Igor Naumkin (10 August 1965 – 13 July 2022) was a Russian

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.

Career

He earned his

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

title in 1988 and his Grandmaster title in 1990. Notable victories included over ex-world champion Mikhail Tal, and David Bronstein. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he left for Europe to find better chess opportunities, eventually settling in Italy and becoming fluent in the language. Naumkin traveled in Europe from tournament to tournament and was known for being a highly active player. In 2019, he was the #1 most active grandmaster with 258 games in 41 tournaments.

Suspension

Naumkin was suspended for six months in 2017 for trying to manipulate a game by offering an opponent a victory in exchange for 200 euros. His opponent refused, and after an investigation Naumkin, along with two other players, were suspended.

Death

He died in

Asti Asti ( , , ; pms, Ast ) is a ''comune'' of 74,348 inhabitants (1-1-2021) located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, about east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River. It is the capital of the province of Asti and it is deemed t ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

on 13 July 2022. On 3 July he had won a weekend tournament in Pegli, finishing on 4½/5 points. He had remained in the area in order to go to the Russian consulate about his lost passport.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naumkin, Igor 1965 births 2022 deaths Chess grandmasters Russian chess players Sportspeople from Saratov