Igor Zakharovich Bondarevsky (russian: Игорь Захарович Бондаревский; May 12, 1913 – June 14, 1979) was a

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, ...

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 dist ...

player, trainer, and chess author. He held the title of Grandmaster in both over-the-board and correspondence chess. Bondarevsky shared the 1940 Soviet title, and later coached World Champion

Boris Spassky Boris Vasilievich Spassky ( rus, Бори́с Васи́льевич Спа́сский, Borís Vasíl'yevich Spásskiy; born January 30, 1937) is a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 ...

Early years

Igor Bondarevsky played in the 5th Russian Championship, Gorky 1935, scoring 4/9 points for a tied 6-7th place; the winner was

Alexander Tolush Alexander Kazimirovich Tolush (1 May 1910 – 3 March 1969) was a Soviet chess grandmaster. He was one of Boris Spassky's mentors. Tolush was born and died in Saint Petersburg (in 1969 called Leningrad). He earned the title of International Mast ...

. The next year, he won an All-Union first category tournament in

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 ...

, with 11½/14, unbeaten, by two points. This result earned him an invitation to the Soviet championship to be played the next year. At Moscow 1937, his first international event, Bondarevsky struggled with a score of 2½/7, for a tied 7-8th place; the winner was

Reuben Fine Reuben C. Fine (October 11, 1914 – March 26, 1993) was an American chess player, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology. He was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the mi ...

; however, he recovered with a solid performance in his first

Soviet Chess Championship The USSR Chess Championship was played from 1921 to 1991. Organized by the USSR Chess Federation, it was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winners ...

(at its tenth edition,

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

1937), with 9½/19 and a shared 10-12th place; the winner was

Grigory Levenfish Grigory Yakovlevich Levenfish (russian: Григо́рий Я́ковлевич Левенфи́ш; – 9 February 1961) was a Soviet chess player who scored his peak competitive results in the 1920s and 1930s. He was twice Soviet champion ...

. Bondarevsky qualified from the 11th USSR championship semifinal 1938 with 10½/17, for a shared 3rd-4th place; the winner was

Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, ( – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess. Botvinnik ...

. Another disappointing performance followed at the very strong international

-Moscow event in 1939 with only 5/17 for 17th place; the winner was

Salo Flohr Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr (November 21, 1908 – July 18, 1983) was a Czechoslovak and Soviet chess player and writer. He was among the first recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950. Flohr dominated many tournam ...

Joins the Soviet elite, Soviet champion

Bondarevsky joined the Soviet élite by placing sixth at the 11th USSR Championship,

1939, with 10/17, a performance sufficient to automatically qualify him for the 12th final. He reached his career peak the following year by sharing first place with

Andor Lilienthal Andor (André, Andre, Andrei) Arnoldovich Lilienthal Reuben Fine, ''The World's Great Chess Games'', Dover Publications, 1983, p. 216. . (5 May 1911 – 8 May 2010) was a Hungarian and Soviet chess player. In his long career, he played against te ...

at the 12th USSR championship, Moscow 1940, ahead of

Paul Keres Paul Keres (; 7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five ...

Isaac Boleslavsky Isaac Yefremovich Boleslavsky ( uk, Ісаак Єфремович Болеславський, russian: Исаак Ефремович Болеславский; 9 June 1919 – 15 February 1977) was a Soviet chess player and writer. Early caree ...

and Botvinnik. Surprisingly there was no play-off between the two winners; an "Absolute USSR Championship" was arranged in 1941 instead, staged in

and Moscow, an unprecedented four-cycle competition of six grandmasters called the match tournament for the title of Absolute USSR Champion between the top six finishers of the 12th final. This was one of the strongest tournaments ever held up to then, with six of the world's top fifteen players. Botvinnik who failed badly in the regular championship 1940 won that additional event in 1941, with the runner-up being Keres, after which came Boleslavsky,

Vasily Smyslov Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov ( rus, Васи́лий Васи́льевич Смысло́в, Vasíliy Vasíl'yevich Smyslóv; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, who was World Chess Champion from 1957 t ...

, Lilienthal and Bondarevsky in last place. Bondarevsky played in the 1948

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the C ...

Saltsjöbaden Saltsjöbaden is a locality in Nacka Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 9,491 inhabitants in 2010. It is on the Baltic Sea coast, deep in the Stockholm Archipelago. History Saltsjöbaden () was developed as a resort by Knut Agathon Wa ...

, sharing sixth-ninth place, and qualifying for the

Candidates Tournament The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The w ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

1950, but he was unable to play because of illness. Thereafter he played only a few tournaments, a notable result being his second place behind

Svetozar Gligorić Svetozar Gligorić (Serbian Cyrillic: Светозар Глигорић, 2 February 1923 – 14 August 2012) was a Serbian and Yugoslav chess grandmaster and musician. He won the championship of Yugoslavia a record twelve times, and is consider ...

at the Hastings Congress 1960/61. He was among the 27 players named

International Grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally it ha ...

in 1950 by the World Chess Federation (

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

) on its inaugural list. He was awarded the International Arbiter title in 1954, and the

International Grandmaster of Correspondence Chess International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster is a correspondence chess title created by FIDE in 1953, second only to that of world correspondence champion. Currently, this title is awarded by the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICC ...

(GMC) title in 1961.

Coaches the World Champion

Bondarevsky coached

during his ascent to the

World Chess Championship The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 matc ...

, beginning in the early 1960s, culminating with Spassky's win over

Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian (, ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style ...

in the 1969 title match.

Personal life

Bondarevsky was an economist by profession. His wife,

Valentina Kozlovskaya Valentina Yakovlevna Kozlovskaya (russian: Валенти́на Я́ковлевна Козло́вская; born 18 April 1938) is a Russian chess player. She was awarded the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) by FIDE in 1976. Chess career K ...

, is also a chess player.

Books

* Kerosene

References

External links

* * (299 games) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bondarevsky, Igor 1913 births 1979 deaths People from Don Host Oblast Chess grandmasters Correspondence chess grandmasters Chess theoreticians Chess coaches Chess double grandmasters Russian chess players Soviet chess players Russian chess writers Chess arbiters Sportspeople from Rostov-on-Don 20th-century chess players