Simon Zinovievich Alapin

Simon Alapin
Association	Russia
Born	November 19, 1856 Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire
Died	July 15, 1923 Heidelberg
Best Elo rating	2688 (February 1898) ( historical rating )

Semyon alapin ( Russian Семён Зиновьевич Алапин ., Scientific transliteration Semen Zinovjevič Alapin ; born November 7 ^{. Jul} / 19th November  1856 ^greg. In St. Petersburg ; † 15. July 1923 in Heidelberg ) was a Russian chess master and theorist .

Career

Alapin studied in Heidelberg and then worked as a businessman and representative of an export company in Berlin and Paris. This made him wealthy and financially independent. He settled in Berlin and joined the Berlin Chess Society .

Since the late 1870s, he has devoted himself exclusively to chess. He was at the strong national tournament of Saint Petersburg in 1878/1879 together with Mikhail Chigorin first, but was defeated in the playoff. In addition to Tschigorin and Emanuel Schiffers , Alapin was now one of the strongest masters in Russia.

He played several competitions: in 1880 he was defeated by Michail Tschigorin in St. Petersburg 3: 7 (+3 = 0 −7), in 1893 he defeated Curt von Bardeleben with 3.5: 1.5 (+3 = 1 −1), In 1899 he achieved a 3: 3 (+1 = 4 −1) against Carl Schlechter and in 1907 he defeated Stepan Levizki 5-0.

His more important tournament successes include good results in Vienna 1899 (4th place), Vienna 1901 (2nd place), Monte Carlo 1901 (5th place), St. Petersburg 1906 (1st place), Łódź 1908 (2nd place) , Munich 1909 (2nd place) and 1911 (1st place). In 1911 Alapin lost to Rudolf Spielmann in Munich with 3.5: 6.5 (+3 = 1-6).

From 1898 to 1901 he published his own chess newspaper in Berlin under the title Der Schachfreund . In 1913 he left Russia. In the same year he published a manual for beginners under the same title in Heidelberg .

Alapin was one of the most important chess theorists of his time. The following are named after him:

• the Alapin opening (1. e2 – e4 e7 – e5 2. Ng1 – e2 )
• the Alapin variant in the Sicilian Defense (1. e2 – e4 c7 – c5 2. c2 – c3 )
• the Alapin variant in the Spanish game (1. e2 – e4 e7 – e5 2. Ng1 – f3 Nb8 – c6 3. Bf1 – b5 Bf8 – b4 )
• a little known gambit in the French defense : 1 e2 – e4 e7 – e6 2. d2 – d4 d7 – d5 3. Bc1 – e3 ( Alapin- Diemer gambit ).

It was forgotten that Alapin was the first to theoretically examine one of the main variants of the Slavic defense . After Alapin had published its analyzes on this, the line originally received 1. d2 – d4 d7 – d5 2.c2 – c4 c7 – c6 2.Ng1 – f3 Ng8 – f6 4.Nb1 – c3 d5xc4 5.a2 – a4 Bc8 – f5 the name Alapin Defense of the Queen's Gambit .

Alapin's highest historical rating of 2688, he reached in February 1898, which he took 10th place in the world. In July 1902 he was one of the eight best players in the world.

Game example

Alapin played a successful short game in Ostend in 1905 against the American Marshall :

1. e2 – e4 e7 – e5 2. f2 – f4 d7 – d5 ( Falkbeer counter-Gambit )

3. e4xd5 e5 – e4 4. d2 – d3 Ng8 – f6 5. d3xe4 Nf6xe4 6. Ng1 – f3 Bf8 – c5 7. Qd1 – e2 f7 – f5 8. Nb1 – c3 Bc5 – f2 +

9. Ke1 – d1 0–0 10. Lc1 – d2 Ne4xc3 11. Bd2xc3 Qd8xd5 + 12. Kd1 – c1 Rf8 – d8?

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 12th move

13. b2 – b4!

A brilliant train: Attack on the rotor Lf2 since the evacuation of the field on d1 b2 no Matt threatens more, and preventing the runner retreat to c5.

13.… Bf2 – b6 14. Qe2 – e7!

Black gave up because he was z. B.

14.… Qd5 – d7 15. Bf1 – c4 + Kg8 – h8 16. Bc3xg7 mate

no longer wanted to show.

literature

• On the theory of the Spanish game. Chess analytical study by S. Alapin. St. Petersburg 1896 (brochure).
• To the chapter on women's suffrage . Heidelberg 1917. ( digitized and full text in the German text archive )

Web links

• Literature by and about Simon Sinowjewitsch Alapin in the catalog of the German National Library
• Replayable chess games by Simon Zinovievich Alapin on chessgames.com (English)
• Nikolay Minev : Historical Perspectives on Chess ( Memento from July 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English; PDF; 449 kB)
• Biographical data about endgamestudy composers / authors (English)

References and comments

1. ↑ Some sources give Vilnius as the place of birth, see Chesshistory.com .
2. ^ Alfred Brinckmann: Chess masters how they fight and win, Leipzig 1932, p. 30ff.
3. ↑ Sona's calculations of Alapin's historical Elo rating
4. ^ Klaus Lindörfer: Large chess dictionary. Mosaik Verlag GmbH, Munich 1981, ISBN 84-499-8080-1 .