FSR: Translation of article cited by <Volcanus>:JULY 16, 2022
Died Nikolai Vladimirovich Krogius (1930-2022)
Grandmaster, coach, Doctor of Psychology
On July 14, 2022, in New York, at the age of 92, Nikolai Vladimirovich Krogius, an international grandmaster, long-term head of the Chess Department of the USSR State Committee for Sports, vice-president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), coach of world champion Boris Spassky, died at a historic match for the world crown with Robert Fischer (1972), Doctor of Psychology, Head of the Department of Chess at the GTSOLIFK.
Nikolai was born in Saratov into an intelligent family - his father was an artist, his mother was a teacher at Saratov University, and his grandfather was a doctor of medicine. Krogius began playing chess during the war, bartering a small pocket set for tobacco from one of the Red Army soldiers from a column passing through the city. Soon the young man was presented with his first chess book, edited by Efim Bogolyubov, and the black-and-white game captivated him entirely.
After the war, Krogius fell under the wing of the famous coach Nikolai Aratovsky and began a rapid ascent: the national champion among youths, the master of the USSR, the champion of the RSFSR. Nikolai Krogiushe always played well for the team and led the Russian team to victories at the Spartakiads of the peoples of the USSR, as part of the Soviet team he won the 1965 European Championship. After excellent performances at the Chigorin Memorials in 1963 and 1964. became first an international master, and then a grandmaster.
In the late 60s, Krogius switched to coaching and helped Boris Spassky in his fights with Tigran Petrosyan and Robert Fischer. From 1970 to 1980 he worked at the Saratov State University. N. Chernyshevsky as a senior lecturer, associate professor, and since 1978 - head of the Department of Psychology. Krogius thoroughly researched the psychology of chess, about 20 of his books and 150 articles are devoted to this problem. In domestic psychology, the monographs of N. Krogius "Personality in Conflict" (Saratov, 1980) and "Psychology of Chess Creativity" (Moscow, 1988) are considered especially valuable.
In 1981 Nikolai Krogiusheaded the Chess Department at the USSR State Sports Committee and moved from Saratov to Moscow. For almost 10 years he was a member of the dissertation council for the defense of doctoral dissertations at the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University. Vice-President of the Chess Federation of the USSR (1981-1990), Head of the Chess Department of the State Central Order of Lenin Institute of Physical Education (GTSOLIFK) 1981-1983, for many years a member of the editorial board of the journal "64-Chess Review". For achievements in the field of chess, he was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor (1981).
After his retirement, Nikolai Krogius performed excellently in several veteran world championships, in one of which he lagged behind Mark Taimanov, who became the champion, only in terms of additional indicators. Headed the delegation of Anatoly Karpov at the last match withGarry Kasparov (1990).
In 2000, together with grandmaster Lev Alburt, Krogius published an endgame textbook, which was recognized that year as the best chess book in the United States. In 2011, a memoir book by Krogius “Chess. Game and life. In 2014, another book of memoirs by Krogius, The Notes of a Grandmaster, was published, in which he for the first time reveals some details of Soviet chess life, in particular, matches between Karpov and Kasparov. Author of a two-volume book about Boris Spassky. In 1998, Nikolai Krogius moved with his family to the United States.
Person of the day.
The Russian Chess Federation expresses its condolences to the family and friends of Nikolai Vladimirovich Krogius.
Photos by B. Dolmatovsky and from the archive of the magazine "64-Chess Review"
Kibitzing
