Vladimir Andreyevich Savon ( ua, Володи́мир Андрійович Саво́н; 26 September 1940 – 1 June 2005) was a Ukrainian

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 ...

player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster 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 1973. Savon shared the

Ukrainian Chess Championship This is a list of all the winners of the Ukrainian Chess Championship, including those held when Ukraine was a Soviet republic and those held after Ukraine became independent. Players' names listed in parentheses indicate that the player won the to ...

in 1969 and won the USSR Championship in 1971. He competed in the 1972 Chess Olympiad.

Biography

Born in

Chernihiv Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within ...

, he learned how to play at the age of 13. Savon competed in the Soviet championship eleven times, from 1961 (at age 21) to the last championship in 1991. His best result was his first place in the 1971 championship with an undefeated 15/21. Only an

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 ...

, he finished 1.5 points ahead of former world champions

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 ...

and

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 ...

. Future world champion

Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov ( rus, links=no, Анато́лий Евге́ньевич Ка́рпов, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈkarpəf; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet chess grandmaster, former World Ches ...

finished another half point back.Cafferty and Taimanov, p. 154. Taimanov and Bernard Cafferty, in their book on the Soviet championships, described Savon's win "the least plausible result for decades". One possible factor was the distraction of Fischer's

Candidates match 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 wi ...

es. It was claimed that Fischer's 6–0 wins against Larsen and Taimanov had hypnotised the top Soviet players, who were now following Petrosian's similar demise in the Candidates match that was to finish only days after this tournament. Savon's next-best result in the Soviet championship came the following year, when he tied for 3rd–5th and qualified for the

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 ...

. He did, however, achieve other good results in international competition; at

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

in 1970 (1st= with Bilek), at

Sukhumi Sukhumi (russian: Суху́м(и), ) or Sokhumi ( ka, სოხუმი, ), also known by its Abkhaz name Aqwa ( ab, Аҟәа, ''Aqwa''), is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the capital and largest city of ...

1972 (2nd after Tal), at

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

1975 (1st=), 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 ...

1977 (2nd= with

Hort Hort may refer to: People * Erik Hort (born 1987), American soccer player * F. J. A. Hort (1828–1892), Irish theologian * Greta Hort (1903–1967), Danish-born literature professor * Josiah Hort (c. 1674–1751), English clergyman of the Chur ...

, after Larsen) and at

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

1978 (2nd=).

awarded Savon the International Master title in 1967, and the International Grandmaster title in 1973. In the latter year, he finished eighth out of 18 at the Petropolis Interzonal. He shared the title of Ukrainian Champion with

Gennady Kuzmin Gennady Pavlovich Kuzmin (, ; January 19, 1946 – February 28, 2020) was a Ukrainian chess player and trainer. He reached his peak strength in the early to mid-1970s and in 1973, was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE, the ...

in 1969. He died in

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Roman Dzindzichashvili Roman Yakovlevich Dzindzichashvili ( ka, რომან იაკობის-ძე ჯინჯიხაშვილი; pronounced ''jin-jee-khash-VEE-lee''; born May 5, 1944) is a Soviet-born Israeli-American chess player. He was awarded th ...

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.g4 h6 7. Rg1 Nc6 8. Be3 a6 9.h3 Bd7 10.f4 Qc7 11.Qd2 b5 12.Bd3 Nxd4 13.Bxd4 Bc6 14.Qe2 e5 15.Nd5 Nxd5 16.exd5 Bxd5 17.fxe5 0-0-0 18.0-0-0 Qc6 19.Rgf1 dxe5 20.Bxe5 f6 21.Bf5+ Kb7 22.Rxd5 Rxd5 23.Be4 Bc5 24.Rd1 Ka7 25.Bxd5 Qe8 26.Be6 fxe5 27. Qxe5 1-0 From Leningrad 1971,

Yuri Balashov Yuri Sergeyevich Balashov (russian: Ю́рий Серге́евич Балашо́в; born 12 March 1949) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1973. Chess career Born in Shadrinsk, Balashov was awarded ...

-Savon 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nf3 g6 7.e4 Bg7 8.Be2 0-0 9.0-0 Bg4 10.Bf4 Re8 11.Qc2 Na6 12.h3 Bxf3 13.Bxf3 Qb6 14.b3 Nd7 15.a3 Bd4 16.Rad1 Ne5 17.Be2 Rac8 18.Na4 Qd8 19.Bb5 Rf8 20.Bh6 Nc7 21.Bxf8 Nxb5 22.Bh6 Nxa3 23.Qc1 Nb5 24.Be3 Nd7 25.Rde1 Qe7 26.Bxd4 Nxd4 27.Re3 b5 28.Nc3 Nxb3 29.Qa3 Nd4 30.Qxa7 b4 31.Qa6 Rb8 32.Na4 Nc2 33.Re2 b3 34.Rb1 Kg7 35.Nc3 Nd4 36.Re3 Nc2 37.Re2 Nd4 38.Re3 Rb6 39.Qf1 Nc2 40.Rg3 Nf6 41.Qd3 Rb4 42.f4 Rd4 43.Qe2 c4 44.e5 dxe5 45.fxe5 Ne4 46.Nxe4 Qxe5 47.Rf1 Rxe4 48.Qf3 f5 0-1

Notes

References

* * *

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Savon, Vladimir 1940 births 2005 deaths Sportspeople from Chernihiv Chess grandmasters Ukrainian chess players Soviet chess players Chess Olympiad competitors National University of Kharkiv alumni 20th-century chess players