chess grandmaster, organizer, teacher, author, and administrator. During his career, he became champion of both Leningrad and Moscow, and played nine times in the Soviet Chess Championship finals, with his best competitive results in the 1930s...
in 1940.
Despite his successes, Levenfish was virtually ignored by the Soviet chess authorities. They consistently supported his great rival Botvinnik, and pretenders to the throne were not encouraged. Levenfish was a member of the older generation of masters, 22 years older than Botvinnik. Consequently, he lived his life in somewhat tragic circumstances, as the only strong Soviet master of his generation who was denied a stipend
Stipend
A stipend is a form of salary, such as for an internship or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from a wage or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work performed, instead it represents a payment that enables somebody to be exempt partly or wholly from waged or salaried...
. This meant that he could only afford a poorly heated room in a run-down block of flats. Worse still, the government refused him permission to travel abroad and compete in tournaments such as AVRO 1938 (even though he was the reigning Soviet Champion). This further weakened his standing and most likely affected his morale; not to mention his continued development as a chess player. Other players born pre-revolution, such as Alekhine
Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion. He is often considered one of the greatest chess players ever.By the age of twenty-two, he was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played...
, Bogoljubov, Rubinstein
Akiba Rubinstein
Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein was a famous Polish chess Grandmaster at the beginning of the 20th century. He was scheduled to play a match with Emanuel Lasker for the world championship in 1914, but it was cancelled because of the outbreak of World War I...
and Nimzowitsch
Aron Nimzowitsch
Aron Nimzowitsch was a Russian-born Danish unofficial chess grandmaster and a very influential chess writer...
, were all allowed to travel and even ended up living abroad. Deprived of the same opportunities, Levenfish played only within the confines of Soviet Russia and supplemented his income with a job as an engineer in the glass industry. This eventually resulted in a slow retirement from active play.
Levenfish was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by the FIDE, the World Chess Federation, in 1950, the year the title was introduced officially.
Legacy
Genna Sosonko, in his book Russian Silhouettes, echoes the thoughts of some grandmasters who knew him, and they speak of a man of integrity and independence, who never complained about his difficult living conditions. SpasskyBoris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...
encountered him in a Moscow subway, just days before his death. Levenfish, who had a wretched look, was clutching a handkerchief to his mouth and declared that he had just had six teeth extracted. Smyslov
Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, and was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions . Smyslov was twice equal first at the Soviet Championship , and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won...
recounts the time that Levenfish visited him, towards the end of his life, armed with a huge pile of papers. It turned out to be a manuscript detailing his lifetime work on rook endings. He asked Smyslov to check for errors, and some minor corrections later, the book was published (1957) bearing both names, under the (translated) title The Theory Of Rook Endings (later published in English in 1971 under the title Rook Endings). Smyslov freely admits that all of the hard work was carried out by his co-author.
Levenfish's top Chessmetrics
Chessmetrics
Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo rating system.-Implementation:...
.com ranking was #9 in the world for two months in early 1938, and his peak rating was 2677 for one month in 1939.
In his time, Grigory Levenfish also wrote books for beginners and edited a collaborative effort on chess openings, titled Modern Openings. His posthumously published autobiography, Izbrannye Partii I Vospominanya (1967), contained 79 annotated games. He died in Moscow in 1961.
As the games selection shows, Levenfish defeated virtually all of the top Russian and Soviet players from the 1910s to the early 1950s, and beat world champions Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion. He is often considered one of the greatest chess players ever.By the age of twenty-two, he was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played...
and Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years...
as well. Paul Keres
Paul Keres
Paul Keres , was an Estonian chess grandmaster, and a renowned chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s....
and David Bronstein
David Bronstein
David Ionovich Bronstein was a Soviet chess grandmaster, who narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics...
each had the advantage on him, but they were much younger men, and Levenfish was past his prime when those encounters took place. Levenfish was strong on the Black side of the French Defence
French Defence
The French Defence is a chess opening. It is characterised by the moves:The French has a reputation for solidity and resilience, though it can result in a somewhat cramped game for Black in the early stages...
and the Slav Defence, and generally played classical openings, although he did play the hypermodern Grunfeld Defence
Grünfeld Defence
The Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The first instance of this opening is in an 1855 game by Moheschunder Bannerjee, an Indian player who had transitioned from Indian chess rules, playing black against John Cochrane in Calcutta, in May 1855: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4...
and Nimzo-Indian Defence
Nimzo-Indian Defence
The Nimzo-Indian Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:This hypermodern opening was developed by Grandmaster Aron Nimzowitsch who introduced it to master-level chess in the early 20th century. Unlike most Indian openings the Nimzo-Indian does not involve an immediate fianchetto,...
on occasion.
Regarding his playing abilities, Sosonko points to his deep understanding of the game and a keen eye for brilliantly imaginative moves. It was as a tactician that he really excelled, delivering elegant combinations and unexpected tactical blows, that many thought were impossibly ambitious. He was also an accomplished and leading opening
Chess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
theorist; the inventor of the Levenfish Attack, a sharp variation of the Sicilian Defence
Sicilian Defence
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves:The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4...
, devised to combat Black's ever-popular Dragon set-up. It remains fully playable in modern practice.
Notable chess games
- Eugene Znosko-Borovsky vs Grigory Levenfish, St. Petersburg 1910, French Defence, Classical Variation (C14), 0-1 A key game from Levenfish's first major successful event.
- Grigory Levenfish vs Borislav Kostic, Carlsbad 1911, Queen's Gambit Declined (D55), 1-0 Levenfish journeyed abroad to a tournament at age 22, but this was to be his last time!
- Grigory Levenfish vs Alexander Alekhine, St. Petersburg 1913, Queen's Pawn Game, Wade-Tartakower Defence (A46), 1-0 Alekhine was of the same generation of Masters as Levenfish, and he had the head-to-head edge at this time.
- Ilya Rabinovich vs Grigory Levenfish, USSR Championship, Leningrad 1923, Two Knights' Defence (C59), 0-1 Utter demolition of White's Kingside in a scorching miniature.
- Emanuel Lasker vs Grigory Levenfish, Moscow International 1925, French Defence, Classical Variation (C14), 0-1 Defeating Lasker was always a notable feat.
- Grigory Levenfish vs Fedor Bohatirchuk, USSR Championship, Leningrad 1933, Ruy Lopez, Deferred Steinitz Defence (C79), 1-0 Bohatirchuk was another classical master of this era, a co-Soviet champion from 1927, who had Botvinnik's number in their rivalry.
- Grigory Levenfish vs Viacheslav Ragozin, USSR Championship, Leningrad 1935, French Defence, Winawer Variation (C16), 1-0 This time Levenfish proves his skill on the White side of the French!
- Grigory Levenfish vs Salo Flohr, Moscow International 1936, Slav Defence (D17), 1-0 Flohr was one of the top five players in the world, with a string of tournament victories during the 1930s.
- Grigory Levenfish vs Mikhail Botvinnik, Leningrad-Moscow match 1937, Grunfeld Defence (D83), 1-0 Levenfish played some of the best chess of his life in this match, which wound up all square after 13 games.
- Mikhail Botvinnik vs Grigory Levenfish, Leningrad-Moscow match 1937, Slav Defence (D10), 0-1 Botvinnik can prove no advantage and in fact suffers defeat against the solid Slav.
- Grigory Levenfish vs Mikhail Botvinnik, Leningrad-Moscow match 1937, Nimzo-Indian Defence, Classical Variation (E34), 1-0 Another beautiful positional performance.
- Mikhail Botvinnik vs Grigory Levenfish, Leningrad-Moscow match 1937, Slav Defence (D10), 0-1 After the match, Botvinnik would devote special analytical efforts to the Slav.
- Vladimir Alatortsev vs Grigory Levenfish, USSR Championship, Tbilisi 1937, Catalan Opening (E00), 0-1 This tournament saw Levenfish claim clear first place and the Soviet title.
- Grigory Levenfish vs Alexander Kotov, USSR Championship, Leningrad 1939, Queen's Gambit Declined, Exchange / Three Knights' Variation (D37), 1-0 Levenfish defeats the second prize winner that year.
- Igor Bondarevsky vs Grigory Levenfish, USSR Championship, Leningrad 1939, Grunfeld Defence, Exchange Variation (D85), 0-1 Bondarevsky was making his move into the top Soviet echelon around this time.
- Lev Aronin vs Grigory Levenfish, USSR Championship, Leningrad 1947, Nimzo-Indian Defence (E20), 0-1 Aronin plays very imaginitively in the opening with the rare 4.g3, but has to concede defeat to the Old Master.
- Alexander Tolush vs Grigory Levenfish, USSR Championship, Leningrad 1947, Slav Defence, Geller Gambit (D15), 0-1 Tolush was a very dangerous attacker, and here adopts a sharp variation, but to no avail.
- Grigory Levenfish vs Igor Bondarevsky, USSR Championship, Moscow 1948, Nimzo-Indian Defence, Rubinstein Variation (E53), 1-0 Levenfish was no longer challenging for the Soviet title, but he could definitely defeat anyone on a given day during this era.
- Grigory Levenfish vs Mark Taimanov, USSR Championship, Moscow 1948, Nimzo-Indian Defence, Rubinstein Variation (E53), 1-0 Taimanov (born 1926) was part of the new generation of Soviet School of Chess Masters which dominated after the Second World War.
- Grigory Levenfish vs Vasily Smyslov, USSR Championship, Moscow 1949, Grunfeld Defence, Russian / Smyslov Variation (D98), 1-0 Smyslov, a World Champion to be, was that year's Soviet co-champion. The two were friends and became co-authors later on. This game shows that Levenfish's tactical skills were still intact at age 60, as he blows up Smyslov's Kingside with a surprise rook sacrifice.
- Viktor Korchnoi vs Grigory Levenfish, Minsk 1953, Catalan System, Closed Variation (E07), 0-1 Levenfish spots Korchnoi 42 years, but shows he still has impressive tactical alertness with a pretty concluding combination.
Books
- Modern Openings, edited by Grigory Levenfish. In Russian.
- Izbrannye Partii I Vospominanya, by Grigory Levenfish, 1967. In Russian. His posthumous autobiography with 79 annotated games.
- Rook Endings, by Grigory Levenfish and Vasily Smyslov, 1971, Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-0449-3.