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| May-14-08 | | najdorfman: There is a very funny story about Kholmov that goes something like this. He sits down at the chessboard quite drunk. He has the black pieces. The game goes 1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 b6 3.Nf3 e5??! (blundering away a pawn). Kholmov remarks, "I've been playing the Grunfeld Defense my whole life. Never have I gotten such a bad position out of that opening!" |
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May-14-08
 | | keypusher: <najdorfman: There is a very funny story about Kholmov that goes something like this. He sits down at the chessboard quite drunk. He has the black pieces. The game goes 1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 b6 3.Nf3 e5??! (blundering away a pawn). Kholmov remarks, "I've been playing the Grunfeld Defense my whole life. Never have I gotten such a bad position out of that opening!"> I love the story, but I don't believe it. According to the database he never played 1...Nc6 against 1. e4 in his life. Repertoire Explorer: Ratmir Kholmov (black) Hmm, I wonder if the "Picky Killjoy" handle is taken. |
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Dec-06-08
 | | GrahamClayton: In the course of finishing =3rd in the 26th USSR championship at Tbilisi in 1959, Kholmov won the following 7 prizes: 1. Best result by a master player
2. Best results by a master against GM opponents
3. Best results over last 5 rounds
4. Most number of wins with Black
5. Best result against the top 6 finishers in the tournament.
6. Making a GM norm
7. Playing the "most beautiful game" |
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| Dec-24-08 | | blacksburg: <I love the story, but I don't believe it. According to the database he never played 1...Nc6 against 1. e4 in his life.> perhaps kholmov mistook e4 for d4 and was trying to go into the grunfeld with Nc6(f6), b6(g6). |
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| Jan-25-09 | | TheChessGuy: Ratmir is an unusual first name for a Russian person. It sounds Serbian or Croatian. |
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| Apr-21-09 | | returnoftheking: GM Ree tells the same story as Najdorfman. In dutch unfortunately: http://weblogs3.nrc.nl/schaken/2007... He concludes that the "Inversed Grunfeld" is quite playable. |
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| Jul-07-09 | | ughaibu: Three games in which Kholmov played the Gruenfeld: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... |
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| Aug-02-09 | | myschkin: . . .
".. Ratmir Kholmov was known as <The Central Defender> in Soviet chess circles, because of his great skill at repulsing enemy aggression. But he was also a very dangerous attacker, as most of the leading Soviet players learned, at one stage or another, often to their chagrin. During his peak years, Kholmov was exceptionally tough to defeat, even at the top levels. He qualified for 16 Soviet finals between 1949 and 1972, with an aggregate well over 50 per cent, and never had a truly bad tournament at the Finals level. .." Bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratmir...
* In Memoriam:
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail...
(by Dagobert Kohlmeyer) |
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| Sep-19-09 | | alshatranji: A "stylistic" comment on the bio. The second part of the second sentence doesn't make a lot of sense: "and it took him only a couple of years to reach master level but in 1960 he was awarded the Grandmaster title". Why is the "but"? Do you mean "but he was awarded the Grandmaster title only in 1960" or "but it took him until 1960 to be awarded the Grandmaster title". A small issue, but you can make things clearer. |
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| Oct-03-09 | | andrewjsacks: Kholmov is another of the under-appreciated Soviet GMs of the second level, overshadowed by their chess superstars. |
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| Oct-04-09 | | Open Defence: well in the 50s - 70s chess in the USSR seemed much more collaborative to me..voluntary or otherwise... |
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| Apr-07-10 | | wrap99: What indeed is the record from learning to Master?
A perhaps not insignificant point is, if one is going to learn chess rapidly, the Soviet Union was the place to do it. It stands to reason that any future world champ, given proper coaching, had the potential to beat Kholmov's record (if it is the record). |
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May-13-10
 | | wordfunph: Kholmov-Tal 1957 USSR Championship: Ratmir Kholmov needed to win in order to reach the GM norm for the second and last time. At around move 30, Tal began peace nogotiations but Kholmov sharply rejected and thought for an hour. Then he raised his eyes from the board and said "Draw!". Tal asked him what he been thinking about for so long, Kholmov replied: "About how I will win tomorrow as black against Bronstein…" |
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| Mar-17-11 | | ewan14: 1963 U.S.S.R. championship / zonal tourament
Kholmov comes first equal with Spassky and Stein , so why was he not in the 1964 interzonal ? Korchnoi alleges it was due to Smyslov
that there was a zonal tournament of seven in addition to the USSR Championship Kholmox came fourth missing out on the Interzonal |
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Mar-17-11
 | | TheFocus: In addition to being a great player, Kholmov was an excellent annotator. |
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| Mar-17-11 | | fab4: I came across him re his very interesting tussles with the great RJF. Did'nt realise he'd passed away. So sad to see that. <Ewan14> Soviet chess ooozed corruption and fixing. That's just the way it was.. face fitted or not. |
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Apr-15-11
 | | Benzol: A small homage to Kholmov - Game Collection: Ratmir Kholmov Additional Games |
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| May-13-11 | | perfidious: <Resignation Trap: Yes, Kholmov was once suspended for a year by the Soviet Chess Federation for excessive drinking.> Long ago, I remember reading that Kholmov had thrice been suspended by the Soviet chess authorities, but never particulars as to why. Anyone else know more about this? |
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May-13-11
 | | DarthStapler: If they suspended people for drinking then what happened to Tal? |
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| May-13-11 | | perfidious: <Darth> With the possible exception of Tal's being dropped by the Soviet federation for their side in Tel Aviv 1964, I suspect they generally didn't mess with players whom they believed were title contenders. Kholmov wasn't quite in that class, formidable a player as he was. Tal, despite his drinking and the perceived taint of his Jewish origins, behaved well from the federation's point of view. They were willing, as with Botvinnik, Korchnoi and Kasparov, to overlook ethnic considerations, as keeping a firm grasp on the world crown was paramount. |
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| May-13-11 | | WhiteRook48: happy birthday |
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May-23-11
 | | Caissanist: Regarding Kholmov being suspended by the Soviet Chess Federation for a year, I believe that is a reference to this incident, which Kholmov tells his side of in Sosonko's <Smart Chip from St. Petersburg>: <I underestimated myself in those days, believing that all the other chess players were potentially stronger. So it turned out that Bronstein played a World Championship match in '51 and I was disqualified in the same year. For what? We were sitting around at a tournament, that's Tarasov, Nezhmetdinov and me, drinking, and two chicks came up to us. Well, Rashid was kid of in the way, eh was about fifteen years older than Tarasov and me. You turn off the tap recorder now, turn it off, can you imagine if my wife reads this...Anyway, basically, Rashid was flushed, he was drunk, of course, he went out to the balcony and started throwing crockery off it--vases and plates. When Nezhmetdiniov drank he had all kinds of psychoses, he'd lie down under a tram or some other dumb thing. On this occasion nothing would have happened, other than the noise of the plates, but Kotov had to stick his nose into it. He started asking questions and whatever. There was an uproar, and the police came. To cut a long story short, they summoned all three of us to Moscow, to see Rodionov, who was chairman of the Sports Committee. Nezhmetdinov grovelled before him, and they decided to pardon him as he was a party member, but Tarasov and I were disqualified for a year. They also cancelled my stipend, which I received as a member of the national team.> |
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May-23-11
| | Caissanist: In the same book Kholmov also says that his reputation as a defender was primarily due to a lack of opening knowledge: <Everyone says I'm a defender, a congenital defender. You'll become a defender if you don't know any theory and your regularly get bad positions after the opening. You'll potter about--as Black, almost always--in your own trenches.> |
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| May-23-11 | | Everyone: Kholmov is really a defender, a congenital defender. |
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May-23-11
| | Benzol: <DarthStapler> Tarasov was also suspended with Kholmov see my post at Vitaly Georgievich Tarasov |
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