Nikolay (or Nikolai) Nikolaev Minev ( bg, Николай Николаев Минев, 8 November 1931 – 10 March 2017) was a Bulgarian
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 ...
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 ...
(IM) and noted chess author.
Minev was born on 8 November 1931, in
Rousse
Ruse (also transliterated as Rousse, Russe; bg, Русе ) is the fifth largest city in Bulgaria. Ruse is in the northeastern part of the country, on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Romanian city of Giurgiu, approximately south of ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
. He was awarded the IM title by
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 ...
in 1960. He was the
champion of Bulgaria in 1953, 1965, and 1966. He played for Bulgaria in 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 and ...
six times (1954, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, and 1966). Minev's best international results were: third at
Varna
Varna may refer to:
Places Europe
*Varna, Bulgaria, a city in Bulgaria
**Varna Province
**Varna Municipality
** Gulf of Varna
**Lake Varna
**Varna Necropolis
*Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy
*Varniai, a city in Lithuania
* Varna (Šaba ...
in 1960, second at
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
in 1961, а tie for first at
Sombor
Sombor ( sr-Cyrl, Сомбор, ; hu, Zombor; rue, Зомбор, Zombor) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the West Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The city has a total popula ...
in 1966, and second at
Albena
Albena ( bg, Албена) is a major Black Sea resort in northeastern Bulgaria, Balchik Municipality, situated from Balchik and from Varna. Albena is served by Varna Airport. Since 2005 is considered as a settlement by the National Statistical ...
in 1975. He contributed to early editions of the ''
Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings
The ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' () is a reference work describing the state of opening theory in chess, originally published in five volumes from 1974 to 1979 by the Serbian company Šahovski Informator (Chess Informant). It is current ...
'' and the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Endings'' (see
Chess endgame literature
Chess endgame literature refers to books and magazines about chess endgames. A bibliography of endgame books is below.
Many chess masters have contributed to the theory of endgames over the centuries, including Ruy López de Segura, François-A ...
). Minev and his wife emigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s and settled in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, Washington. He was associated with
Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan
Yasser Seirawan ( ar, ياسر سيروان; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess author an ...
and his magazine ''Inside Chess'' in the 1980s and 1990s.
He died on 10 March 2017 in Seattle.
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References
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External links
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The Life & Career of Nikolay MinevInterview with Nikolay Minev
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minev, Nikolay Nikolaev
1931 births
2017 deaths
Bulgarian chess players
American chess players
Chess International Masters
American chess writers
American male non-fiction writers
People from Ruse, Bulgaria
Chess Olympiad competitors