Nicolas Rossolimo

Tartakower vs. Rossolimo (Amsterdam, 1950)

Nicolas Rossolimo (* 28. February 1910 in Kiev as Nikolai Spirodonowitsch Rossolimo ; † 24. July 1975 in New York ) was a French - American chess player .

Life

His father Spiridon Rossolimo had Greek roots, his mother Xenia Nikolajewna Russian . Nicolas spent his childhood in Moscow , where he learned to play chess. In the turmoil of the October Revolution of 1917, his parents were separated and his father emigrated to the USA. Together with his mother, who was suspected of cosmopolitanism because of her command of four foreign languages and was therefore imprisoned for a year, and a brother, he was able to enter Czechoslovakia in 1929, thanks to a Greek passport that he had obtained through being a citizen of Spiridon to Paris. Like many Russian emigrants, Nicolas Rossolimo worked there as a taxi driver.

He had his first great chess successes in Moscow. He was a first-class player and claims to have won the Moscow Junior Championship. At tournaments in Paris he achieved international success and won the internationally strong Paris championship three times: in 1938 he finished second behind ex-world champion José Raúl Capablanca , in 1939 he won in front of Savielly Tartakower . The outbreak of World War II interrupted Rossolimo's chess career.

In 1947 he obtained French citizenship and became a professional chess player, which he of Camil Seneca training was. Through the training, Rossolimos increased playing strength, whereby he won the national championship of France and the traditional tournament in Hastings in 1948 . In the following years he continued his successful streak with first places in Southsea in 1949, ahead of Luděk Pachman , and Gijón in 1950. At the Chess Olympiad in 1950 he played for France on the second board behind Tartakower, against whom he had previously drawn in two competitions: 1948 1: 1 in 8 draws , 1949 5: 5.

In 1950 Rossolimo received the title of International Master and in 1953 he became a Grand Master . With his wife Vera Anatoljewna Budakowitsch and his son Alexander, Rossolimo moved to the United States near his parents in the same year, where he did his livelihood, unlike in France, as a professional chess player in the United States, including as a bellhop in the Waldorf-Astoria as well as as a taxi driver and chess trainer. His Chess Studio in Greenwich Village was a popular meeting place for intellectuals. a. wrong there Marcel Duchamp . Rossolimo also sold a self-produced record with Russian folklore. Rossolimo did not initially implement plans to return to France, as his son Alexander would otherwise have had to go into the Algerian War (1954–1962) as a conscript in the French army .

In 1955 he won the US Open Chess Championship in Long Beach ahead of Samuel Reshevsky and the prize was a car. He represented the USA at the Chess Olympiads in 1958 , 1960 and 1966 . For a while he lived again in France, for which he played his last Chess Olympiad in Skopje in 1972 . The opening of another Chess Studio in Spain was a failure. After falling down stairs, Rossolimo was found unconscious on July 21, 1975 in New York and hospitalized, where he died three days later of head injuries.

Rossolimo won many beauty awards for his chess games. In the obituary published in Chess Life and Review in October 1975 , Pal Benkö wrote that Rossolimo saw chess primarily as an art and had suggested that points should be awarded according to the artistic content of a game rather than the result.

In addition to chess, Rossolimo also operated Jūdō and brought it up to the brown belt.

A variant of the Sicilian Defense is named after him, which arises after 1. e2 – e4 c7 – c5 2. Ng1 – f3 Nb8 – c6 3. Bf1 – b5 and is still often used in master practice today.

His best historical rating was 2663, which he achieved in December 1951.

Study composer

Nicolas Rossolimo
Izvestia , 1929

	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

White to move wins

Solution:

1. Rg7 – g8 + Kc8 – b7 The black king must not lose contact with the knight. If White now defeats the pawn, his knight is lost. This development of Black into a quality ending , which White cannot win, determines the further course of the game.
2. Sa6 – c5 + Kb7 – b6! On Kb7 – c6 White covers his knight with check with Rg8 – c8 +, then wins the h2 pawn and the game. This motif also runs through the following features.
3. Nc5 – a4 + Kb6 – b5
4. Sa4 – c3 + Kb5 – b4
5. Nc3 – a2 + Kb4 – b3
6. Sa2 – c1 + Kb3 – b2
7. Kg3xh2! Kb2xc1
8. Rg8 g1 because of the bondage is the rotor and the game lost.

Already in his youth Rossolimo showed an interest in chess studies , which from 1926 to 1929 mostly appeared in Soviet and 1929 to 1930 in Czechoslovak magazines. A study that Alain Pallier considered Rossolimo's best, despite some incorrectness, was composed with Sergei Kaminer . Rossolimo composed his last study in 1934 and published it in his book Les Echecs au coin du feu in 1947 .

Game example

Schmid - Rossolimo

	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 27. Kh2

At a tournament in Heidelberg in 1949, where he finished second behind Wolfgang Unzicker , he won against the German Lothar Schmid with a spectacular double tower sacrifice .

Schmid - Rossolimo 0: 1

Heidelberg, 1949

Spanish Match ( Closed Defense ), C92

1. e2 – e4 e7 – e5 2. Ng1 – f3 Nb8 – c6 3. Bf1 – b5 a7 – a6 4. Bb5 – a4 Ng8 – f6 5. 0–0 Bf8 – e7 6. Rf1 – e1 b7 – b5 7. Ba4 – b3 0–0 8. c2 – c3 d7 – d6 9. h2 – h3 a6 – a5 10. d2 – d4 e5xd4 11. Nf3xd4 Sc6xd4 12. c3xd4 Bc8 – b7 13. Bb3 – c2 c7 – c5 14. a2– a4 b5 – b4 15. Nb1 – d2 c5xd4 16. Nd2 – b3 d6 – d5 17. e4 – e5 Nf6 – e4 18. Nb3xd4 f7 – f6 19. Nd4 – e6 Qd8 – b6 20. Bc2xe4 Qb6xe6 21. e5xf6 d5xe4 22. f6xe7 Qe6xe7 23. Qd1 – b3 + Kg8 – h8 24. Bc1 – e3 Ra8 – a6 25. Ra1 – c1 Ra6 – g6 26. Rc1 – c5 De7 – h4 27. Kg1 – h2 diagram Rg6xg2 + 28. Kh2xg2 Rf8xf2 + 0: 1 White gave on.

After 29 Le3xf2 follows discovered check 29 ... e4-e3 + with 30 Kg2-h2 Dh4xf2 matt . Moving the rook in between by means of 30. Rc5 – d5 is of no use because of 30.… Qh4xf2 + 31. Kg2 – h1 Qf2xe1 + 32. Kh1 – h2 De1 – f2 + 33. Kh2 – h1 e3 – e2 plus mate. The best is 30. Qb3 – d5, but then White loses house and yard after 30.… Bb7xd5 + 31. Rc5xd5 Qh4xf2 + 32. Kg2 – h1 Qf2xe1 33. Kh1 – g2 De1 – f2 + 34. Kg2 – h1 Qf2 – f3 + 35. Kh1 – g1 Qf3xd5 with an easy win.

Works

• Les Echecs au coin du feu . Paris 1947.

swell

• Alain Pallier: Nicolas Rossolimo (28ii1910 - 24vii1975). In: eg 180, April 2010, pp. 120-123. (English)

Web links

• Russes blancs , with group photo from the Potemkin Chess Club on July 2, 1932 (French)
• Replayable chess games by Nicolas Rossolimo on chessgames.com (English)
• Compositions by Nicolas Rossolimo on the Schwalbe's PDB server

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Note: Russian spelling of the birth name: Николай Спиридонович Россолимо
2. ↑ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 74.