Gennadi "Genna" Sosonko (russian: Геннадий Борисович Сосонко, ''Gennady Borisovich Sosonk''o; born 18 May 1943) is a Soviet-born
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
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 dist ...
player and writer. He has been awarded the title
Grandmaster (GM) by
FIDE and is a twice Dutch champion.
Career
Born in
Troitsk Troitsk (russian: Троицк) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia.
Modern localities
;Urban localities
*Troitsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast;
*Troitsk, Moscow, a town in Troitsk Settlement of Troitsky Adm ...
, Russia, Sosonko won the
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
juniors' championship in 1958.
He legally emigrated from the Soviet Union to the Netherlands via Israel in 1972.
Sosonko won the
Dutch Championship in 1973 and 1978 (jointly).
His tournament record includes 1st at
Wijk aan Zee
Wijk aan Zee ( literally ''Neighborhood at Sea'') is a village on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk, the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament (formerly called the Corus ...
1977, 1st at
Nijmegen 1978, 3rd at
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
1980, 1st at Wijk aan Zee 1981, 3rd at
Tilburg
Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...
1982 and 4th at
Haninge
Haninge Municipality (''Haninge kommun'') is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in Handen, a part of the Stockholm urban area.
Haninge Municipality was formed in 1971 when ''Västerhaninge'' and ''Öst ...
1988. He also drew a match with
Jan Timman
Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known a ...
(+1 =0 −1) in 1984.
Sosonko played for the Dutch team at the
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 an ...
eleven times, in 1974-84, and 1988-96. He won two individual medals: gold at
Haifa 1976, bronze at
Nice 1974, and two team medals: silver at Haifa 1976, and bronze at
Thessaloniki 1988.
FIDE, the World Chess Federation, awarded Sosonko the
International Master (IM) title in 1974, the GM title in 1976 and the FIDE Senior Trainer title in 2004.
Arbiters / Trainers
Books
Sosonko has authored six non-technical chess books centering heavily on his chess life in the Soviet Union and his relationships with and memories of both leading Soviet players and lesser-known characters in chess history.
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References
Further reading
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External links
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1943 births
Living people
Soviet chess players
Dutch chess players
Dutch chess writers
Chess grandmasters
Chess Olympiad competitors
Chess coaches
Jewish chess players
Jewish Dutch sportspeople
Russian Jews
Soviet emigrants to the Netherlands
People from Troitsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast
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