Vladimir Alexeyevich Alatorzew

Gravestone of WA Alatorzew

Vladimir Alatortsev ( Russian Владимир Алексеевич Алаторцев ; born May 1, ^jul. / 14. May  1909 ^greg. In Turki , Saratov province , Russian Empire ; † 13. January 1987 in Moscow , Soviet Union ) was a Soviet chess players, coaches and - official. During his career he was Leningrad and Moscow City Champion and took part in the USSR championship nine times, with his best results in the 1930s. In the early 1950s he largely withdrew from tournament chess and became a coach. He held the office of chairman of the Soviet Chess Federation.

Life

Pre-war period

Like Mikhail Botvinnik, Vladimir Alexejewitsch Alatorzew came from Saint Petersburg and was one of his competitors there in the 1930s. However, Botvinnik was clearly superior to him in a direct comparison, he won nine games, played twice draw and lost not once.

1931 Alatorzew reached in the Soviet championship, which Botvinnik won, in Moscow, the shared 3rd-6th. Place with 10/17. In 1932 he was at the Leningrad City Championship with 7/11 second behind Botvinnik. His best result at a Soviet championship he achieved in 1933 when he was second behind Botvinnik with 13/19 with a clear margin. At a tournament in Tbilisi in the same year he shared first place with Viktor Goglidze and scored 10 points from 14 games.

Alatorzew shared first place in the Leningrad City Championship in 1934 with Georgi Lisitsyn . In the same year in the national tournament of Leningrad he was eighth. At the Soviet championship in 1934, which also took place in Leningrad, he ended up on the shared 5th – 8th. Space. In 1935 he qualified for the Moscow International Tournament, where he reached 9.5 / 19.

In 1935 Alatorzew played a match over 12 games (+4 = 4 −4) with the strong Hungarian chess player André Lilienthal . In 1936 and 1937 he was Moscow champion, where he shared the title both times. Alatorzew finished 10th – 12th at the Soviet championship in Tbilisi. Place with 9.5 / 19.

Alatorzew achieved a very strong result at a tournament in Leningrad in 1938, he shared 1st place with Leonid Shamaev before Lilienthal and Ragosin . This corresponded to an Elo performance of 2684. In Kiev in 1940 he failed to qualify for the Soviet championship.

Wartime

After the Second World War came to the Soviet Union in June 1941, organized chess more or less came to a standstill for the next few years. Due to his good results in the pre-war period, Alatorzew got an invitation to a tournament in Kuibyshev , where he finished seventh with 6.5 out of 11. In 1942 he scored 7/15 at the Moscow City Championship.

post war period

After the Nazis were pushed back, organized chess in the Soviet Union began again, but did not reach Alatorzew so a good result as before the war. At the Soviet championship in Moscow in 1944 he was only sixteenth with 5.5 / 16. Therefore, he had to qualify again for the next Soviet championship. In the qualifying tournament in Moscow he finished 2nd – 4th. Place behind Dawid Bronstein , but in the final he only scored 7.5 / 17. In 1945 he won the Latvian championship in Riga . At the Moscow City Championships in 1946 he reached the shared fourth place with 8.5 / 15. Alatorzew scored the Soviet championship in 1947 and 1948 under 50 percent of the points. In Moscow in 1950 he played his last Soviet championship, with a victory by Paul Keres with 9.5 / 17 tied 7th – 10th. Took place. In 1950 he was awarded the title of International Master by FIDE .

In the early 1950s a new generation of chess players began to dominate the tournaments. Alatorzew began to train as early as the late 1940s, for example Vasily Smyslow . Therefore, Alatorzew withdrew from playing large tournaments in order to concentrate on his activities as a coach, tournament organizer and chess official, but still played several times at smaller tournaments. It is noteworthy that Alatorzew did not take part in a single tournament outside of the Soviet Union. From 1954 to 1961 he was chairman of the Soviet Chess Federation. From 1943 to 1974 he was the author of a chess column in the newspaper Vechernaya Moskva .

In 1960 he wrote a chess book ("Modern Chess Theory"). He played his last strong tournament in Tbilisi in 1965, where he reached 8/17 at the age of 56. In 1983 he was awarded the honorary grandmaster title for his strong pre-war results. Alatorzew died in Moscow in 1987 at the age of 77. His style of play was positional and calm. He preferred closed openings with white.

His highest historical rating was 2626 in August 1940. According to this calculation, he was in 21st place in the world rankings at that time.

Web links

• Replayable chess games by Vladimir Alexejewitsch Alatorzew on chessgames.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 87.
2. ↑ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 78.
3. ↑ Vladimir Alatortsev, historical Elo rating (English)