Grigory Levenfish

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Grigory Yakovlevich Levenfish (March 9, 1889, Piotrków - February 9, 1961, Moscow) was a leading Jewish Russian chess grandmaster of the 1920s and 1930s.

Born in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, he spent most of his formative years in St. Petersburg, where he attended the University and studied chemical engineering. His earliest recognition as a prominent chess player, came when he won the St. Petersburg chess championship of 1909 and played in the strong Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary) tournament of 1911. His play at this time was compared to that of the great master Chigorin. Into the next decade, he continued to perform well in local tournaments, most notably winning the Leningrad Championships of 1922, 1924 and 1925 (jointly). At a national level too, he enjoyed an excellent record at the Soviet Championship; third in 1920, second in 1923, co-champion in 1934 and outright champion in 1937.

In match play, he drew with Botvinnik in 1937 and beat Alatortsev in 1940. Participation at the Leningrad-Moscow training tournament of 1939, resulted in a (shared) third place finish behind Flohr and Reshevsky.

Despite his successes, Levenfish was virtually ignored by the Soviet chess authorities. They consistently supported his great rival Botvinnik and pretenders to the throne were not encouraged. Consequently, he lived his life in somewhat tragic circumstances, as the only strong Soviet master of his generation who was denied a stipend. This meant that he could only afford a poorly heated room in a run-down block of flats. Worse still, the government refused him permission to travel abroad and compete in tournaments such as AVRO 1938 (even though he was the reigning Soviet Champion). This further weakened his standing and most likely affected his morale; not to mention his continued development as a chess player. Other players born pre-revolution, such as Alekhine, Bogoljubov, Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch, were all allowed to travel and even ended up living abroad. Deprived of the same opportunities, Levenfish played only within the confines of Soviet Russia and supplemented his income with a job as an engineer in the glass industry. This eventually resulted in a slow retirement from active play.

Sosonko, in his book Russian Silhouettes, echoes the thoughts of some grandmasters who knew him and they speak of a man of integrity and independence, who never complained about his difficult living conditions. Spassky encountered him in a Moscow subway, just days before his death. Levenfish, who had a wretched look, was clutching a handkerchief to his mouth and declared that he had just had six teeth extracted. Smyslov recounts the time that Levenfish visited him, towards the end of his life, armed with a huge pile of papers. It turned out to be a manuscript detailing his lifetime work on rook endings. He asked Smyslov to check for errors and some minor corrections later, the book was published (1957) bearing both names, under the (translated) title The Theory Of Rook Endings (later published in English in 1971 under the title Rook Endings). Smyslov freely admits that all of the hard work was carried out by his co-author.

In his time, Grigory Levenfish also wrote books for beginners and edited a collaborative effort on chess openings, titled Modern Openings. His posthumously published autobiography, Izbrannye Partii I Vospominanya (1967), contained 79 annotated games. He died in Moscow in 1961.

Regarding his playing abilities, Sosonko points to his deep understanding of the game and a keen eye for brilliantly imaginative moves. It was as a tactician that he really excelled, delivering elegant combinations and unexpected tactical blows, that many thought were impossibly ambitious. He was also an accomplished and leading opening theorist; the inventor of the Levenfish Attack, a sharp variation of the Sicilian Defence, devised to combat Black's ever-popular Dragon set-up. It remains fully playable in modern practice.

Victor Korchnoi (white) played the sixty-four year old Levenfish (black) at Moscow in 1953, when the old master proved that he was still tactically aware:

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Be7 5. 0-0 0-0 6. d4 Nbd7 7. Qb3 c6 8. Nc3 b6 9. cxd5 exd5 10. Bf4 Bb7 11. Rad1 Re8 12. Rfe1 a5 13. a3 Bf8 14. Ne5 Nxe5 15. Bxe5 b5 16. Bxf6 Qxf6 17. e4 b4 18. axb4 axb4 19. Na4 dxe4 20. Nc5 Bxc5 21. dxc5 Bc8 22. Bxe4 Bh3 23. Rd6? Rxe4! 24. Rxe4 Qxd6! 25. Qxb4 Qxc5! 26. Qe1 g6 0-1

[edit] Books

• Rook Endings, by Grigory Levenfish and Vasily Smyslov, 1971, Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-0449-3. (probably out of print).

[edit] References

• Hooper, David and Kenneth Whyld (1996). The Oxford Companion To Chess. Oxford University. ISBN 0-19-280049-3.
• Sosonko, Genna (2005). Russian Silhouettes. New In Chess. ISBN 90-5691-078-7.
• Sunnucks, Anne (1970). The Encyclopaedia of Chess. St. Martin's.