Yuri Lvovich Averbach

Yuri Averbach, 2002
Association	Russia
Born	February 8, 1922 Kaluga , Soviet Russia
title	International Master (1951) Grand Master (1952)
Current  Elo rating	2445 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2550 (July 1971 and July 1972)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Juri Lwowitsch Awerbach ( Russian Юрий Львович Авербах , scientific transliteration: Jurij L'vovič Averbach ; born February 8, 1922 in Kaluga ) is a Russian chess master and official. In 1995 he became an honorary member of FIDE . Since the death of Andor Lilienthal he has been the oldest living chess grandmaster .

Life

Yuri Awerbach learned chess when he was seven. In 1938 he won the USSR student championship . In 1944 he received the title of Master of the USSR . He won the Moscow championship three times (1949, 1950, 1962) . In 1952 he was awarded the title of Grand Master by FIDE . In the same year he finished 5th to 8th at the Interzonal Tournament in Saltsjöbaden , which meant a qualification for the candidates' tournament in Zurich , in which Awerbach was 10-11. Scored place. He then gave up his job as an engineer and devoted himself entirely to chess.

Textbook of Endgames (Part I Pawn Endgames 1958)

In 1954 Awerbach won the USSR championship . In 1955 he lost in the match between the USSR and the USA against Donald Byrne 1: 3 and was excluded from the national team for a year. He accompanied Boris Spasski as a second to the youth world championship in Antwerp in 1955. At the USSR championship in 1956 in Leningrad, he shared places 1 to 3 with Mark Taimanow and Boris Spasski. At the interzonal tournament in Portorož in 1958, he played his only tournament game against Bobby Fischer that ended in a draw . Fischer commented on this with the remark: "I was afraid of losing to a Russian grandmaster and he was afraid of losing to a child".

Awerbach achieved a large number of tournament victories in the course of his chess career: 1st – 2nd. in Dresden 1956, 1. in Djakarta 1956, 1. in Adelaide 1960, 1. in Vienna 1961, 1. – 2. in Moscow 1962, 1st – 2nd in Bucharest 1971, 1st – 2nd in Polanica-Zdrój , 1st – 3rd in Manila 1979. With the Soviet team, he won the European Team Championships in 1957 in Baden (Lower Austria) and in 1965 in Hamburg . In 1965 he also achieved the best individual result on the eighth board.

In 1969 he became an international chess referee . Among other things, he was a referee in the competition for the World Championship of the Professional Chess Association between Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short in London in 1993. From 1973 to 1978 he was President of the Chess Federation of the USSR. He was also editor-in-chief of the chess magazine Schachmaty w SSSR for many years . In 2011 his autobiography was published in English under the title Center-Stage and Behind the Scenes .

Awerbach has not played an Elo-rated game since 1992 and is therefore listed as inactive at FIDE. It achieved its best Elo rating of 2550 in 1971 and 1972. Its best historical rating before the Elo rating was introduced was 2715. It reached it in February 1957 and was 8th in the world rankings. In February 2020, Awerbach was made an honorary member of FIDE at the FIDE Congress in Abu Dhabi.

Contributions to chess theory

Finals

He became well known among chess players as an author and analyst , especially of endgames . He has composed more than 200 theoretical finals and several studies , one of which received a special prize.

Openings

	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

Awerbach System in the King's Indian Defense

The Awerbach system in the King's Indian Defense is named after Awerbach :
1. d2 – d4 Ng8 – f6 2. c2 – c4 g7 – g6 3. Nb1 – c3 Bf8 – g7 4. e2 – e4 d7 – d6 5. Bf1 – e2 0-0 6. Lc1-g5 .

The structure 1. e2 – e4 g7 – g6 2. d2 – d4 Bf8 – g7 3. c2 – c4 d7 – d6 4. Nb1 – c3 in modern defense bears his name.

Works in German

• Yuri Awerbach: Textbook of the finals. Part 1, Sportverlag, Berlin 1958.
• Yuri Awerbach: Textbook of the finals. Part 2, Sportverlag, Berlin 1960.
• Yuri Awerbach: Textbook of the finals. Part 3, Sportverlag, Berlin 1963.
• Yuri Awerbach: Textbook of the finals. Part 4, Sportverlag, Berlin 1964.
• Yuri Awerbach: Textbook of chess endings. Volume 1, Sportverlag, Berlin 1972.
• Yuri Awerbach: Textbook of chess endings. Volume 2, Sportverlag, Berlin 1972.
• Juri Awerbach: Chess tactics for advanced players. Sports publishing house, Berlin 1979.
• Juri Awerbach: What you need to know about the final. Schachverlag Rudi Schmaus, 2nd edition, Heidelberg 1986.
• Juri Awerbach, Mark Taimanow : Chess World Championship ´85. Karpov – Kasparov. Publisher Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-87144-914-8 .
• Yuri Awerbach: rook endings. Volume 1, Sportverlag, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-328-00091-7 .
• Yuri Awerbach: rook endings. Volume 2, Sportverlag, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-328-00092-5 .
• Juri Awerbach, Michail Bejlin: ABC of the game of chess. A textbook for beginners training. Sportverlag, 9th edition, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-328-00232-4 .
• Yuri Awerbach: Success in the final. Sportverlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-328-00165-4 .
• Juri Awerbach: runner and knight finals. Sportverlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-328-00234-0 .
• Yuri Awerbach: pawn endings. Sportverlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-328-00236-7 .
• Juri Awerbach: finals knight against bishop, rook against minor figure. Sportverlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-328-00294-4 .
• Yuri Awerbach: Women's finals. Sportverlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-328-00335-5 .
• Juri Awerbach, Alexander Kotow and Michail Judowitsch: Chess book for masters of tomorrow. Joachim Beyer Verlag , Eltmann 2015, ISBN 978-3-940417-44-2 .

Web links

Commons : Yuri Averbakh  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Yuri Lwowitsch Awerbach at the World Chess Federation FIDE (English)
• Literature by and about Juri Lwowitsch Awerbach in the catalog of the German National Library
• Replayable chess games by Juri Lwowitsch Awerbach on chessgames.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dagobert Kohlmeyer : Yury Averbakh is 95! In: de.chessbase.com. February 8, 2017, accessed November 15, 2019.
2. ^ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 21.
3. ↑ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 74.
4. ↑ Larry Evans : This crazy world of chess . New York 2007. p. 134.
5. ↑ Juri Awerbach's results at the European Team Championships on olimpbase.org (English)
6. ↑ New In Chess, Alkmaar 2011, ISBN 978-90-5691-364-9 .
7. ^ Report from the FIDE Congress in Abu Dhabi.