Leonid Alexandrowitsch Shamkowitsch

Leonid Shamkowitsch at the 1980 Chess Olympiad
Association	Soviet Union (until 1974) Israel (1975 to 1978) United States (from 1979)
Born	June 1, 1923 Rostov-on-Don
Died	April 22, 2005 Brooklyn
title	International Master (1962) Grand Master (1965)
Best Elo rating	2540 (July 1973)

Leonid Alexandrowitsch Schamkowitsch ( Russian Леонид Александрович Шамкович ; born June 1, 1923 in Rostov-on-Don , southern Russia, † April 22, 2005 in Brooklyn , New York City ) was a Soviet , later American chess player .

Life

Leonid Shamkowitsch, 1968

Leonid Shamkowitsch studied engineering in Leningrad , but dropped out shortly before graduation and devoted himself entirely to chess. However, since his tournament results were fluctuating and he could not establish himself in the absolute top of the Soviet players, he was only rarely allowed to play tournaments in western countries.

In 1962 he was awarded the title of International Master by FIDE , and in 1965 the title of Grand Master .

In 1974 he emigrated to Israel as the third Soviet grandmaster after Vladimir Liberson and Anatoli Lein . From there he went to Canada in 1975, but did not receive a permanent residence permit. Eventually he settled in the United States in 1976 , where he worked as a writer and chess coach and became a US citizen in 1983.

He took part in the 1980 Chess Olympiad with the USA team.

His best historical rating before the Elo was introduced was 2675 in January 1966.

Shamkowitsch suffered from cancer and Parkinson's disease in old age .
He was married three times and had a son.

Tournament successes

USSR - Olympic champions (Soviet Union - USA, boards 3 and 4: Yuri Balaschow - James Tarjan , Garri Kasparow - Leonid Schamkowitsch), Chess Olympiad 1980 in Valletta.

• City championship Moscow 1961: 2nd place after play-off against Dawid Bronstein
• USSR Championship 1965: 5th / 6th space
• Marienbad 1965: 3rd place
• Salgótarján 1967: 1st – 3rd Place with István Bilek and László Bárczay
• Sochi 1967: 1st - 5th Place with Alexander Saizew , Vladimir Simagin , Nikolai Krogius and Boris Spasski
• Constana 1969: 1st place
• Canadian Open 1975: 1st place
• New York 1976: 1st place
• 1978 US Championship: 3rd / 4th space

author

Shamkowitsch also appeared as an author of chess books . His book Schertwa w schachmatach , published in Russian in 1971, was translated into English in 1976 under the title Chess sacrifices ( ISBN 0900928999 ). He later wrote several books with Eric Schiller : Play the Tarrasch (1984, ISBN 008029748X ), Spanish gambits (1986, ISBN 0020290209 ), Kasparov's opening repertoire (1990, ISBN 0020298110 ) and World champion tactics (1999, ISBN 1580420052 ). Together with Michael Khodarkovsky he published A new era. How Garry Kasparov changed the world of chess (1997, ISBN 034540890X ).

Web links

Commons : Leonid Shamkowitsch  - Collection of Images

• Replayable chess games by Leonid Alexandrowitsch Schamkowitsch on 365Chess.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Correction of the place of birth in the New York Times of May 11, 2005 (English)
2. ^ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 75.
3. ↑ Leonid Shamkowitsch's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
4. ↑ Leonid Shamkowitsch's historical Elo numbers on chessmetrics.com (English)