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Leo Tolstoy
L Tolstoy 
Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (left) playing chess with the son of his friend and publisher
Vladimir Chertkov who took this picture in Yasnaya Polyana in 1907.
Photo courtesy of Topfoto.
 

Number of games in database: 6
Years covered: 1900 to 1910
Overall record: +4 -2 =0 (66.7%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games.

Most played openings
C37 King's Gambit Accepted (2 games)


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LEO TOLSTOY
(born Sep-09-1828, died Nov-20-1910, 82 years old) Russia

[what is this?]

Leo Tolstoy was an author, essayist and philosopher. His most famous work is the epic novel War and Peace. He also had a penchant for chess, and recorded some of his interesting games. Father of Sergei Tolstoy and Ilya Tolstoy.

Wikipedia article: Leo Tolstoy

Last updated: 2019-09-01 07:40:28

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 page 1 of 1; 6 games  PGN Download 
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. L Tolstoy vs F Kuhler 1-0271900?C54 Giuoco Piano
2. L Tolstoy vs Ivkoff 1-0261900RussiaC21 Center Game
3. L Tolstoy vs A Maude 1-0191906Casual gameC37 King's Gambit Accepted
4. A Maude vs L Tolstoy 1-0241909SkittlesC70 Ruy Lopez
5. L Tolstoy vs A Maude  0-1301909SkittlesC38 King's Gambit Accepted
6. L Tolstoy vs A Goldenweiser 1-0251910RusiaC37 King's Gambit Accepted
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Tolstoy wins | Tolstoy loses  

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Sep-29-07  syracrophy: <chessgames.com> I think that a writer as Lev Tolstoy deserves a complete biography above.

Born in 1828 and enemy of the violence and the diference between rich and poor men, he lived a long and hard life, always opposing the aristocracy and despotism. His two immortal novels "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" are considered the two best novels written in the XIX century. He died in the train station of Astapovo in 1910.

I really admire this man for his great humility and big heart. I'm reading now some short stories of him and read an introduction of his biography - and I was delighted by the life of this man!

"The Death of Ivan Ilyich" is one of my favorite stories. Even Gandhi admired this man

Sep-29-07  Larsker: <Anna Karenina> is amazing. Transport - going from one place in life to another: Already on the first page Oblonsky's children are playing with toy trains. Later Anna has that feverish encounter with Vronsky who follows her in the train from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. And in the end a train kills her. So ... move - and it will bring you out of balance and potentially kill you. Stay - and you'll miss life and get bored to death.
Dec-27-07  Karpova: A feature article on Tolsty and chess:
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...

Regarding the game in the database:

<The first instance we have so far traced of a game by Tolstoy appearing in print is an article in the Rigaer Tageblatt, subsequently reproduced on pages 157-158 of the May 1907 Deutsche Schachzeitung and in a feature ‘Tolstoi als Schachspieler’ on pages 20-21 of Schachjahrbuch für 1907. II. Teil by L. Bachmann (Ansbach, 1908). This is Tolstoy’s best-known game, against Aylmer Maude (1858-1938), who was his biographer and translator. It was stated to have been played the previous October, and the moves were given as follows: 1 e4 e5 2 f4 exf4 3 Nf3 g5 4 Bc4 g4 5 Ne5 Qh4+ 6 Kf1 d5 7 Bxd5 f3 8 gxf3 Qh3+ 9 Ke1 g3 10 d4 g2 11 Rg1 Qh4+ 12 Ke2 Nh6 13 Rxg2 c6 14 Bxh6 cxd5 15 Bxf8 Kxf8 16 Qe1 Qe7 17 Nc3 f6 18 Nxd5 Qd6 19 Qg3 Resigns. This, of course, is the game published by C. Ştefaniu with the wrong date and the wrong spelling of Black’s name.>

Actually, his son (Sergei) was also an avid chessplayer and there are some games played by him.

Aug-10-08  myschkin: . . .

"Tolstoy playing chess" (Photo)
http://www.evrado.com/chess/katalog...

compare with this one

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thr...

Feb-28-09  WhiteRook48: Still marveling over the fact that Tolstoy played chess
Jul-27-09  vonKrolock: from the BBC - quote <"Famous Russian writer Lev Tolstoy included whole pages in French in his novels, but the author of "War and Peace" still represents Russian culture for millions of people. Acclaimed prose stylist Vladimir Nabokov may well be called either a Russian or an American writer. As the creator of "Lolita" himself acknowledged, Russian wasn't his first language, and with the help of foreign nannies he could read only simple words such as <какао>. Russian wasn't the native language of other iconic Russian figures, such as minor German princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, better known as Empress Catherine the Great. She managed to write the simple Russian word <щи>, shchi, cabbage soup, with eight spelling mistakes: schtschi, that's eight wrong letters in a two-letter-word, as the Russian joke goes. <cf. spelling of Ian Nepomniachtchi s surname> Iosif Dzhugashvili taught himself to speak and write correct Russian but never got rid of his Georgian accent when he emerged as Stalin.">
Nov-26-09  whiteshark:

The strongest of all warriors are these two — <Time> and <Patience>.

-- Leo Tolstoy

Nov-30-09  whiteshark: It’s only those peoples that have <an intuitive sense of what’s of importance and significance> in their institutions, and know how to value them, that have a future before them—it’s only those peoples that one can truly call historical.

-- Leo Tolstoy (Anna Karenina)

Aug-28-10  talisman: happy birthday leo. i was hoping for a game with Dostoevski.
Sep-14-11  Antiochus: [Event "Rusia"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1910.08.04"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Leo Tolstoy"]
[Black "Alexander Goldenweiser"]
[Result "1-0"]
[PlyCount "49"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. Bc4 g4 5. Ne5 Qh4+ 6. Kf1 d5 7. Bxd5 f3 8. gxf3 Qh3+ 9. Ke1 g3 10. d4 g2 11. Rg1 Qh4+ 12. Ke2 Nh6 13. Rxg2 c6 14. Bxh6 cxd5 15. Bxf8 Kxf8 16. Qe1 Qe7 17. Nc3 f6 18. Nxd5 Qd6 19. Qg3 fxe5 20. Qg7+ Ke8 21. Qxh8+ Qf8 22. Qxe5+ Kd8 23. Rg7 Nd7 24. Qg5+ Ke8 25. Nc7# 1-0

May-18-12  whiteshark: <Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.>

Leo Tolstoy, "Anna Karenina", Chapter 1, first line.

Aug-28-12  Llawdogg: Happy Birthday!
Aug-28-12  brankat: R.I.P. Leo Tolstoy.
Aug-28-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  harrylime: ^^^

Leo's birthday is September 9th 1828.

Sep-09-12  Llawdogg: Happy Birthday!
Sep-09-13  brankat: Happy 185th Birthday.
Dec-13-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  Jonathan Sarfati: <Antiochus> that game with Goldenweiser is identical with L Tolstoy vs A Maude, 1906, except that your version carries on a hopeless cause for longer.
Jul-14-14  GumboGambit: According to Rybka, he would have been better served declining the marriage gambit.

He already had a child from a previous mistress. Keeping Sophia as a mistress/Literary assistant would have resulted in better positioning in the long run. At the very least, showing his diaries (which detailed his various affairs) to his soon-to-be wife was a blunder which he never fully recovered from.

Sep-08-21  Albertan: The first annual Tolstoy Cup Chess Tournament will be played from September 9th-12th in the State Leo Tolstoy Museum Estate.This is a 9 round-robin rapid tournament with the following players participating:

Giri,Andréikin,Vitiugov,Tomashevsky,Alekseenko,- Maltakov,Korbov,Gelfand and Abdusattorov.

For more information see:

https://ruchess.ru/en/championship/...

Sep-08-21  Albertan: Léo Tolstoy GM in Museum Estate:

https://en.chessbase.com/post/leo-t...

Sep-08-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  SteinitzLives: What a blessing that Tolstoy loved both chess and writing.
Sep-11-21  Albertan: Five rounds of Tolstoy Cup played in Yasnaya Polyana:

https://ruchess.ru/en/news/all/five...

Sep-11-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: I'm likening Anna Karenina to Hou Yifan.
Sep-11-21  Albertan: Tolstoy rounds 1-5 can be played through move-by-move here:

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-t...

Sep-13-21  Albertan: Anish Giri wins Tolstoy Cup:

https://en.chessbase.com/post/anish...

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