Irina Levitina

Irina Levitina at the 1992 Chess Olympiad
Association	Soviet Union (until 1991) United States (since 1991)
Born	June 8, 1954 Leningrad , Soviet Union
title	International Women's Champion (1972) Women's Grand Master (1976)
Current  Elo rating	2405 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2425 (July 1993 to July 1994)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Irina Solomonovna Levi Tina ( Russian Ирина Соломоновна Левитина / Irina Solomonovna Lewitina * 8. June 1954 in Leningrad , USSR ) is a US chess - and bridge player of Russian origin; she is a grandmaster in both sports .

Life

Irina comes from a family of intellectuals. Her father taught at the military academy, her mother worked as a research assistant. At the age of ten she got into the chess section of the Leningrad Pioneers Palace. Her first coach was Vasily Bywschew , later she was supported by Semyon Furman and Pawel Kondratjew .

Irina Levitina won the Soviet Union Women's Championship four times: 1971, 1978 (shared with Lydyja Semenova ), 1979 and 1980/81. In 1979 she was not allowed to take part in the women's interzonal tournament in Rio de Janeiro (qualification for the Women's World Cup). The reason was her brother, who immigrated to Israel. In the 1970 / 80s she was one of the world's top women in women's chess.

Because of her international success she received the title of Grand Master of Women in 1976 .

After immigrating to the United States , she won the United States Championship three times (1991, 1992, and 1993) .

Irina Levitina from New Jersey is the only person who has won three Olympic gold medals in chess as well as several times Olympic and world champion in bridge sports.

Levitina is listed as inactive at FIDE because she has not played a rated game since 1996.

Women's inter-zone and candidate tournaments

In 1973 she achieved a shared 2nd to 5th place at the women's interzonal tournament in Menorca . In the semi-finals of the 1974 candidate competitions in Kislovodsk , she beat Valentina Kozlovskaya . She lost the 1975 final in Moscow to Nana Alexandria . In 1977 she lost to Alla Kuschnir in the quarterfinals in Dortmund . After a second place in the interzonal tournament for women in 1982 in Tbilisi , she won the quarter-finals of the women's candidate competitions in Lviv against Nona Gaprindashvili and the semi-finals in Dubna against Nana Alexandria . In the 1984 final in Sochi , she defeated Lydyja Semenova and got the chance to become world champion.

She then lost the title fight against Maia Chiburdanidze in Volgograd in 1984 .

In the 1986 Women's Candidates Tournament in Malmö , she finished seventh. The first became Elena Akhmilovskaya . A shared second to fourth place followed in 1987 in the interzonal tournament of women in Smederevska Palanka . In 1988 she achieved a shared 3rd / 4th. Place in the women's candidates' tournament in Tskaltubo . This was followed by the 1991 women's interzonal tournament in Subotica (3rd to 4th place) and the 1992 women's candidate tournament (6th place) in Shanghai , which Zsuzsa Polgár won.

Irina Levitina (left) and Maia Tschiburdanidze at the 1984 Chess Olympiad in Salonika

Women's Chess Olympiads

She won four medals at the women's chess Olympiad: three gold medals ( 1972 in Skopje , 1974 in Medellín and 1984 in Thessaloniki ) and once silver at the 1988 Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki, each time playing for the USSR. She played the 1992 Chess Olympiad in Manila for the US women's team . In 1974 she also achieved the best individual result of the reserve players.

Chess tournaments

During her chess career she won many international tournaments, such as Leningrad (1972 and 1988), Timisoara (1973), Belgrade (1977), Moscow (1979), Naleczów (1984), Warsaw (1986) and Sochi (1988). Since 1997 it no longer appears in Elo-evaluated tournaments.

bridge

In 1986 Irina Levitina received the Alpwater Award for the best played hand of the year by a woman. She was the first female Soviet citizen to win this honorary award. Irina Lewitina has been a professional bridge player for many years. She became five times world champion and won many national titles. She won gold medals at the Bridge Olympic Games in 1996 and 2000, and was team champion at the Pairs World Championships in 2002 and 2006.

At the beginning of 2010 she was in fourth place in the women's world rankings of the World Bridge Federation (WBF) and also in fourth place among the women's bridge grandmasters, Sabine Auken from Germany was in second place.

Bridge tournaments

As a professional player, she has participated in many bridge tournaments since 1993, such as: Venice Cup , World Women Team Olympiad , World Women's Pairs , North American Bridge Championships , Women's Swiss Teams , Women's Board-a-Match Teams , Women's Knockout Teams , United States Bridge Championships , McConnell Cup , North American Swiss Teams , Women's Swiss Teams , Women's Knockout Teams and Women's Team Trials .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 76.
2. ↑ USCF - US Women's Champions (English)
3. ↑ Bridge Glossary - The Lady Milne Trophy - Lady Milne Cup (English) with picture
4. ↑ World Chess Championship (Women) 1983-84 - Candidates Matches - Final match Sochi (English)
5. ↑ World Chess Championship (Women) 1984 Chiburdanidze - Levitina Title Match Volgograd, 1984. (English)
6. ↑ World Chess Championship for Women (English)
7. ↑ Irina Levitina's results at the women's chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
8. ^ The New York Times - BRIDGE; Soviet Player Wins An Award. By ALAN TRUSCOTT Published: October 19, 1986 (English)
9. ↑ WBF Bridge World Championship Women Pairs Verona, Italy • 9 - 24 June 2006 ( Memento from January 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
10. ↑ WBF - Women Pairs Verona, Italy • 9 - 24 June 2006 ( Memento from January 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
11. ↑ WBF Women Classification Bridge ( Memento from May 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ WBF Women World Grand Masters Bridge ( Memento from May 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English)

Web links

Commons : Irina Levitina  - collection of images

• Replayable chess games by Irina Levitina on chessgames.com (English)
• World Bridge Federation profile (English)
• The New York Times - Anti-Bush Sign Has Bridge World in an Uproar - By STEPHANIE STROM Published: November 14, 2007 (English) with picture by Irina Levitina
• Card player at the World Bridge Federation (English)