Alexander Alexandrovich Kotov

Alexander Kotow, around 1967
Surname	Alexander Alexandrovich Kotov
Association	Soviet Union
Born	August 12, 1913 Tula , Russian Empire
Died	January 8, 1981 Moscow
title	Grand Master (1950)
Best Elo rating	2510 (July 1971)

Alexander Kotov ( Russian Александр Александрович Котов * July 30 ^jul. / 12. August  1913 ^greg. In Tula , † 8. January 1981 in Moscow ) was a Soviet chess players .

Chess career

In his first participation in the national championship of the Soviet Union in 1938, Alexander Kotow surprisingly finished second behind the eventual world champion Mikhail Botvinnik . During the Second World War he worked in the armaments industry and received the Order of Lenin for designing a grenade launcher . In 1948 he won the Soviet individual championship together with Dawid Bronstein . In the 1950s he was one of the best players in the Soviet Union and won the interzonal tournament in Stockholm in 1952. In this tournament, his result of 16.5 out of 20 (= 82.5%) meant the record in interzonal tournaments (as of 1981) . Kotow won the Chess Olympiads in 1952 and 1954 with the Soviet team (each as the second reserve player) . In 1958 he took part in a USSR championship for the last time. 1962/63 he won, together with Svetozar Gligorić , the tournament in Hastings . In 1967 he was second behind Lajos Portisch at the IBM tournament in Amsterdam .

His best historical Elo number before the Elo number was introduced was 2753 in April 1950, which puts him in fourth place in the world rankings.

Due to his international success, he received the title of Grand Master from FIDE in 1950 .

There are several chess problems by an Alexander Kotow, but these come from the namesake Alexander Iwanowitsch Kotow.

Writing activity

Kotow wrote several important chess books, including a two-volume biography of Alexander Alekhine , published 1953-1958, as well as Thinking Like a Grandmaster (1970) and Games Like a Grandmaster (1978), in which he treated the technique of calculating variants in chess. He also wrote the work Chess in the USSR (together with Michail Judowitsch) in 1951 , in which the achievements of the Soviet chess school are presented. He also wrote a detailed book about the "International Venice Chess Tournament 1950" (FiS, 1952), which he won before Smyslow .

Kotow's brilliant game against Awerbach

Kotow played his most famous game in the 1953 Candidates Tournament in Zurich . He made a spectacular queen sacrifice against Awerbach , which led to the game being won after 21 more moves.

After an ancient Indian opening , the position in Diagram 1 was reached after Awerbach's 30th move . The position bears royal Indian characteristics, the center is locked, Black has achieved space advantage on the kingside with the pawn advance f7 – f5 – f4 without White having initiated the counterplay on the queenside. The cramped position of the figure around the white king favors the following sacrifice:

Awerbach - Kotow
Zurich, 1953

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Diagram 1 : Position after 30. Nc3 – e2

Awerbach - Kotow
Zurich, 1953

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Diagram 2 : Final position after 51 ... Rg7 – g8

30.… Qxh3 + !!

" When this move had taken place, a mighty murmur went through the [...] tournament hall, and a clear smile could be seen on the faces of the two fighters ". White's king is hindered by his own rook on g2, the pawn on f4 covers the g3-square, after the following moves White inevitably has to "meet" Black:

31. Kxh3 Rh6 +

32. Kg4 Nf6 +

33. Kf5 Nd7 Threatens 34. ... Rf8 + 35. K g4 Rg8 + 36. Kf5 tF6 matt .

34. Rg5

34.Rg7 Rf8 + 35.Kg4 Kxg7 36.Rg1 Rg8 37.Kf5 + Kf7 38.Rxg8 Rh5 + and mate

34 ... Rf8 +

35. Kg4 Nf6 + more determined is Bxg5 36. Rg1 Nf6 + 37. Kf5 Ng4 +! 38. Kxg4 Be7.

As a result, Kotow repeated the moves to achieve the time control.

36. Kf5 Ng8 +

37. Kg4 Nf6 +

38. Kf5 Nxd5 +

39. Kg4 Nf6 +

40. Kf5 Ng8 +

41. Kg4 Nf6 +

42. Kf5 Ng8 +

43. Kg4 Bxg5

44. Kxg5

Later analyzes showed that 44th Rh1 offers the greatest resistance.

44.… Rf7

45.Bh4 Rg6 +

46. ​​Kh5 Rfg7

47.Bg5 Rxg5 +

48. Kh4 Nf6

49.Ng3 Rxg3

50. Qxd6 R3g6

51. Qb8 + Rg8

White gave up (see Diagram 2), Rh6 threatens to be mate, which is why Awerbach would have to give the queen and Kotow clearly wins the resulting endgame .

Kotow syndrome

In his book Think Like a Grand Master (Russian original edition 1970) he describes a typical behavior in chess, which became known as Kotow syndrome. A player thinks long and hard about several alternatives for his next move, but does not come to a clear decision. As soon as the time to think about it is running out, he spontaneously plays a move that he has not calculated at all and that often turns out to be bad. Nowadays the term is also used as a metaphor outside of the game of chess. On the album Appeal to Reason of the band Rise Against you find a song entitled "Kotov Syndrome".

literature

• Helmut Wieteck: Famous masters: Alexander Kotow. Schach-Echo 1988, Issue 7, pp. 289–290 (report, games).

Web links

Commons : Alexander Alexandrowitsch Kotow  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Alexander Alexandrowitsch Kotow in the catalog of the German National Library
• Replayable chess games by Alexander Alexandrowitsch Kotow on chessgames.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alexander Kotow's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
2. ↑ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 74.
3. ↑ Teschner (1979). P. 111.