Alexander Nikolayevich Zaitsev (June 15, 1935 – October 31, 1971) was a leading

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

grandmaster. He was born in

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Perhaps his finest achievement was a share of first place at the

1968 USSR Chess Championship The 1968 Soviet Chess Championship was the 36th edition of USSR Chess Championship. Held from 30 December 1968 to 1 February 1969 in Alma-Ata. The tournament was won by Lev Polugaevsky who defeats Alexander Zaitsev in a play-off match. The non-att ...

Alma Ata Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...

. He eventually took the silver medal after losing the play-off to co-winner

Lev Polugaevsky Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky ( rus, Лев Абрамович Полугаевский, p=pəlʊɡɐˈjefskʲɪj; 20 November 1934 – 30 August 1995) was a Soviet chess player. He was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE i ...

. The Chessmetrics website, which provides estimated ratings and rankings for players, places him as 21st in the world in 1969. Zaitsev had been born with a

clubfoot Clubfoot is a birth defect where one or both feet are rotated inward and downward. Congenital clubfoot is the most common congenital malformation of the foot with an incidence of 1 per 1000 births. In approximately 50% of cases, clubfoot aff ...

. In 1971, he had an operation to correct the problem. Details are hard to come by, but Zaitsev died of complications from the surgery.

Legacy

His name is attached to the Zaitsev Gambit of the

Grünfeld Defence The Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. d4 Nf6 :2. c4 g6 :3. Nc3 d5 Black offers White the possibility of 4.cxd5, which may be followed by 4...Nxd5 and 5.e4, giving White an imposing central pawn duo. If Whi ...

(1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.h4).

References

External links

* 1935 births 1971 deaths Chess grandmasters Russian chess players Soviet chess players 20th-century chess players {{Russia-chess-bio-stub