Raúl Carlos SanguinetiSometimes spelled ''Sanguinetti''. The Italian surname ''Sanguinetti'' is spelled with a double ''t''. This case makes an exception, probably due to an error in Sanguineti's ancestors immigration papers. Correct spell can be seen, ''inter alia'', in his biographies i
the Konex Prize awards
hi
original chess club
a note i
"La Nación" newspaper
several listing of Argentine Championships a
this one
the chess sit
chessgames.com
etc. ( Paraná, 2 February 1933 –

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, 6 August 2000) was an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

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 won the

Argentine Chess Championship The first Argentine Chess Championship was held in 1921. The Champion's title was granted after victorious or drawn match between previous champion and challenger, a winner of ''Torneo Mayor'' (this or the next year). The matches were done away in 1 ...

seven times, in 1956, 1957, 1962, 1965, 1968, 1973 and 1974. Raúl Sanguineti played for Argentina in seven

Chess Olympiads 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 ...

. He won two individual gold medals at Moscow 1956 and Varna 1962, and two team bronze medals at Munich 1958 and Varna 1962. In total, he represented his country in seven Olympiads with an aggregate of over 70 per cent (46 -7 =42). He played in 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 World Chess ...

Interzonals at

Portorož Portorož (; it, Portorose) is a Slovenian Adriatic seaside resort and spa town located in the Municipality of Piran in southwestern Slovenia. Its modern development began in the late 19th century with the vogue for the first health resorts. In ...

1958 and

Biel , french: Biennois(e) , neighboring_municipalities= Brügg, Ipsach, Leubringen/Magglingen (''Evilard/Macolin''), Nidau, Orpund, Orvin, Pieterlen, Port, Safnern, Tüscherz-Alfermée, Vauffelin , twintowns = Iserlohn (Germany) B ...

1976. Important tournament victories included

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

1957,

Bariloche San Carlos de Bariloche, usually known as Bariloche (), is a city in the province of Río Negro Province, Río Negro, Argentina, situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake. It is located within the Nahuel ...

1960, Buenos Aires (Club Argentino) 1963, Punte del Este 1964, Buenos Aires Open 1968,

Fortaleza Fortaleza (, locally , Portuguese for ''Fortress'') is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It belongs to the Metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and microregion of Fortaleza. It is Brazil's 5th largest city and the t ...

Zonal 1975,

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a s ...

1976, Buenos Aires 1977, and

Santos Lugares Santos Lugares is a town in the southeast of the partido of Tres de Febrero. It is part of the urban agglomeration of Greater Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires Province, northeast of the Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autono ...

1977. During his competitive career, which ran from 1954 to 1977, he very rarely finished in the bottom half of the tournament table. In 1980 he won the

Konex Award Konex Foundation Awards, or simply Konex Awards, are cultural awards from the Konex Foundation honouring Argentine cultural personalities. History and purpose Konex Awards are granted by the Konex Foundation, created in 1980 in Argentina. The pur ...

as one of the 5 best chess players of the decade in his country.

Gold in national team debut

Sanguineti began his high-level tournament career at the 1954 Buenos Aires Zonal tournament in Mar del Plata, with a fine mid-place (tie for 7-9th place) finish of 10.5/20. He improved the next year, 1955, with an excellent tie for fourth place at the Argentine Championship at Buenos Aires, where he scored 12/19. Next was the very strong Buenos Aires 1955 event, which featured star Grandmasters

Borislav Ivkov Borislav Ivkov (12 November 1933 – 14 February 2022) was a Serbian chess Grandmaster. He was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal tournaments, in 1967, 1970, 1973, and 1979. Ivkov was a three-time Yugos ...

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 ...

Hermann Pilnik Hermann Pilnik (8 January 1914, Stuttgart, Germany – 12 November 1981, Caracas, Venezuela) was a German Argentine chess Grandmaster. Career In 1929, he won the championship of Stuttgart. Pilnik emigrated from Germany to Argentina in 1930. ...

and László Szabó, and he could only make 7.5/17 for 13th. But he followed this up with a much better result of third at the annual

International of 1956, which often attracted many of the world's best players during the 1950s and 1960s. There he scored 10.5/15 (tie for 3rd-4th). Those strong performances earned him selection to the powerful national team, which was one of the world's top teams in the 1950s and 1960s. For example,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

finished second and earned team silver team medals at three straight Olympiads: Dubrovnik 1950, Helsinki 1952, and Amsterdam 1954. For Moscow 1956, Sanguineti made his debut on the first reserve board, and played sensationally to win the gold medal with a score of 9/11. Argentina finished fourth. Further fine showings followed. At Mar del Plata 1957, he scored 10.5/17 for sixth in a high-class field which included world #3

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 ...

, beating Soviet Grandmaster

Alexander Kotov Alexander Alexandrovich Kotov (Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Ко́тов; – 8 January 1981) was a Soviet chess grandmaster and author. He was a Soviet chess champion, a two-time world title Candidate, and a prolific write ...

. He scored 9.5/11 to win at

1957, finishing ahead of perennial Argentine champion

Miguel Najdorf Miguel Najdorf (born Mojsze Mendel Najdorf) (15 April 1910 – 4 July 1997) was a Polish–Argentinian chess grandmaster. Originally from Poland, he was in Argentina when World War II began in 1939, and he stayed and settled there. He was a ...

. He qualified out of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

1957, the South American Zonal, for the 1958

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 ...

tournament, tying for second with 11.5/15, and again topping Najdorf, who failed to qualify. He earned the

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) title in 1957 for this result. At Mar del Plata 1958, he tied for third with 9.5/15. Then came the Argentine Championship of 1958, where his 11.5/17 earned him fourth place. In 1958, he also won the CAVP tournament in Buenos Aires. He played for Argentina at the 1958 World Students' Olympiad 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 ...

on board two, scoring 6/10. The Interzonal at

was next, and although he failed to qualify further, he scored respectively from the strong field, with 10/20, to place 14th out of 21. On the same trip, he played for Argentina at the 1958 Munich Olympiad, again as first reserve, and scored 9.5/15. Argentina won the team bronze medals with a third-place finish.

Beats Fischer, wins second gold medal

Returning to South America, he resumed his good streak with a tie for third at

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

1959, with 9.5/13. At Buenos Aires 1959, he scored 8.5/13 for fourth place, and was third at

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Río de la Plata, Rio de la Plata, in the , on the south east of the Greater Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and it is the seat of the Quilmes Partido, eponymous county. With a population of 230 ...

1959 with 6.5/11. At Mar del Plata 1959, he finished tied for eighth with 7/14. Then at

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

1959, he defeated American star

Robert James Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 1 ...

, a future World Champion, and tied for fourth with 7.5/12. He tied for first at

1960 with a powerful 7/9. After a two-year break from top competition, he placed third at the 1962 Argentine Championship with 13.5/17, and tied for fourth at Mar del Plata 1962 with 8.5/15, behind visiting stars such as

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 ...

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 to ...

, and László Szabó. Playing for Argentina again at the Varna 1962 Olympiad, he enjoyed perhaps his greatest career performance, with another gold medal on board four, from a score of 13.5/16, helping his nation to a bronze medal team finish. In 1963, he won the Buenos Aires Club Argentino event with 9/11, and the next year, he was perfect at Punta del Este (Uruguay) to win there with 7/7.

Career high rating

The website

chessmetrics Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo rating system. Implementation Chessmetrics is a weighted average of past performance. The score considers a player's win percen ...

.com is a database of player ratings and results throughout chess history, and endeavours to place player strengths in historical context, while compensating for the different calculation methods which have been used, as well as retrospectively rating performances which occurred before the introduction of international ratings in 1970. By January 1965, Sanguineti had reached a chessmetrics rating of 2677, good for #18 in the world. He had performed at 2699 at Varna 1962. With a 2600 performance generally denoting grandmaster standard, it seemed quite clear that Sanguineti deserved a promotion to the higher title, based upon his consistently strong results in good calibre events. At Buenos Aires 1965, Sanguineti scored 6.5/11 to end fourth, and he won the 1965 Argentine Championship with an impressive 16/21. Mar del Plata 1965 was again very strong, with Najdorf,

Leonid Stein Leonid Zakharovich Stein (; November 12, 1934 – July 4, 1973) was a Soviet chess Grandmaster from Ukraine. He won three USSR Chess Championships in the 1960s (1963, 1965, and 1966), and was among the world's top ten players during that era. ...

, and

Yuri Averbakh Yuri Lvovich Averbakh (russian: Ю́рий Льво́вич Аверба́х; 8 February 1922 – 7 May 2022) was a Russian chess grandmaster and author. He was chairman of the USSR Chess Federation from 1973 to 1978. He was the first centenaria ...

in attendance, and Sanguineti could only manage eighth place with 8.5/15. The next year at Mar del Plata he scored 7.5/15 to finish tied seventh. For the Havana 1966 Olympiad, Sanguineti was again on board four for Argentina, and performed superbly with 11/15. Argentina finished fifth. He cut back his play over the next couple of years. He won the Argentine Championship semi-final 'C' in 1968 with 5/7 at Mar del Plata. Then, in the Championship proper, he finished second, behind Najdorf, and defeated

Samuel Schweber Samuel Schweber (16 July 1936 in Buenos Aires – 1 January 2017) was an Argentine chess player. Schweber played in several Argentine chess championships. He was 7-8th in 1956 (Raúl Sanguineti won), 4-6th in 1960 (Miguel Najdorf won), 2nd in 196 ...

in a playoff match, 2.5-1.5. At the Buenos Aires Open of 1968, he tied for first with 7.5/9. He was selected again for Argentina at the Lugano 1968 Olympiad, earning a promotion to board three, where he scored well with 11.5/16.

Second wind, Grandmaster at last

After a break of three years from top-flight play, Sanguineti returned to action in 1971. He won the 1971

Villa Gesell Villa Gesell is a seaside resort city in Villa Gesell Partido, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It was founded in 1931, with the intention of turning a dune field into a timber plantation.

Open with 4.5/6. The inaugural

Pan American Team Chess Championship The Pan American Team Chess Championship is an international team chess tournament open to national federations affiliated to FIDE in the Americas. It is organized by the Confederation of Chess for America (CCA), and the winner qualifies to partic ...

was held at Tucumán in 1971 and Argentina won easily, by eight points, with a monster score of 25.5/28, as all five team members won gold medal board prizes. Sanguineti scored 5.5/6. A team event at Villa Gesell saw him post an impressive 3.5/4. He tied for fourth at the Zárate Open of 1973 with 6.5/9. Sanguineti claimed his second Argentine Championship title in 1973 at Santa Fe with a dominant 13.5/18, two points clear of the field. He defeated

Roberto Luis Debarnot Roberto Luis Debarnot (5 August 1947 – 25 May 2018) was an Argentina, Argentine chess FIDE titles, International Master (1977), two-times Argentine Chess Championship medalist (1973, 1980). Biography In the 1970s, Roberto Luis Debarnot was one ...

2.5-0.5 in a playoff match. He won the 1974 Argentine Championship with 13.5/16, for his third title. For the Nice 1974 Olympiad, he was on board two, and made 8/15. He travelled north to Canada for the 1974

Pan American Chess Championship The Pan American Chess Championship, also American continental Championship is an individual chess tournament organized since 1945. First pan American championships (1945 and 1954) The first Pan American Chess Championship was held in Hollywood ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, where he came second with 12/15 behind American champion

Walter Browne Walter Shawn Browne (10 January 1949 – 24 June 2015) was an Australian-born American chess and poker player. Awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1970, he won the U.S. Chess Championship six times. Early years Browne was born to an Am ...

. An unexpected break to his streak of good play was the 1975 Buenos Aires CA tournament, where he could manage only 4.5/11. But he recovered quickly. He claimed the tournament title at the

Zonal 1975 with 13/17, 1.5 points ahead of runner-up, countryman

Miguel Quinteros Miguel Ángel Quinteros (born December 28, 1947 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1973. Chess career He won the Argentine Chess Championship in 1966 at the age of 18, the younges ...

. This qualified him again for the World Championship cycle. He was fourth at the 1975 Argentine Championship at Buenos Aires with 13.5/19. Then at Mar del Plata 1976, he tied for first with 11/15. In the same year he won also in Buenos Aires ( Konex chess tournament). These strong performances seemed to bode well for the 1976

Interzonal, but, facing a field of 16 strong Grandmasters out of 19 opponents, including former World Champions

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, ...

and

Mikhail Tal Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal; rus, Михаил Нехемьевич Таль, ''Mikhail Nekhem'yevich Tal' '', ; sometimes transliterated ''Mihails Tals'' or ''Mihail Tal'' (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet-Latvian chess player ...

, he scored a disappointing 8.5/19 for 16th place. Haifa 1976 marked his last Olympiad appearance for Argentina and he made 4.5/7 on board four. At Buenos Aires 1977, he won the tournament with 8.5/10, ahead of both Najdorf and

Oscar Panno Oscar Roberto Panno (born 17 March 1935 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine chess Grandmaster. Panno was the first top world chess player born in South America. Panno won the 2nd World Junior Chess Championship in 1953, ahead of such future stron ...

. Then he tied for first at the small Buenos Aires

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

event, with 4/7. At

1977, he won with 8/11.

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 ...

, the World Chess Federation, awarded him the Grandmaster title in 1982. He died in Buenos Aires at age 67.

Notable chess games

Alexander Kotov vs Raúl Sanguineti, Mar del Plata 1957, Queen's Indian Defence (E16), 0-1
A hard-fought win over a top touring Soviet GM.
Raúl Sanguineti vs Hector Rossetto, Portorož Interzonal 1958, Ruy Lopez, Open Variation (C83), 1-0
Nifty 28-move victory over his countryman Rossetto.
Raúl Sanguineti vs James Sherwin, Portorož Interzonal 1958, King's Indian Defence, Classical Variation (E90), 1-0
Black chooses an offbeat line to try to confuse the young Argentine, but to no avail.
Raúl Sanguineti vs Istvan Bilek, Munich Olympiad 1958, Nimzo-Indian Defence, Rubinstein Variation (E43), 1-0
A nice precise win over a strong Hungarian GM.
Raúl Sanguineti vs Robert James Fischer, Santiago 1959, King's Indian Defence, Saemisch Variation (E81), 1-0
Any win over a future World Champion is well worth studying.

Notes

External links

*
Visa with photo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanguineti, Raul 1933 births 2000 deaths People from Paraná, Entre Ríos People from Buenos Aires Province Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Argentine chess players 20th-century chess players