Semyon Zinovyevich Alapin (; – 15 July 1923) was a Russian

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player, openings analyst, and

puzzle A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to find the solution of the puzzle. There are differe ...

composer. He was also a

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, railway engineer and a grain commodities merchant.

Biography

Born in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, into a Jewish family on , nephew of the Jewish memoirist Pauline Wengeroff. He was one of the strongest chess players in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

in the late 19th century. Due to the 1917 Revolution in Russia, he had to spend his final years in exile. He died in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, Germany, on 15 July 1923.

Legacy

Today he is best known for his creation of opening systems in almost all major openings. Most of these are of little significance today, but Alapin's Variation of the

Sicilian Defence The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: :1. e4 c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. The opening 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for Whi ...

is an important opening line that is often played by leading grandmasters.

List of openings named after Alapin

* Alapin's Variation of the

: 1. e4 c5 2. c3 *

Alapin's Opening Alapin's Opening is an unusual chess opening that starts with the moves: : 1. e4 e5 : 2. Ne2 It is named after the Russo-Lithuanian player and openings analyst Semyon Alapin (1856–1923). Although this opening is rarely used, it occurred ...

in the

Open Game An Open Game (or Double King's Pawn Opening) is a generic term for a family of chess openings beginning with the moves: :1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. e4, e4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5, e5 White has moved the king's pawn two squares and Bl ...

: 1. e4 e5 2. Ne2!? *Alapin's Gambit of the

French Defence The French Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e6 This is most commonly followed by 2.d4 d5. Black usually plays ...c5 soon after, attacking White's and gaining on the . The French has a reputation for solidity ...

: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Be3!? *Alapin's Variation of the

: 1.e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 6. Bxe7 Qxe7 7. Nb5 *Alapin's Defence of the

Ruy Lopez The Ruy Lopez (; ), also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bb5 The Ruy Lopez remains one of the most popular chess openings, featuring many variations. In ...

: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Bb4 *Alapin's Variation of the Caro-Kann Defence: 1. e4 c6 2. c3 *Alapin's Variation of the

Dutch Defence The Dutch Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: : 1. d4 f5 Black's 1...f5 stakes a claim to the e4-square and envisions an attack in the middlegame on White's ; however, it also weakens Black's kingside to some extent, espec ...

(also known as the "Manhattan Variation"): 1. d4 f5 2. Qd3 *Alapin's Variation of the

Queen's Gambit The Queen's Gambit is the chess opening that starts with the moves: :1. d4 d5 :2. c4 It is one of the oldest openings and is still commonly played today. It is traditionally described as a '' gambit'' because White appears to sacrifice the ...

: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 b6 *Alapin–Steinitz Variation of the Evans Gambit: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 Ba5 6. 0-0 d6 7. d4 Bg4 *Sanders–Alapin Variation of the Evans Gambit: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 Ba5 6. 0-0 d6 7. d4 Bd7

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alapin, Semyon 1856 births 1923 deaths Chess players from the Russian Empire Chess theoreticians Chess composers Jewish chess players Chess players from Saint Petersburg 19th-century Russian chess players Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the German Empire

Biography

Legacy

List of openings named after Alapin

See also

References

External links