Russian and USSR Chess Championships

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I was reading about the latest Russian Chess Championships (won this year by Evgeny Tomashevsky), and was wondering how this tournament (won an impressive 6 times by Peter Svidler) compares with the heyday of the great USSR Chess Championships, which are rightly legendary for their strength (Kasparov himself never won it outright, sharing it twice).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_C ... ampionship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSR_Chess_Championship

Does anyone know of any good English-language sources on these, particularly the USSR Chess Championships? I'm aware of 'Soviet Chess 1917-1991' by Andrew Soltis, but is there more out there?

[Mike Truran]

"The Soviet Championships" (Cafferty and Taimanov).

ISBN 1 85744 201 6.

[John Moore]

Chris - "The Soviet Championships" by Bernard Cafferty and Mark Taimanov published by Cadogan in 1998. In 224 pages, the book covers briefly all 58 Soviet Championships with crosstables and a selection of annotated games.

[Mike Truran]

Wot I said.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thanks (should have Googled that first!). I see there are some books on the individual tournaments, including a couple of tournament books by Botvinnik. Are there any books that cover the politics, and not just the chess? From the blurb to the Cafferty and Taimanov book, I see that the introductions probably have what I'm after:

"The introductions to each Championship are equally fascinating, as the majority of these tournaments were played against the oppressive political backdrop of communism. Revered chess masters could get away with more than most, but veiled threats by the authorities were always there for those who might consider stepping out of line."

Does anyone here actually have a copy of this book? How does it compare to the Soltis book (which covers a wider range, not just the Championships)? I see Soltis also published an earlier book in 1976: 'The Younger School of Soviet Chess'.

[Tim Harding]

The 1976 book by Soltis (Bell, hardback, about 250 pages) is in descriptive notation and quaintly uses "ch" not + for check.
There are chapters on Tukmakov, Kuzmin, Balashov, Karpov, Vaganian, and Beliavsky and shorter pieces on what he calls "the reserves": Romanishin, Gulko, Razuvaev, Tseshkovsky, Kupreichik, Podgaets and Makarichev.
Two of the above played last year in the World 65+ championship.
It ends with a short chapter asking whether Soviet domination will continue. So very much of its time.

The Cafferty/Taimanov book is an essential reference work, also a hardback (Cadogan Chess, 1998, 224 pages, algebraic) with a chapter on each of the 58 championships, with crosstable, introduction (by Bernard presumably) and a few games and positions. Taimanov wrote a foreword and the game notes.

The print is quite small to pack a lot in but no chapter is longer than six pages, mostly about 4 pages each. The publisher perhaps dictated that. The material really needed a book twice the size and produced with McFarland's TLC but at least there is a book in English.

Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, a book called Red Letters about the correspondence chess championships of the USSR was subsequently produced by Sergey Grodzensky (distinguished Russian chess historian and CC organiser) and myself, published by Chess Mail and long out of print. Ken Neat translated Sergey's text which is on an accompanying CD-ROM along with a game database and other material compiled by me.

[MJMcCready]

You definitely want the Cafferty & Taimanov book.

[Ken Norman]

There are a number of books published in English that provide information about Soviet Chess.

Soviet Chess by D.J.Richards Clarendon Press.Oxford 1965

The Soviet School of Chess by Kotov and Yudovich.
My copy was published by the Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow 1958. However I believe there was a Dover edition published in the 1960/70’s.

The autobiography of Yuri Averbakh Centre-Stage and behind the Scenes published by New in Chess 2011. Very informative about life as a professional Chessplayer in the USSR.

[Matt Mackenzie]

"Soviet School of Chess" also has some highly amusing propaganda passages, of course

[Brian Towers]

The Soviet School of Chess by Kotov and Yudovich.
My copy was published by the Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow 1958. However I believe there was a Dover edition published in the 1960/70’s.

Interesting. According to my database cataloguing my books I have two editions, one the Foreign Languages Publishing House edition and one which I've recorded as Raduga Publishers Moscow. So, a third edition. I can't double check at the moment as I'm separated from my library.

[John Moore]

The Soviet School of Chess by Kotov and Yudovich.
My copy was published by the Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow 1958. However I believe there was a Dover edition published in the 1960/70’s.

Interesting. According to my database cataloguing my books I have two editions, one the Foreign Languages Publishing House edition and one which I've recorded as Raduga Publishers Moscow. So, a third edition. I can't double check at the moment as I'm separated from my library.

My current copy is also the Foreign Languages Publishing House edition. But there was a Dover edition first published in 1961 and which I owned at one time.

[John Clarke]

You could try tracking down one of P H Clarke's early works - The 24th USSR Chess Championship, published in 1957 as the BCM's Quarterly No 1. This was the first of Tal's wins in the event.