Pyotr Arsenyevich Romanovsky

Pyotr Romanovsky, 1923
Association	Soviet Union
Born	July 29, 1892 Saint Petersburg
Died	March 1, 1964 Moscow
title	International champion (1950)
Best Elo rating	2647 (April 1926) ( historical rating )

Peter Romanovsky ( Russian Пётр Арсеньевич Романовский , scientific. Transliteration Pëtr Arsen'evič Romanovskij ; July 17 * ^{. Jul} / July 29, 1892 ^greg. In St. Petersburg ; † 1. March 1964 in Moscow ) was a Russian chess player and one of the outstanding founder of the Soviet chess school .

Life

youth

Alekhine (left) and Romanovsky (right) during the All-Russian Championship in St. Petersburg in 1909

Romanowski was born into a chess-loving family. His older brother Yevgeny became a 2nd category player, his brother Alexander a 1st category player. In 1908 Romanowski played his first tournament, the autumn tournament of the St. Petersburg Chess Club, when he stood in for his sick brother Alexander. Immediately he succeeded in winning over the master player Sergei von Freiman (* 1882; † 1946) and Romanowski, who shared 4th to 6th place in the tournament, became 1st category player. In 1909 he took part in the All-Russian Championship in St. Petersburg, which the future world champion Alexander Alekhine won. Romanovsky, however, defeated Alekhine in a highly regarded game. After graduating from high school, Romanowski enrolled at the Polytechnic Institute in St. Petersburg. In 1912 he won the institute's chess championship. In 1914 Romanowski won the St. Petersburg championship after a 2-0 victory in a play-off with Sergei von Freiman and was sent abroad by the St. Petersburg Chess Society to his first international tournament : he took part in the main tournament at the DSB congress in Mannheim . This tournament was canceled halfway through the rounds played because of the outbreak of the First World War and the participants from the enemy states were interned. Romanowski was imprisoned in Triberg together with Alexander Alekhine, Efim Bogoljubow and others . Some of the games that the masters played in the days of the war have survived.

Structure of chess life in Soviet Russia

Romanovsky (left) and Alekhine (right) during the All-Russian Olympics in Moscow in 1920

After Romanowski had returned to Russia during the October Revolution , he, like Alexander Ilyin-Schenewski , participated energetically in the development of chess in the newly formed state. He soon became one of the most active organizers of chess life in Petrograd. In 1920 he took part in the 1st All-Russian Olympics in Moscow , the forerunner of the USSR championship . He scored 11 points from 15 games and was runner-up after Alexander Alekhine. In 1921 he took over the editing of the newly founded chess magazine Listok Schachmatnogo Kruschka Petrogubkommuny in Petrograd, which was renamed in 1922 in Schachmatnyj Listok [chess sheet ] and in 1931 in Schachmaty w SSSR [chess in the USSR]. Through the numerous publications of his high-quality and deep analyzes , Romanowski had an enormous influence on the development of chess popularity in the young Soviet Union . In 1923 the championship of the RSFSR was held in Petrograd, it was later counted as the 2nd USSR championship. Romanowski won this tournament with 10 out of 12 and became the second USSR champion. In 1924 he took part in the 3rd USSR Championship in Moscow, where he had to give way to Efim Bogolyubov, who lived in Germany but had a Soviet passport, and was second behind the Ukrainian. Shortly after the championship, Romanowski played a competition with Bogolyubov in Leningrad, which he lost 4-8 (+1 = 6 −5).

Chess highlight

In 1925 Romanowski took part in several tournaments, so he won the Leningrad Championship, was 6th-8th in the 4th USSR Championship. and took part in the first international tournament in the history of the USSR in Moscow, at which almost the entire world elite was gathered next to the reigning world champion José Raúl Capablanca and the ex-world champion Emanuel Lasker . Romanowski was after Bogolyubov the best-placed Soviet participant on the shared 7th – 8th. Place under 21 participants. He managed a draw against Capablanca and placed in front of such renowned players as Akiba Rubinstein and Rudolf Spielmann . At the 5th USSR Championship in Moscow in 1927 Romanovsky won again, but had to share first place with Fedir Bohatyrtschuk from Ukraine. Among the participants was the later world champion Mikhail Botvinnik . Romanowski won the Leningrad Championship again in 1929.

Late honors

From the 1930s onwards, Romanowski devoted himself increasingly to the training of younger players and the publication of textbooks on chess, where his pedagogical skills were of great help. Although he restricted his tournament participation, he continued to achieve excellent results in his few appearances: in 1931 he was Leningrad runner-up, in 1933 he shared 1st and 2nd place with Botvinnik in a strong Leningrad championship tournament, in 1934 he was in a Leningrad championship tournament with Max Euwe and Hans Kmoch shared second after Botwinnik. In 1934 he was the first chess player in the Soviet Union to be awarded the title of Honored Master of Sport . In 1935 he took part in the second Moscow international tournament, in which he shared 6-7. under 20 participants. During the Second World War , Romanowski worked, like many other Soviet masters, on the recovery work for wounded Soviet soldiers. He gave simultaneous events as well as chess lessons in various hospitals. In 1943 he won the Ivanovo championship . In 1945 he last took part in the 14th USSR Championship. During this phase Romanowski was a member of the Presidium of the Soviet Chess Federation. In 1947, when Romanowski was already living in Moscow, he was entrusted with the management of the chess collective at Moscow University . He carried out this until 1957. In 1950 FIDE awarded him the title of International Master . In 1956 he received the title of Honored Coach of the USSR . He died in 1964.

Soviet chess school

With his involvement since the beginning of the 1920s, Romanowski was one of the main pillars of the developing chess boom in the USSR. His pedagogical view was evident in his extensive publication work, in which he made his in-depth analyzes available to his readership. In this respect he was a forerunner of the eventual world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, whom Romanovsky had known in Petrograd since his first appearance. The development of the Soviet chess school would have been inconceivable without the pioneering work of Romanowski. In his book The Soviet Chess School , Alexander Kotow wrote about Romanowski: " In daily in-depth analyzes of his own games and those of others, in which he searches for unnoticed subtleties, Romanowski gives young people an example of how to develop self-perfection. "

Works

• together with Grigori Löwenfisch : Matsch Alekhine-Capablanca na perwenstwo mira [The world championship match Alekhine -Capablanca], Leningrad 1928.
• Middlegame. Kombinazja i plan w schachmatnoj parti [middle game. Combination and Plan in the Game of Chess], Leningrad 1929.
• Schachmatnyje idei w Praktike [ Chess ideas in practice], Moscow / Leningrad 1930.
• Puti schachmatnogo twortschestwa [Paths of Chess Creation ], Leningrad 1933.
• Woprosy schachmatnoj metodiki [questions about chess methodology ], Moscow / Leningrad 1938.
• Isbrannyje partii [Selected Parts], Moscow 1954.
• Romantism w schachmatnom iskusstwie [ Romanticism in Chess], Moscow 1959.
• Mittelspiel Plan [Mittelspielplan], Moscow 1960.
• Middle game Kombinazja [middle game combination ], Moscow 1963.

literature

• Isaak Romanow: Pjotr ​​Romanowski , Fiskultura i sport, Moscow 1984. (Russian)

Web links

Commons : Pjotr ​​Romanowski  - collection of images

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The chess players were classified in tsarist Russia, then also in the USSR, in categories 1 to 3, with the first category being the highest. The players were able to increase their rank in category tournaments. You became a master in international tournaments.