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Eduard Gufeld 1936-2002
Eduard Yefimovich Gufeld was born 19th March 1936 and died 23rd September 2002 at the age of 66 in the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He had a massive stroke two weeks before which left him in a coma. He became an IM in 1964 and a GM in 1967. He was a prolific author who spent his final years in the US and travelling round the world.
Obituary: Eduard Gufeld 1936-2002 (small correction, the Mona Lisa game was his win against Bagirov in Kirovabad 1973 not the 55 move draw in the same year both are in the PGN section anyhow) and Small Selection of Games in PGN
Ricardo Calvo 1943-2002
IM Ricardo Calvo has died of cancer of the esophagus in Madrid at the age of 59. Ricardo Calvo was born in Alcoy (Alicante) 22nd October 1943 and died in Madrid 26th September 2002. He was a prolific writer. He organised "URSS-Resto del Mundo de 25 minutes" in Madrid in 1988. He played for Spain in 5 Olympiads Havana (1966), Lugano (1968), Siegen (1970), Nice (1974) and Buenos Aires (1978). Below is a famous win in the first of those appearances. Info Jesús J. Boyero Gabarre.
Calvo-Korchnoi Havana ol 1966 7th round. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Ba7 7.c4 Nc6 8.0-0 Qh4 9.N1d2 Nge7 10.c5 Ne5 11.Be2 b6 12.f4 N5c6 13.Nc4 bxc5 14.g3 Qh6 15.f5 Qf6 16.fxe6 Qxe6 17.Nd6+ Kf8 18.Bc4, 1-0.
David Garcia Ilundain 1971-2002
There has been some desperately sad news from Spain. Spanish Grandmaster David Garcia Ilundain has died at the very early age of 31 (born 2nd April 1971 died June 19th 2002). Ilundain became a GM in 1996. Sadly he was diagnosed as having a brain tumour a number of years ago. His best result was probably the shared first place on 5.5/9 level with Moskalenko in the Category 8 Paretana tournament in 1999. His last event seems to have been the Spanish Championships in November last year where he mananged only a couple of draws out of five preliminary games.
Here is a creative effort of his. Illescas Cordoba was Spain's top player at the time and competing in such elite events as Linares but he was undone by an innocuous opening. Garcia Ilundain suddenly launches a strong queenside attack beginning 15.Na5. The knight hops into b7 and is completely stuck yet it creates havoc. Black runs out of squares in his own camp and is unable to defend his d5 pawn the lynchpin of his position. Garcia Ilundain then finishes the game with some crisp tactics. The last one, 41.Re6, sets up the idea of 42.Qxh6+ Bxh6 43.Rxh6 mate
D Garcia Ilundain - M Illescas Cordoba
Catalan Team Ch. 1996 King's Indian Defence
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 g6 3 c4 Bg7 4 Nc3 0-0 5 Bg5 d6 6 h3 Nbd7 7 e3 e5 8 Be2 Re8 9 0-0 h6 10 Bh4 e4 11 Nd2 g5 12 Bg3 Nf8 13 Rc1 Bf5 14 Nb3 Bg6 15 Na5! Rb8 16 b4 a6 17 c5 d5 18 c6! b6 19 Nb7! Qe7 20 Qb3 Ra8 21 Nxd5 Nxd5 22 Qxd5 Kh8 23 Qb3 f5 24 d5 Bf7 25 d6! Qf6 26 Bc4 Bxc4 27 Qxc4 f4 28 d7 fxg3 29 fxg3! Qe5 30 dxe8Q Rxe8 31 Qf7 Re7 32 Qf2 Ne6 33 Rcd1 Re8 34 Rd7 Qc3 35 Kh1 Qxc6 36 Qf7 Rg8 37 Re7 Qxb7 38 Qxe6 Qc8 39 Qg6 Qd8 40 Rff7 Qd6 41 Re6 1-0
Edmar Mednis 1937 - 2002
Hanon Russell of chesscafe.com reports that Edmar Mednis born Riga, Latvia March 22, 1937 has died in Queens, New York at the age of 64 on February 13th 2002 after a sudden attack of pneumonia. He became a GM in 1980. Mednis's career high was beating Bobby Fischer in the US Championships of 1962 (although their overall record was +1 -5 =1 in serious games). He wrote several books on endings and "How to beat Bobby Fischer". He was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 2000 and according to his entry there "Mednis was educated as a chemical engineer, has worked as stock market investor, but ultimately became a professional chess player".
Here is Mednis' famous win. He recalled it later: "I have been asked innumerable times how it felt to receive Fischer's handshake. Well, it sure felt great to defeat Fischer, but I must admit that I didn't get Bobby's handshake nor, for that matter, any other direct communication from him. What happened was the following: Next time we were together was for Round 4, and before the games for that round started, Fischer went up to the referee, Hans Kmoch, and told him that he was resigning. Mr. Kmoch then came over to me and informed me, "Mr. Fischer has resigned."
Bobby Fischer vs. Edmar Mednis [C19] USA-ch New York (1), 16.12.1962
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Qc7 7.Nf3 Bd7 8.a4 Ne7 9.Bd3 Nbc6 10.0-0 c4 11.Be2 f6 12.Ba3 0-0 13.Re1 Rf7 14.exf6 gxf6 15.Bf1 Re8 16.Nh4 Ng6 17.Qh5 Rg7 18.g3 Qa5 19.Bb2 Nd8 20.Re3 Nf7 21.Kh1 Nd6 22.Nxg6 hxg6 23.Qe2 Rh7 24.Kg1 Kf7 25.h4 f5 26.Qf3 Ne4 27.Qf4 Rc8 28.Bg2 Qc7 29.Qxc7 Rxc7 30.a5 Rc6 31.Ba3 Ra6 32.Bb4 Rh8 33.Ree1 Bc6 34.Bf3 Nd2 35.Be2 Ne4 36.Kg2 Nf6 37.Rh1 Be8 38.Kf3 Ne4 39.Ke3 Nf6 40.f3 Bd7 41.g4 Be8 42.Kf4 Bb5 43.h5 gxh5 44.Rag1 Be8 45.Ke3 b6 46.axb6 Rxb6 47.Ra1 Rb7 48.Bd6 Rh7 49.gxf5 exf5 50.Rh4 Ke6 51.Bh2 Rb2 52.Kd2 Rhb7 53.Kc1 R2b6 54.Bf1 Ng8 55.Bf4 a5 56.Rh2 a4 57.Bh3 Ne7 58.Bg5 Kf7 59.Re2 Re6 60.Rxe6 Kxe6 61.Kd1 Nc8 62.Kd2 Bd7 63.Bg2 Ra7 64.Re1+ Kd6 65.Bh6 a3 66.Bf8+ Kc6 67.Bc5 Ra8 68.Ra1 a2 69.Ke3 Nd6 70.Kf4 Nb5 71.Bb4 h4 72.Bh3 Nc7 73.Be7 0-1
Victor Knox 1945-2001
Obituary by Malcolm Pein
Victor Knox, one of the strongest players in the North of England and an England junior international has died aged 56. He was born in the Wirral and was one of Cheshire's leading players from the time he was a teenager, he represented the county for the first time at the age of thirteen. In 1960 he won the British Under 15 Championship and in 1962-63 he played on board one for England in the Glorney Cup and scored 2.5 out of 3.
In 1966 he played in the British Championship for the first time scoring 6.5 points and from 1968 to 1980 he made 13 successive appearances. He played the British a few more times later in his career when strong players still had to go through qualifying events. He scored over 100 points in the British.
Vic won the Cheshire Championship on numerous occasions and was Cheshire junior organiser for five years, building the junior squad into a formidable team. He also assisted in junior training outside Cheshire and I recall quite vividly the insights he brought to the training weekends for juniors at the Bluecoat School in Liverpool in the early seventies.
His aggressive playing style was particularly well suited to the cut and thrust of the weekend Swiss that became increasingly popular in the 1970s. He won numerous congresses in the Northwest, and the Manchester Congress particularly was a happy hunting ground for him. Throughout the 1970s and well into the 1980s he was chess columnist for the Manchester Evening News.
In his last season playing in the Manchester League he won the Bramley Harker prize for the best result in the top division while struggling with the illness that was to end his life so early.
Vic was an excellent tactician and deadly with the initiative as the following examples illustrate. First a Romanian GM is despatched from what appears to be an unpromising position out of the opening.
M Suba - VW Knox Manchester Open 1991 English Opening
1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 e3 d6 5 d4 Be7 6 d5 Nb8 7 e4 0-0 8 Be2 Nbd7 9 0-0 Nc5 10 Nd2 a5 11 b3 Ne8 12 Bg4 Bxg4 13 Qxg4 Bg5! 14 Rd1 Qf6 15 Ba3 Bxd2 16 Rxd2 Qh6 17 Rdd1 Nf6 18 Qe2 b6 19 f3 Nh5 20 Nb5 Rac8 21 Bc1 Qg6 22 Qc2 f5 23 exf5 Rxf5 24 g4 e4! 25 Kh1 Ng3+!! 26 hxg3 Rxf3 27 Bf4 Rf8 28 Rd2 Qxg4 29 Nd4 Qh3+ 30 Kg1 Rxg3+! 31 Bxg3 Qxg3+ 32 Kh1 Nd3 33 Rg1 Qe3 34 Ne6 Nf2+ 35 Rxf2 Rxf2 36 Rxg7+ Kh8 37 Qd1 Qh3+ 0-1
The queen stays en prise from move 21 to 26 and in the final position its mate after 27.Ke2 Rf2+ 28.Kd1 Ne3 or 27.Kg2 Ne3+ 28.Kh3 Nf2.
S Bell - VW Knox Manchester League 1987 Slav Meran
1 d4 d5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 c4 c6 4 Nc3 e6 5 e3 Nbd7 6 Bd3 dxc4 7 Bxc4 b5 8 Bd3 a6 9 e4 c5 10 d5 Bb7 11 dxe6 fxe6 12 0-0 c4 13 Bc2 Bc5 14 e5 Bxf3 15 Qxf3 Nxe5 16 Qh3 Qb6 17 Bg5 0-0-0 18 a4 Nd3! 19 axb5 Nxf2! 20 Qh4 N6g4 21 Rxa6 Rhf8! 22 g3 Nd3+ 23 Kg2 Rxf1 24 Kxf1 Rf8+ 25 Bf4 Nxf4 26 Rxb6 Nd3+ 0-1
Jack Collins 1912-2001
John William Collins September 23rd 1912 - December 2nd 2001
Chess Teacher John W. (Jack) Collins has died at the age of 89. He was best known for his involvement in the early career of Bobby Fischer.
Collins was born in Newburgh NY in 1912. An accident at birth meant that he was confined to a wheelchair. His formal education largely finished after elimentary school, after that he taught himself. This included chess. Learning from a neighbour he soon ran out of challenging opponents. He taught five boys to play and formed a chess club in his own house, the "Hawthorne Chess Club" named after the street where he lived. They competed as a team in various competitions and the club started to meet several times a week and began to attract a wide variety of regulars including Hermann Helms and Irving Chernev.
Collins himself was a strong player being ranked as high as 17 in the US and winning the US Correspondence Chess Championships in 1943. He also won the Marshall Chess Club Championships and the New York State Championships.
Collins edited the 9th Edition of Modern Chess Openings and wrote a book about his teaching called "My Seven Chess Prodigies".
It was in his role as a teacher that he became best known. American players William Lombardy, Donald and Robert Byrne and players as late as Max Dlugy were all were taught by Collins.
In 1956 13 year old Bobby Fischer started to visit spending a large amount of time at his home, almost as a member of the family. Collins concentrated on the practical and the line between playing and studying often became blurred. He believed in the study of the chess classics from all eras getting his best pupils to analyse at least 100 games from each of the World Champions. Collins never claimed credit for teaching Fischer merely saying that he "imparted knowledge" to him. Fischer's access to Collins huge chess library was probably just as important as the teaching itself. However it is no accident that Collins was heavily influential in the period when Fischer "just got good".
Collins and Fischer were close for many years but post-1972 they eventually became estranged as Fischer's increasingly racist views disgusted Collins.
Collins continued to teach successive generations of players of widely differing abilities. The US Chess Federation recognised his contributions by inducting him into the Chess Hall of Fame in Washington DC in 1991.
Collins was looked after by his sister Ethel until she died in 1993.
Further information: http://www.chesslinks.org/chess/hof/collins.html, NY Times (may need registration), http://www.uschess.org/news/press/uspr0147.html and http://www.iht.com/articles/41019.html
Anthony John Miles 23rd April 1955 - 12th November 2001
Malcolm Pein's Tribute to Tony Miles
A selection of games by Tony Miles
The death of Tony Miles at the age of 46 has come as a great shock to British chess. Anthony John Miles was born on the 23rd April 1955 in Birmingham, England. He made rapid progress as a junior winning the British Under-14 title in 1968 and the Under-21 title in 1971. On his debut in the British Championships in 1972 he scored 50%. 1973 saw Miles advance even further finishing 4th= behind Bisguier, Browne and Szabo at the Lone Pine tournament in the US. At home he won the Birmingham international ahead of Adorjan and Bisguier. He then finished second in the World Junior Championships in Teeside behind Alexander Beliavsky who he beat.
By this time he was nominally a student at Sheffield University studying maths, however he used his time more productively to further his chess career. Miles won the World Junior Championships of 1974 in Manila by a margin of 1.5 points (and with it earned the IM title) securing the title with a smashing win against Alexander Kochyev in the penultimate round.
Kochyev,A - Miles,A [B76]
Wch U20 Manila, 1974
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 Nc6 8.Qd2 0-0 9.g4 e6 10.Ndb5 d5 11.Bc5 a6 12.Bxf8 Kxf8 13.exd5 exd5 14.Na3 b5 15.Nd1 b4 16.Nb1 Bxg4 17.Bg2 Qe7+ 18.Qe3 Ne4 19.fxe4 Bxd1 20.Nd2 Bxc2 21.Rc1 d4 22.Qh3 d3 23.0-0 Kg8 24.e5 Rd8 25.e6 fxe6 26.Rce1 Nd4 27.Kh1 Nf5 28.Re4 Qg5 29.Nf3 Qh6 30.Rh4 Qe3 31.Rxb4 d2 32.Nxd2 Qxh3 33.Bxh3 Rxd2 34.Re1 Bf8 35.Rb8 Kf7 36.Rb7+ Be7 37.Bf1 Ba4 38.Rb6 Bd6 39.Re2 Rd1 40.Kg2 Bb5 41.Rf2 Bc5 42.Rb7+ Kf6 43.Bxb5 axb5 44.Re2 Rg1+ 45.Kh3 g5 46.Rg2 Rd1 0-1
At this stage he set his sights on the £5000 prize offered by Jim Slater in 1971 to the first over-the-board GM in the UK. It had been assumed by many that either Ray Keene or Bill Hartston would claim this prize but it turned out to be Miles.
Miles produced his first GM norm by winning the Category VIII London tournament in October 1975 ahead of Timman, Adorjan and Sax. He scored his second and final norm in February 1976 in Dubna in the USSR scoring 9/15 in an event with amongst others Gipslis, Tseshkovsky, Suetin, Savon and Kholmov. Miles' achievement seemed to aid others in British chess as in the next five years Keene, Stean, Nunn, Mestel and Speelman were to follow him to the GM title.
Miles himself wasn't prepared to rest on his achievement. In the next couple of years he scored his first major tournament wins 1st= Amsterdam 1976 (with Korchnoi ahead of Sax, Farago, Velimirovic and Szabo amongst others) and Amsterdam (+7=7-1 ahead of Hulak, Liberzon and Kavalek) and Biel (+8=6-1 ahead of Panno, Ulf Andersson) in 1977.
Miles had established himself as a steady top 40 player. In the next 10 years he remained there with peak performances inside the top 20. Although never a consistant achiever at the highest level he had a number of great individual tournament results.
Miles was never a World Championship Candidate but he played four times in Interzonals in Riga 1979 scoring 9/17, Tunis 1985 around 50%, Zagreb 1987 6.5/16 and Manilla 1990 6.5/13 and he played once in the new format FIDE knockout event in 1999 when he was eliminated by Krasenkow in the second round after a speed playoff.
1980 saw Miles play tournaments in Las Palmas (+6=5 1st equal with Geller and Petrosian) and Vrbas (+4=6-1 ahead of Petrosian). It was also in this year that he beat reigning World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov in the first round of the European Team Championships with black using an incredibly provocative opening (1.e4 a6?! 2. d4 b5) which he dubbed the Birmingham Defence after his home town. Its choice was probably more to do with a loss of faith in his opening repertoire against Karpov who administered many fearful drubbings to Miles.
Karpov,A (2725) - Miles,A (2545) [B00]
EU-chT Skara Skara (1), 1980
1.e4 a6 2.d4 b5 3.Nf3 Bb7 4.Bd3 Nf6 5.Qe2 e6 6.a4 c5 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.Nbd2 b4 9.e5 Nd5 10.Ne4 Be7 11.0-0 Nc6 12.Bd2 Qc7 13.c4 bxc3 14.Nxc3 Nxc3 15.Bxc3 Nb4 16.Bxb4 Bxb4 17.Rac1 Qb6 18.Be4 0-0 19.Ng5 h6 20.Bh7+ Kh8 21.Bb1 Be7 22.Ne4 Rac8 23.Qd3 Rxc1 24.Rxc1 Qxb2 25.Re1 Qxe5 26.Qxd7 Bb4 27.Re3 Qd5 28.Qxd5 Bxd5 29.Nc3 Rc8 30.Ne2 g5 31.h4 Kg7 32.hxg5 hxg5 33.Bd3 a5 34.Rg3 Kf6 35.Rg4 Bd6 36.Kf1 Be5 37.Ke1 Rh8 38.f4 gxf4 39.Nxf4 Bc6 40.Ne2 Rh1+ 41.Kd2 Rh2 42.g3 Bf3 43.Rg8 Rg2 44.Ke1 Bxe2 45.Bxe2 Rxg3 46.Ra8 Bc7 0-1
In 1981 Miles finished first equal in the Baden-Baden tournament with +6=7 with Ribli and ahead of Korchnoi. In the same year he took 2nd place in the Porz tournament behind Tal.
1982 saw him win his only British Chess Championship. He won the event which took place in Torquay with a score of 9/11 a point clear of Jon Speelman. For a player who was England's top player for a decade it seems strange that he only won the title once.
Miles,A (2630) - Spassky,B (2565) [E12]
Montilla/Moriles Montilla (2), 1978
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 b6 3.c4 e6 4.Bf4 Bb7 5.e3 Be7 6.h3 0-0 7.Nc3 d5 8.cxd5 exd5 9.Bd3 c5 10.0-0 Nc6 11.Ne5 c4 12.Bc2 a6 13.g4 b5 14.g5 Ne8 15.Qg4 g6 16.Rad1 Ng7 17.h4 Bb4 18.Nd7 Bc8 19.Nxd5 Kh8 20.N5f6 Ra7 21.d5 Ne7 22.Be5 Rxd7 23.h5 Rxd5 24.Qf4 Rxd1 25.Rxd1 Qa5 26.Ne8 f6 27.gxf6 Kg8 28.Nxg7 1-0
In 1983 he finished 1st= with John Nunn in the Biel Category 10 event.
1984 saw him finish 2nd= behind Karpov in a Category 13 event in Oslo, he had a small plus score for the Rest of the World against the Soviets (three draws against Jussupow and one win against Romanishin). At the Category 14 Tilburg event (where he had already enjoy success finishing 2nd in 1977 and 3rd= the following year) he took clear first ahead of Huebner, Tukmakov, Ribli and Beliavsky to score what was probably the best result of his career.
When he returned to Tilburg in 1985 he finished first equal with Huebner and Korchnoi with 8.5/14 in the Category 15 event. He injured his back during the event and the organisers allowed him to play stretched out on his stomach on a hospital massage table. This annoyed some of his opponents a great deal who protested. He did the double over Korchnoi (who he had never beaten before) and Ljubojevic during the event.
1986 saw him finish 2nd= behind Ribli in the Dortmund tournament, he was half a point clear of the fast improving Nigel Short. He also played a strange match against Garry Kasparov in Basel who needed the practice between title matches against Karpov. Kasparov won 5.5-0.5 but Miles certainly missed opportunities. 1986 and 1987 were also the years that Nigel Short definitely took over as England's number one player.
There was also something else hanging over Tony Miles, the so-called Miles-Keene affair (an article was published in the Sunday Times Colour supplement in 13th January 1991 outlined it in full). Miles made accusations to the British Chess Federation about Raymond Keene over payments made by the BCF to Keene for acting as Miles's second at the Turin Internzonal in 1985 (Miles said that Keene had not assisted him). An enquiry took a long time to set up and Miles became increasingly obsessive about it to the extent he was becoming seriously ill. Things came to a head when after midnight on September 28th 1987 he decided that the only solution was to talk to the British Prime-Minister about the affair and in a very agitated state was arrested in Downing Street and eventually hospitalised in Birmingham for two months. The drug treatment that followed meant that for over a year his chess was pretty much unrecognisable.
In this period he left Britain and decided to move to America, he finished last in the 1988 US Championships.
He started to get back on track in 1989 picking up rating points with a 50% score in the Category 13 Wijk aan Zee tournament and scoring 8.5/15 in the US Championships. He was 3rd= behind Karpov and Andersson in the Biel 1990 tournament with 7.5/14. In 1991 he was now to be found competing in the Australian Championships in Melbourne but this proved to be a short lived adventure. He was soon to make himself available to play for England again. Miles scored a steady result in the Biel 1992 tournament with 7/14 which was enough for clear third in this 8 player Category 16 event. He played his first games for England in the European Team Championships however he only scored 50%. He finished the year with a 4th= position in the Category 14 Groningen tournament. He was 2nd= behind Speelman in the strong Lloyds Bank tournament of 1993.
In 1994 he was 1st= with Van Wely and Zapata in the Category 10 Capablanca Memorial, the following year at the same event he did even better taking clear first in 1995 with 10.5/13 in the Category 11 event. Miles won the Category 13 Benasque event in 1995 with 6.5/9 a point ahead of Ulf Andersson and David Garcia Illundain. Miles pulled off one of the great moments in his chess career during the PCA Intel Rapid Chess Grand Prix. He was drawn against Vladimir Kramnik and in front of a very partisan audience he knocked him out in the first round after a playoff game. Miles progressed all the way to the semi-final only to lose out to Adams.
Miles,A - Kramnik,V [D00]
Rapid London ENG (1.1), 1995
1.d4 d5 2.Bg5 h6 3.Bh4 c6 4.e3 Qb6 5.Qc1 e5 6.c3 exd4 7.cxd4 Be7 8.Bxe7 Nxe7 9.Nc3 Bf5 10.Nf3 Nd7 11.Be2 0-0 12.0-0 Bg4 13.Qc2 Rfe8 14.Rac1 Nf5 15.Bd3 Nd6 16.Nd2 Nf8 17.Na4 Qd8 18.Nc5 Qg5 19.Kh1 Rad8 20.Rce1 Bc8 21.b4 Qf6 22.a3 Ng6 23.Nf3 Bg4 24.Bxg6 Bxf3 25.Bh7+ Kh8 26.Bd3 Re7 27.Be2 Bxe2 28.Qxe2 Rde8 29.Qd3 Nf5 30.Rb1 Nh4 31.Qd1 a6 32.Qg4 Nf5 33.Kg1 Kg8 34.Rfc1 Nd6 35.a4 g6 36.Nd7 Qg7 37.Ne5 h5 38.Qf4 Re6 39.h3 Rf6 40.Qh2 Re7 41.Rc2 g5 42.Rbc1 Rh6 43.Qg3 Ne4 44.Qf3 f6 45.Nxc6 bxc6 46.Rxc6 Qf7 47.Qf5 Kg7 48.Rxa6 Rh8 49.b5 Rd8 50.Rcc6 Red7 51.Re6 Rc7 52.Rac6 Rxc6 53.Rxc6 Nd6 54.Qc2 Rd7 55.b6 Nc4 56.Qb1 Qe7 57.Qb5 g4 58.hxg4 hxg4 59.g3 Nd2 60.Rc8 Qf7 61.Qxd7 1-0
Miles almost qualified from the Linares Zonal in 1995. He had led clearly after nine of eleven rounds. In the last two rounds he lost to Van Wely and Apicella and unfortunately was eliminated in a seven player playoff for four places.
1996 saw Miles win the Category IX Sakthi tournament with 9/11 ahead of Adianto. He completed a hat-trick of Capablanca Memorial (cat 12) wins with a score of 9.5/13, he was second in Malmo (Cat 12) a point behind Korchnoi. However this year he also was last in Biel and Beijing.
1997 saw some steady results in opens and a second place in his favourite Capablanca Memorial tournament. The Category 12 event was won by Peter Leko with 8/11 but Miles' 7/11 was a big result too. In 1997 he also got into a four-way playoff for the British Championships but Adams and Sadler shared first in the end.
In 1998 he was joint 4th, half a point behind the joint winners in the Category 12 Capablanca Memorial. He was 3rd in the British Championships with 8/11 behind Sadler and Short. He played for England in the Elista Olympiad scoring +3=4 in seven games. He also qualified for the FIDE Championships by getting through a playoff after tieing for first in the Escaldes Zonal. There were six World Championship places for eight players and Miles managed to avoid dangerous losses.
In 1999 Miles again played his favourite tournament and won, taking first in the Category 12 Capablanca Memorial with 8.5/13 half a point clear of Bruzon, Becerra and Atalik.
2000 saw his usual round of open events. The Capablanca Memorial was not quite so good to him and he finished in a tie for 5th. Miles played in the Mondariz Zonal tournament and although he got into a playoff for a qualification place the odds were not with him. Miles was chosen for England in the 2000 Olympiad but could only play in four games before having to return home after receiving news of his father's death.
Miles didn't play that much in 2001. In May he finished joint 6th at the Capablanca Memorial. He then finished on 50% in the strong European Individual Championships in Ohrid. At the British Championships he started well enough with two wins (Andrew Ledger will go down as his last tournament win) but he started to look ill and after a string of draws he suffered a bad loss to Gary Lane in round nine and didn't play the final round. Two short draws in the 4NCL were his final games.
Tony Miles represented England on 12 occasions between 1973 and 2000. He was top board for many of his appearances and his determination and willingness to take on the best proved a tremendous inspiration. His first event was the European Team Championships in Bath in 1973. At the Haifa Olympiad of 1974 he scored 6/8 undefeated. In 1976 in the Buenos Aires Olympiad against tougher opposition he scored 6/12 including a win against Boris Spassky. He played in the European Team Championships in Skara 1980 scoring 4.5/7 including a win against Karpov. At the Malta Olympiad also in 1980 he scored 5/10. At the Lucerne Olympiad of 1982 he scored 7/14. In 1984 he scored 6/14 at the Thessaloniki Olympiad. At the World Team Championships in Lucerne 1985 he scored 5/8. He made further appearances at the European Team Championships in 1992, Moscow Olympiad 1994, Elista Olympiad 1998 and the Istanbul Olympiad of 2000.
In addition to his international tournament appearances (the events mentioned above are but a tiny sample of his better results he had many good results not mentioned and throughout his career he mixed in more than the occasional poor result) Miles played hundreds of weekend tournaments in Britain and abroad. He was an anti-establishment figure who always had trouble with chess authorities. He was very popular amongst the rank and file players in the UK who knew him from his appearances in weekend swisses. Miles was also a strong force behind the successful Slough team in the 4NCL in recent years.
Tony Miles was above all a tough competitor. At his best he was fearless, prepared to take on anyone. His best wins were usually long and technical only rarely were they spectacular. He had his own repertoire of opening specialities and made contributions to the theory of the Dragon and in later years the Berlin Defence. His aggressive style allowed for obscure tactics but also he had great belief in his endgame abilities to squeeze out points. In his early years he was very strong which allowed him to sit and play for hours. Possibly, his very variable results throughout his career were dependent on how high his energy levels were. Later in life he was diagnosed as being diabetic, this seems to have been responsible for much of his decline.
Bill Hartston credits Miles for changing the attitude of English Chess culture from a rather intellectual persuit of chess truth to one of playing winning chess.
Tony Miles was found dead on Monday 12th November 2001. The post-mortem revealed he died of natural causes - heart failure caused by diabetes. He will be sorely missed.
There was a minute silence at the start of the seventh round of the European Team Championships in Leon.
Links to Obituaries: British Chess Federation , Daily Telegraph, Leonard Barden in The Guardian, Bill Hartston in The Independent, The Times, John Henderson in the Scotsman, Midlands Chess
Alexei Suetin 1926-2001
Photo: Dagobert Kohlmeyer
The former World Seniors Champion (1996) Alexei Suetin has died. Alexey Stepanovich Suetin was born in Kirovograd 16th November 1926 and died in Moscow on Monday 10th September 2001 at the age of 74. He became an IM in 1961 and a Grandmaster in 1965. He played ten Soviet Championships in the years 1950-1967 finishing 4th= in 1963 and 1965. At his best in the 1960s he scored some excellent results including: 1st Sarajevo 1965 (Matulovic and Polugaevsky played), 1st= with Gligoric and Taimanov ahead of Larsen Copenhagen 1965 and 1st= with Mantanovic ahead of Gligoric Titovo Uzice 1966.
He is probably most well known for his chess theory books including : Modern Chess Opening Theory, A Contemporary Approach to the Middlegame and Three Steps to Chess Mastery. He also helped Tigran Petrosian with "pre-match training" [TP] on his way to the World Chess Championships in 1963 and was one of his trainers 1963-71.
He died just after returning home from the Russian Seniors Championships of a heart attack.
Gerardo Barbero 1961-2001
Christian Sánchez reports: GM Gerardo Barbero (21st August 1961, Rosario-4th March 2001, Budapest) Argentine Grandmaster Barbero has died after a struggle with eye cancer. He was junior (U-18) Argentine champion in 1977, and took the fourth place in the world junior (U-18) championship at Graz 1978. He was Argentine champion in 1984. He took second place in the 1985 Argentine championship behind GM Oscar Panno. He played in several Olympiads: Buenos Aires 1978 (3/6), Thessalonica 1984 (7/12), Dubai 1986 (6.5/11), Thessalonica 1988 (7.5/11), Moscow 1994 (3.5/8); at Novi Sad 1990 he scored 50% on board one, his best performance. Since 1986 he was living in Budapest, Hungary. His last tournament was the First Saturday Festival 2000.
Eugenio German 1930-2001
Herman van Riemsdijk reports: IM Eugenio German died on April 1 at the age of 70. He was Brazilian first IM, won the Brazilian Championship twice (1951 and 1972), played the Stockholm Interzonal (1962) and was in three Olympiads representing Brazil: 1952, 1968 and 1972. More details (Portuguese) about his chess career and 191 games at HiperChess: http://www.hipernet.com.br/HiperChess
Karl Robatsch 1929-2000
Karl Robatsch 14th October 1929-19th September 2000. Austrian Grandmaster and theorist Karl Robatsch has died after a struggle with stomach and throat cancer. Robatsch was a strong grandmaster who played his best chess in the early 1960s. He played in Olympiads from 1954 to 1994 for Austria (in his first Olympiad he played the great Ossip Bernstein the great pre-WWI player). He took the board one Gold Medal in 1960 drawing with Mikhail Tal on the way to a +11=5 result which earned him the GM title. He was the pioneer of the Pirc-Robatsch (sometimes known as the Modern) co-incidently his death comes just four months after that of Anatoly Ufimtsev who developed the related Pirc-Ufimtsev system.
Jaan Eslon 1952-2000
IM Jaan Eslon of Sweden 4th March 1952 - 24th September 2000. There is sad news today that Jaan Eslon has died of a heart attack during the Maspalomas2000 International Chess Tournament in Las Palmas, Spain. Eslon was only 48 years old and had lived in Castellón, Spain for many years.
Anatoly Ufimtsev 1914-2000
Soviet Master and theoretician Anatoly Gavrilovich Ufimtsev who was born in Omsk and lived most of his life in Kazakhstan has died in Kustanai (in truth not that far away from Omsk). He was born 11th May 1914 and died 2nd July 2000. He played in the Soviet Chess Championships just once, the 15th Championships in Leningrad 1947, where he beat Smyslov and Flohr. His name is mostly associated with the Pirc-Ufimtsev Defence. Both he and Pirc pioneering sequences such as 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 although with different strategic ideas in mind. He was an economist and administrator.
Klaman,K - Ufimtsev,A [B07] URS-ch15 Leningrad (13), 1947 1.e4 d6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c3 Bg7 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.e5 dxe5 6.Nxe5 0-0 7.d4 Nbd7 8.Qb3 Nxe5 9.dxe5 Ne4 10.e6 fxe6 11.Be3 Kh8 12.Nd2 Nxd2 13.Bxd2 Rxf2 14.Kxf2 Qxd2+ 15.Be2 Bd7 16.Rhe1 Be5 17.Qxb7 Rf8+ 18.Kg1 Qe3+ 19.Kh1 Qh6 0-1
Daniel Abraham Yanofsky 1925-2000
Daniel Abraham Yanofsky the Polish born (he moved to Canada at the age of 8 months) Canadian Grandmaster has died aged 74 (3 weeks short of his 75th birthday. He was born March 26th 1925 died 5th March 2000). He first came to prominence at the age of 14 when he played in the 1939 Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires scoring 85% on board 2 and attracting the attention of Alexander Alekhine in his reports from the event. He never really fulfilled his potential as a chess player instead turning his energies to the legal profession. He won the Canadian Championships 8 times. He played in the strong Groningen 1946 tournament finishing 14th/20 and defeated Botvinnik in that event. He played in the first FIDE Interzonal in Saltsjobaden in Sweden finishing in 14th= position from 20. He was 4th= at Dallas 1957. He became a GM in 1964. His main strength was technical play, especially in the endgame. In his book "How Chess Games are Won" Reshevsky described him thus "Dan Yanofsky is a tough opponent. His style is defensive but quite accurate. When given the slightest opportunity, he is strong enough to beat the best." Further reports: at: http://www.chesstalk.com/ including Cecil Rosner's reports: http://sitepowerup.com/mb/view.asp?Action=Reply&BoardID=109389&Reply=4348
George Koltanowski 1903-2000
There is a memorial fund for Koltanowski, contact Barbera di Maro at the USCF via bduscf@aol.com for more details.
Grandmaster and chess journalist George Koltanowski famous for his chess exhibitions (especially blindfold chess and the knight's tour) has died at the age of 96 in San Francisco USA. Further details of his career, Photo and 2 simul games from his record in Edinburgh.
Aivars Gipslis
Latvian Grandmaster Aivars Gipslis died on April 13th 2000 at the age of 63 in a Berlin hospital. Born 8th February 1937 he was an almost exact contemporary of fellow Latvian Mikhail Tal. Gipslis was many times Latvian Champion and became a GM in 1967. He came second in the Alekhine Memorial of 1967 (1st Stein 11, 2nd-5th Bobotsov, Gipslis, Smyslov, Tal 10, 6th-8th Bronstein, Portisch, Spassky 9.5 (Geller, Keres, Najdorf, Petrosian and Gligoric also played).