Raúl Sanguinetti
Encyclopedia
Raúl Carlos Sanguineti sometimes spelled Sanguinetti was an Argentine
chess
Grandmaster. He won the Argentine Chess Championship
seven times, in 1956, 1957, 1962, 1965, 1968, 1973 and 1974. Raúl Sanguinetti played for Argentina in seven Chess Olympiads. He won two individual gold medals at Moscow 1956
and Varna 1962
, and two team bronze medals at Munich 1958
and Varna 1962. In total, he represented his country in seven Olympiads with an aggregate of over 70 per cent (46 -7 =42). He played in the World Chess Championship
Interzonals at Portorož
1958 and Biel 1976. Important tournament victories included São Paulo
1957, Bariloche 1960, Buenos Aires (Club Argentino) 1963, Punte del Este 1964, Buenos Aires Open 1968, Fortaleza
Zonal 1975, Mar del Plata 1976, Buenos Aires 1977, and Santos Lugares
1977. During his competitive career, which ran from 1954 to 1977, he very rarely finished in the bottom half of the tournament table.
, Svetozar Gligorić
, Herman Pilnik
and Laszlo Szabo
, and he could only make 7.5/17 for 13th. But he followed this up with a much better result of third at the annual Mar del Plata
International of 1956, which often attracted many of the world's best players during the 1950s and 1960s. There he scored 10.5/15 (tie for 3rd-4th).
Those strong performances earned him selection to the powerful national team, which was one of the world's top teams in the 1950s and 1960s. For example, Argentina
finished second and earned team silver team medals at three straight Olympiads: Dubrovnik 1950
, Helsinki 1952
, and Amsterdam 1954
. For Moscow 1956
, Sanguinetti made his debut on the first reserve board, and played sensationally to win the gold medal with a score of 9/11. Argentina finished fourth.
Further fine showings followed. At Mar del Plata 1957, he scored 10.5/17 for sixth in a high-class field which included world #3 Paul Keres
, beating Soviet Grandmaster Alexander Kotov
. He scored 9.5/11 to win at São Paulo
1957, finishing ahead of perennial Argentine champion Miguel Najdorf
. He qualified out of Rio de Janeiro
1957, the South American Zonal, for the 1958 Interzonal
tournament, tying for second with 11.5/15, and again topping Najdorf, who failed to qualify. He earned the International Master (IM) title in 1957 for this result. At Mar del Plata 1958, he tied for third with 9.5/15. Then came the Argentine Championship of 1958, where his 11.5/17 earned him fourth place. In 1958, he also won the CAVP tournament in Buenos Aires.
He played for Argentina at the 1958 World Students' Olympiad at Varna
on board two, scoring 6/10. The Interzonal at Portorož
was next, and although he failed to qualify further, he scored respectively from the strong field, with 10/20, to place 14th out of 21. On the same trip, he played for Argentina at the 1958 Munich Olympiad
, again as first reserve, and scored 9.5/15. Argentina won the team bronze medals with a third-place finish.
1959, with 9.5/13. At Buenos Aires 1959, he scored 8.5/13 for fourth place, and was third at Quilmes 1959 with 6.5/11. At Mar del Plata 1959, he finished tied for eighth with 7/14. Then at Santiago
1959, he defeated American star Robert James Fischer, a future World Champion, and tied for fourth with 7.5/12. He tied for first at Bariloche 1960 with a powerful 7/9.
After a two-year break from top competition, he placed third at the 1962 Argentine Championship with 13.5/17, and tied for fourth at Mar del Plata 1962 with 8.5/15, behind visiting stars such as Lev Polugaevsky
, Vasily Smyslov
, and Laszlo Szabo
. Playing for Argentina again at the Varna 1962 Olympiad, he enjoyed perhaps his greatest career performance, with another gold medal on board four, from a score of 13.5/16, helping his nation to a bronze medal team finish. In 1963, he won the Buenos Aires Club Argentino event with 9/11, and the next year, he was perfect at Punta del Este (Uruguay) to win there with 7/7.
.com is a database of player ratings and results throughout chess history, and endeavours to place player strengths in historical context, while compensating for the different calculation methods which have been used, as well as retrospectively rating performances which occurred before the introduction of international ratings in 1970. By January 1965, Sanguinetti had reached a chessmetrics rating of 2677, good for #18 in the world. He had performed at 2699 at Varna 1962. With a 2600 performance generally denoting grandmaster standard, it seemed quite clear that Sanguinetti deserved a promotion to the higher title, based upon his consistently strong results in good calibre events.
At Buenos Aires 1965, Sanguinetti scored 6.5/11 to end fourth, and he won the 1965 Argentine Championship with an impressive 16/21. Mar del Plata 1965 was again very strong, with Najdorf, Leonid Stein
, and Yuri Averbakh
in attendance, and Sanguinetti could only manage eighth place with 8.5/15. The next year at Mar del Plata he scored 7.5/15 to finish tied seventh. For the Havana 1966
Olympiad, Sanguinetti was again on board four for Argentina, and performed superbly with 11/15. Argentina finished fifth.
He cut back his play over the next couple of years. He won the Argentine Championship semi-final 'C' in 1968 with 5/7 at Mar del Plata. Then, in the Championship proper, he finished second, behind Najdorf, and defeated Samuel Schweber
in a playoff match, 2.5-1.5. At the Buenos Aires Open of 1968, he tied for first with 7.5/9.
He was selected again for Argentina at the Lugano 1968
Olympiad, earning a promotion to board three, where he scored well with 11.5/16.
Open with 4.5/6. The inaugural Pan-American Team Championship was held at Tucuman 1971, and Argentina won easily, by eight points, with a monster score of 25.5/28, as all five team members won gold medal board prizes. Sanguinetti scored 5.5/6. A team event at Villa Gesell saw him post an impressive 3.5/4.
He tied for fourth at the Zárate Open of 1973 with 6.5/9. Sanguinetti claimed his second Argentine Championship title in 1973 at Santa Fe
with a dominant 13.5/18, two points clear of the field. He defeated Roberto Debarnot 2.5-0.5 in a playoff match.
He won the 1974 Argentine Championship with 13.5/16, for his third title. For the Nice 1974
Olympiad, he was on board two, and made 8/15. He travelled north to Canada for the Pan-American
Individual Championship, Winnipeg
1974, where he came second with 12/15 behind American champion Walter Browne. An unexpected break to his streak of good play was the 1975 Buenos Aires CA tournament, where he could manage only 4.5/11. But he recovered quickly. He claimed the tournament title at the Fortaleza
Zonal 1975 with 13/17, 1.5 points ahead of runner-up, countryman Miguel Quinteros
. This qualified him again for the World Championship cycle. He was fourth at the 1975 Argentine Championship at Buenos Aires with 13.5/19. Then at Mar del Plata 1976, he tied for first with 11/15. In the same year he won also in Buenos Aires (Konex).
These strong performances seemed to bode well for the 1976 Biel Interzonal, but, facing a field of 16 strong Grandmasters out of 19 opponents, including former World Champions Tigran Petrosian
and Mikhail Tal
, he scored a disappointing 8.5/19 for 16th place. Haifa 1976
marked his last Olympiad appearance for Argentina and he made 4.5/7 on board four.
At Buenos Aires 1977, he won the tournament with 8.5/10, ahead of both Najdorf and Oscar Panno
. Then he tied for first at the small Buenos Aires YMCA
event, with 4/7. At Santos Lugares
1977, he won with 8/11.
FIDE, the World Chess Federation, awarded him the Grandmaster title in 1982. He died in Buenos Aires at age 67. There is a photo of him from his later years at the site bidmonfa.com/sanguinetti_raul.htm.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
Grandmaster. He won the Argentine Chess Championship
Argentine Chess Championship
The first Argentine Chess Championship was held in 1921. The Champion's title was granted after victorious or drawn match between previous champion and challenger, a winner of Torneo Mayor...
seven times, in 1956, 1957, 1962, 1965, 1968, 1973 and 1974. Raúl Sanguinetti played for Argentina in seven Chess Olympiads. He won two individual gold medals at Moscow 1956
12th Chess Olympiad
The 12th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between August 31 and September 25, 1956, in Moscow, Soviet Union.-References:...
and Varna 1962
15th Chess Olympiad
The 15th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between September 15 and October 10, 1962, in Varna, Bulgaria.-References:* OlimpBase...
, and two team bronze medals at Munich 1958
13th Chess Olympiad
The 13th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between September 30 and October 23, 1958, in Munich, West Germany.-References:...
and Varna 1962. In total, he represented his country in seven Olympiads with an aggregate of over 70 per cent (46 -7 =42). He played in the World Chess Championship
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
Interzonals at Portorož
Portorož
- External links :**...
1958 and Biel 1976. Important tournament victories included São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
1957, Bariloche 1960, Buenos Aires (Club Argentino) 1963, Punte del Este 1964, Buenos Aires Open 1968, Fortaleza
Fortaleza
Fortaleza is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. With a population close to 2.5 million , Fortaleza is the 5th largest city in Brazil. It has an area of and one of the highest demographic densities in the country...
Zonal 1975, Mar del Plata 1976, Buenos Aires 1977, and Santos Lugares
Santos Lugares
Santos Lugares is a district in the southeast of the partido of Tres de Febrero. It is in the Gran Buenos Aires metropolitan area in the Buenos Aires Province, near the northeast of the Buenos Aires city. According to the , Santos Lugares has 17,023 inhabitants.-External links:...
1977. During his competitive career, which ran from 1954 to 1977, he very rarely finished in the bottom half of the tournament table.
Gold in national team debut
Sanguineti began his high-level tournament career at the 1954 Buenos Aires Zonal tournament in Mar del Plata, with a fine mid-place (tie for 7-9th place) finish of 10.5/20. He improved the next year, 1955, with an excellent tie for fourth place at the Argentine Championship at Buenos Aires, where he scored 12/19. Next was the very strong Buenos Aires 1955 event, which featured star Grandmasters Borislav IvkovBorislav Ivkov
Borislav Ivkov is a Serbian chess Grandmaster. He was the first ever World Junior Champion in 1951. He won the Yugoslav Championship in 1958 , 1963 and 1972. He was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal tournaments, in 1967, 1970, 1973, and 1979...
, Svetozar Gligorić
Svetozar Gligoric
Svetozar Gligorić is a Serbian chess grandmaster. He won the championship of Yugoslavia a record twelve times, and is considered the best player ever from Serbia...
, Herman Pilnik
Herman Pilnik
Herman Pilnik was an Argentine chess Grandmaster.-Career:...
and Laszlo Szabo
László Szabó (chess player)
László Szabó was a prominent Hungarian Grandmaster of chess.Born in Budapest, he burst onto the international chess scene in 1935, at the unusually young age of 18...
, and he could only make 7.5/17 for 13th. But he followed this up with a much better result of third at the annual Mar del Plata
Mar del Plata
Mar del Plata is an Argentine city located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, south of Buenos Aires. Mar del Plata is the second largest city of Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" had apparently the sense of "sea of the Río de la Plata region" or "adjoining sea to the Río de la Plata"...
International of 1956, which often attracted many of the world's best players during the 1950s and 1960s. There he scored 10.5/15 (tie for 3rd-4th).
Those strong performances earned him selection to the powerful national team, which was one of the world's top teams in the 1950s and 1960s. For example, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
finished second and earned team silver team medals at three straight Olympiads: Dubrovnik 1950
9th Chess Olympiad
The 9th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between August 20 and September 11, 1950, in Dubrovnik, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia .The final results were as follows:-Final :The...
, Helsinki 1952
10th Chess Olympiad
The 10th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between August 9 and August 31, 1952, in Helsinki, Finland.-References:* OlimpBase...
, and Amsterdam 1954
11th Chess Olympiad
The 11th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between September 4 and September 25, 1954, in Amsterdam, Netherlands...
. For Moscow 1956
12th Chess Olympiad
The 12th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between August 31 and September 25, 1956, in Moscow, Soviet Union.-References:...
, Sanguinetti made his debut on the first reserve board, and played sensationally to win the gold medal with a score of 9/11. Argentina finished fourth.
Further fine showings followed. At Mar del Plata 1957, he scored 10.5/17 for sixth in a high-class field which included world #3 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....
, beating Soviet Grandmaster Alexander Kotov
Alexander Kotov
Alexander Alexandrovich Kotov was a Soviet chess grandmaster and author. He was a Soviet champion, a two-time world title Candidate, and a prolific chess author. Kotov served in high posts in the Soviet Chess Federation and most of his books were written during the period of Cold War between the...
. He scored 9.5/11 to win at São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
1957, finishing ahead of perennial Argentine champion Miguel Najdorf
Miguel Najdorf
Miguel Najdorf was a Polish-born Argentine chess grandmaster of Jewish origin, famous for his Najdorf Variation....
. He qualified out of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
1957, the South American Zonal, for the 1958 Interzonal
Interzonal
Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle.- Zonal tournaments :...
tournament, tying for second with 11.5/15, and again topping Najdorf, who failed to qualify. He earned the International Master (IM) title in 1957 for this result. At Mar del Plata 1958, he tied for third with 9.5/15. Then came the Argentine Championship of 1958, where his 11.5/17 earned him fourth place. In 1958, he also won the CAVP tournament in Buenos Aires.
He played for Argentina at the 1958 World Students' Olympiad at Varna
Varna
Varna is the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and third-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia and Plovdiv, with a population of 334,870 inhabitants according to Census 2011...
on board two, scoring 6/10. The Interzonal at Portorož
Portorož
- External links :**...
was next, and although he failed to qualify further, he scored respectively from the strong field, with 10/20, to place 14th out of 21. On the same trip, he played for Argentina at the 1958 Munich Olympiad
13th Chess Olympiad
The 13th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between September 30 and October 23, 1958, in Munich, West Germany.-References:...
, again as first reserve, and scored 9.5/15. Argentina won the team bronze medals with a third-place finish.
Beats Fischer, wins second gold medal
Returning to South America, he resumed his good streak with a tie for third at LimaLima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
1959, with 9.5/13. At Buenos Aires 1959, he scored 8.5/13 for fourth place, and was third at Quilmes 1959 with 6.5/11. At Mar del Plata 1959, he finished tied for eighth with 7/14. Then at Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
1959, he defeated American star Robert James Fischer, a future World Champion, and tied for fourth with 7.5/12. He tied for first at Bariloche 1960 with a powerful 7/9.
After a two-year break from top competition, he placed third at the 1962 Argentine Championship with 13.5/17, and tied for fourth at Mar del Plata 1962 with 8.5/15, behind visiting stars such as Lev Polugaevsky
Lev Polugaevsky
Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky was an International Grandmaster of chess and frequent contender for the world chess championship, although he never achieved that title...
, Vasily 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...
, and Laszlo Szabo
László Szabó (chess player)
László Szabó was a prominent Hungarian Grandmaster of chess.Born in Budapest, he burst onto the international chess scene in 1935, at the unusually young age of 18...
. Playing for Argentina again at the Varna 1962 Olympiad, he enjoyed perhaps his greatest career performance, with another gold medal on board four, from a score of 13.5/16, helping his nation to a bronze medal team finish. In 1963, he won the Buenos Aires Club Argentino event with 9/11, and the next year, he was perfect at Punta del Este (Uruguay) to win there with 7/7.
Career high rating
The website chessmetricsChessmetrics
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 is a database of player ratings and results throughout chess history, and endeavours to place player strengths in historical context, while compensating for the different calculation methods which have been used, as well as retrospectively rating performances which occurred before the introduction of international ratings in 1970. By January 1965, Sanguinetti had reached a chessmetrics rating of 2677, good for #18 in the world. He had performed at 2699 at Varna 1962. With a 2600 performance generally denoting grandmaster standard, it seemed quite clear that Sanguinetti deserved a promotion to the higher title, based upon his consistently strong results in good calibre events.
At Buenos Aires 1965, Sanguinetti scored 6.5/11 to end fourth, and he won the 1965 Argentine Championship with an impressive 16/21. Mar del Plata 1965 was again very strong, with Najdorf, Leonid Stein
Leonid Stein
Leonid Zakharovich Stein was a Soviet chess Grandmaster from Ukraine. He won three USSR Chess Championships in the 1960s , and was among the world's top ten players during that era.- Early life :...
, and Yuri Averbakh
Yuri Averbakh
Yuri Lvovich Averbakh is a Soviet and Russian chess player and author. He is currently the oldest living chess grandmaster.-Life and career:...
in attendance, and Sanguinetti could only manage eighth place with 8.5/15. The next year at Mar del Plata he scored 7.5/15 to finish tied seventh. For the Havana 1966
17th Chess Olympiad
The 17th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 23 and November 20, 1966, in Havana, Cuba.-References:* OlimpBase...
Olympiad, Sanguinetti was again on board four for Argentina, and performed superbly with 11/15. Argentina finished fifth.
He cut back his play over the next couple of years. He won the Argentine Championship semi-final 'C' in 1968 with 5/7 at Mar del Plata. Then, in the Championship proper, he finished second, behind Najdorf, and defeated Samuel Schweber
Samuel Schweber
Samuel Schweber is an Argentine chess player.Schweber played in several Argentine chess championships. He was 7-8th in 1956 , 4-6th in 1960 , 2nd in 1963 , 3rd in 1965 , 5-8th in 1967 , 2nd in 1968 , 3rd-4th in 1969 , 3rd-4th in 1980 Samuel Schweber (born 16 July 1936) is an Argentine chess...
in a playoff match, 2.5-1.5. At the Buenos Aires Open of 1968, he tied for first with 7.5/9.
He was selected again for Argentina at the Lugano 1968
18th Chess Olympiad
The 18th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 17 and November 7, 1968, in Lugano, Switzerland.-References:* OlimpBase...
Olympiad, earning a promotion to board three, where he scored well with 11.5/16.
Second wind, Grandmaster at last
After a break of three years from top-flight play, Sanguineti returned to action in 1971. He won the 1971 Villa GesellVilla Gesell
Villa Gesell is a seaside village in Villa Gesell Partido, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It was founded in 1931, afforestating a dune field. The growth of the city allowed it to annex the nearby cities of Mar de las Pampas, Las Gaviotas and Mar Azul....
Open with 4.5/6. The inaugural Pan-American Team Championship was held at Tucuman 1971, and Argentina won easily, by eight points, with a monster score of 25.5/28, as all five team members won gold medal board prizes. Sanguinetti scored 5.5/6. A team event at Villa Gesell saw him post an impressive 3.5/4.
He tied for fourth at the Zárate Open of 1973 with 6.5/9. Sanguinetti claimed his second Argentine Championship title in 1973 at Santa Fe
Santa Fe, Argentina
Santa Fe is the capital city of province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It sits in northeastern Argentina, near the junction of the Paraná and Salado rivers. It lies opposite the city of Paraná, to which it is linked by the Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel. The city is also connected by canal with the...
with a dominant 13.5/18, two points clear of the field. He defeated Roberto Debarnot 2.5-0.5 in a playoff match.
He won the 1974 Argentine Championship with 13.5/16, for his third title. For the Nice 1974
21st Chess Olympiad
The 21st Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between June 6 and June 30, 1974, in Nice, France.-References:* OlimpBase...
Olympiad, he was on board two, and made 8/15. He travelled north to Canada for the Pan-American
Pan-American
Pan-American or Pan American may refer to:*Collectively, North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean; the Americas*Pan-Americanism, an integrationist movement among the nations of the Americas...
Individual Championship, Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
1974, where he came second with 12/15 behind American champion Walter Browne. An unexpected break to his streak of good play was the 1975 Buenos Aires CA tournament, where he could manage only 4.5/11. But he recovered quickly. He claimed the tournament title at the Fortaleza
Fortaleza
Fortaleza is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. With a population close to 2.5 million , Fortaleza is the 5th largest city in Brazil. It has an area of and one of the highest demographic densities in the country...
Zonal 1975 with 13/17, 1.5 points ahead of runner-up, countryman Miguel Quinteros
Miguel Quinteros
Miguel Quinteros is an Argentine chess grandmaster.He won the Argentine Chess Championship at the age of 18 and in 1969 took eighth place at the Mar del Plata Zonal tournament...
. This qualified him again for the World Championship cycle. He was fourth at the 1975 Argentine Championship at Buenos Aires with 13.5/19. Then at Mar del Plata 1976, he tied for first with 11/15. In the same year he won also in Buenos Aires (Konex).
These strong performances seemed to bode well for the 1976 Biel Interzonal, but, facing a field of 16 strong Grandmasters out of 19 opponents, including former World Champions Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else...
and Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
, he scored a disappointing 8.5/19 for 16th place. Haifa 1976
22nd Chess Olympiad
The 22nd Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between October 26 and November 10, 1976, in Haifa, Israel.-References:* OlimpBase...
marked his last Olympiad appearance for Argentina and he made 4.5/7 on board four.
At Buenos Aires 1977, he won the tournament with 8.5/10, ahead of both Najdorf and Oscar Panno
Oscar Panno
Oscar R. Panno is an Argentine chess Grandmaster.Panno won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1953, and also won the championship of Argentina the same year....
. Then he tied for first at the small Buenos Aires YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
event, with 4/7. At Santos Lugares
Santos Lugares
Santos Lugares is a district in the southeast of the partido of Tres de Febrero. It is in the Gran Buenos Aires metropolitan area in the Buenos Aires Province, near the northeast of the Buenos Aires city. According to the , Santos Lugares has 17,023 inhabitants.-External links:...
1977, he won with 8/11.
FIDE, the World Chess Federation, awarded him the Grandmaster title in 1982. He died in Buenos Aires at age 67. There is a photo of him from his later years at the site bidmonfa.com/sanguinetti_raul.htm.
Legacy
Chess databases, such as chessgames.com and chessbase.com, seem to be missing many if not most of Sanguinetti's games, especially from most of his South American events. The comprehensive Olympiad database olimpbase.org has all of his games from the Olympiads which can be played through on-screen. The database mychess.com has the best selection of his games, virtually complete for his top-level events, and these can be played through on-screen. But the games that are available show that he was dangerous for virtually anyone to meet, as players such as Alexander Kotov and Robert Fischer can attest. He favoured the Closed Openings with White, but could slip in an occasional 1.e4 to keep opponents off-balance. His style could be characterized as patient and strategic. He played much of his best chess when representing Argentina, with an impressive 67/95 in seven Olympiads, for 70.5 per cent, including two gold medals for best board performances. His best years were from 1958 to 1966, when he was most active, and then again from 1971 to 1977. He seems to have been retired from serious competition since the late 1970s.Notable chess games
- Alexander Kotov vs Raúl Sanguineti, Mar del Plata 1957, Queen's Indian Defence (E16), 0-1 A hard-fought win over a top touring Soviet GM.
- Raúl Sanguineti vs Hector Rossetto, Portorož Interzonal 1958, Ruy Lopez, Open Variation (C83), 1-0 Nifty 28-move victory over his countryman Rossetto.
- Raúl Sanguineti vs James Sherwin, Portorož Interzonal 1958, King's Indian Defence, Classical Variation (E90), 1-0 Black chooses an offbeat line to try to confuse the young Argentine, but to no avail.
- Raúl Sanguineti vs Istvan Bilek, Munich Olympiad 1958, Nimzo-Indian Defence, Rubinstein Variation (E43), 1-0 A nice precise win over a strong Hungarian GM.
- Raúl Sanguineti vs Robert James Fischer, Santiago 1959, King's Indian Defence, Saemisch Variation (E81), 1-0 Any win over a future World Champion is well worth studying.