Mikhail Umansky

Michail Umansky, Pyatigorsk 1995
Association	Soviet Union (until 1991) Russia (1992 to 2001) Germany (from 2001)
Born	January 21, 1952 Stavropol
Died	December 17, 2010 Augsburg
title	International champion (1997)
Best Elo rating	2481 (July to October 2004)

Michail Umansky ( Russian Михаил Маркович Уманский , scientific transliteration Michail Markovič Umansky ; born January 21, 1952 in Stavropol ; † December 17, 2010 in Augsburg ) was a German chess master with Russian roots, mathematician , active as a programmer and the 13th world chess champion .

Close chess

Umansky began taking chess lessons in 1963 in the Palace of Pioneers in Stavropol , where he drew attention to his talent early on. As a teenager, he was accepted into a specially sponsored youth squad, which other Grandmaster Igor Bondarewski trained below . At the USSR Youth Championships in 1965 and 1966, he took second place. He won the championship of the Stavropol district four times. In 1967 he moved to Pyatigorsk . In 1968 he received the title of National Master of Sports . At the Russian championship in 1989 he reached fourth place. He trained as a chess coach at the Russian state sports academy and was awarded the title of International Master by FIDE in 1997 for his achievements in local chess . Since 1998 he played for the chess department of TSV Haunstetten , most recently in the Landesliga Südbayern. In Switzerland he played with SK St. Gallen in the 2002 season in the National League A.

Correspondence chess

In 1973 Umansky began correspondence chess , in which he made rapid progress. He was Russian champion in this discipline when he first participated in 1974-75, and in 1977-78 he was USSR champion. In 1998 he won the 13th World Correspondence Chess Championship (+10 = 6 −0) and moved to Germany in the same year, but he continued to play correspondence chess in the colors of Russia . In the years 2001 to 2004 the ICCF organized a one-time invitation correspondence chess tournament on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the organization, in which all living correspondence chess world champions took part. Umansky became the dominant winner with six games won and two drawn. In correspondence chess he has been an international master since 1986 and a grandmaster since 1995.

In 2011, the Russian Correspondence Chess Club organized the Umansky Memorial chess tournament in his honor, which was won by the Italian CCGM Eros Riccio .

Game example

	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

Position after Black's 14th move

At the 50th anniversary tournament of the ICCF, Umansky won a nice game with Black against Grigori Sanakojew :

Sanakojew - Umansky, launched July 1, 2001, (played via email)

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. Be3 a6 5. a4 Nf6 Nf6 creates the Pirc-Ufimzew defense . 6. h3 0–0 7. g4 Aggressive, but too hasty. White gains space on the kingside and prepares the fianchetting of the white-squared bishop who is supposed to support the white center on g2. But the plan is too ambitious, White simply loses too much time and weakens his kingside too much. c5 8. d5 e6 9. Bg2 exd5 10. exd5 Nbd7 After White's advance on d5 the game has passed into the Benoni defense . 11. Nge2 Re8 12. Ng3 Ne5 13. 0–0 Rb8 14. De2 Nfxg4! See diagram, A Beautiful Positional Figure Sacrifice . For the knight, Black receives two white pawns and the superior position. 15. hxg4 Bxg4 16. Qd2 Nc4 Now Black also manages to exchange the good Black-squared Be3, which increases his positional advantage and he wins a third pawn. 17. Qc1 Nxe3 18. fxe3 Rxe3 19. Qxe3 Sanakojew is now faced with a difficult decision: Ng3 is hanging and has no good square. In addition, Black threatens Bd4 and Qh4 with a decisive mate attack . So White resorts to a last, desperate remedy: the queen sacrifice for a rook and a total of two minor pieces; It's nice how Umansky took advantage of White's hasty approach on the kingside. Bd4 20.Qf2 f5 21.Nge2 Bxe2 22.Nxe2 Bxf2 + 23.Rxf2 Qf6 24.c3 Re8 25.Nf4 Re3 26.a5 De5 27.Kf1 g5 28.Ne6 f4 29.Rd1 Qf5 White gave up because the black pawns on Kings wings are unstoppable.

Web links

Commons : Michail Umansky  - collection of images

• Replayable chess games by Michail Umansky on 365Chess.com (English)
• Michail Umansky at the World Chess Federation FIDE (English)
• Michail Umansky at the World Correspondence Chess Federation ICCF (English)
• Obituary of the Swabian Chess Association ( Memento from February 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
• Official homepage ( Memento of December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
• Умер экс-чемпион мира по заочным шахматам Михаил Уманский (1952-2010) (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baumbach : Michail Umansky new correspondence chess king . SCHACH 1995/10, pp. 62/63.
2. ^ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 110.
3. ↑ Умер экс-чемпион мира по заочным шахматам Михаил Уманский (1952-2010) Russian, accessed May 20, 2015
4. ↑ ICCF 50 years World Champions Jubilee Tournament - 50WCJT English, accessed December 22, 2010
5. ↑ Umansky Memorial (English)