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USSR Championship (1976) The 44th Soviet Chess Championship was a Category XII event played in the capital of Moscow from November 27th to December 23th in 1976. Eighteen of the USSR's best grandmasters and masters participated in the tournament, including (in order of Elo): Anatoli Karpov (2695), Tigran Petrosian (2635), Lev Polugaevsky (2635), Efim Geller (2620), Mikhail Tal (2615), Vassily Smyslov (2580), Oleg Romanishin (2560), Vitaly Tseshkovsky (2550), Rafael Vaganian (2550), Yuri Balashov (2545), Mark Taimanov (2540), Boris Gulko (2530), Evgeni Sveshnikov (2510), Viktor Kupreichik (2490), Karen Grigorian (2485), Nukhim Rashkovsky (2485), Alexander Zakharov (2435), and Josif Dorfman (2405). The world champion Karpov dominated the event, earning wins against almost half the field, and won with 12/17. Moscow, Soviet Union (Russia), 27 November - 23 December 1976 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pts 1 Karpov * 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 12 2 Balashov 0 * ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 11 =3 Petrosian ½ ½ * ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 10½ =3 Polugaevsky ½ 0 ½ * ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 10½ 5 Dorfman 0 ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 0 0 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 0 1 9½ =6 Tal ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 9 =6 Smyslov ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ * ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 0 9 =8 Geller 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ * 0 0 ½ 1 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 8½ =8 Sveshnikov ½ 0 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 * 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 8½ =8 Romanishin ½ 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 * 0 ½ 1 0 ½ 1 0 1 8½ 11 Gulko 0 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 * ½ 0 1 ½ 1 1 1 8 =12 Vaganian 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ ½ * ½ 1 0 0 ½ ½ 7½ =12 Grigorian 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 0 0 0 0 1 ½ * ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 7½ =14 Taimanov ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 0 0 ½ * 0 1 ½ 0 7 =14 Rashkovsky ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 * 0 ½ ½ 7 =16 Zakharov 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 1 0 0 1 * 0 1 6½ =16 Tseshkovsky 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 0 ½ ½ 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 * 0 6½ 18 Kupreichik 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 0 1 * 6 Original collection: Game Collection: USSR Championship 1976, by User: suenteus po 147.  page 1 of 7; games 1-25 of 153  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. Balashov vs A I Zakharov   ½-½ 40 1976 USSR Championship D30 Queen's Gambit Declined 2. Geller vs Sveshnikov 0-1 27 1976 USSR Championship D39 Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin, Vienna Variation 3. Taimanov vs Gulko 0-1 65 1976 USSR Championship A48 King's Indian 4. N Rashkovsky vs Karpov ½-½ 21 1976 USSR Championship E17 Queen's Indian 5. Kupreichik vs Smyslov 1-0 92 1976 USSR Championship C60 Ruy Lopez 6. Petrosian vs Tal 0-1 28 1976 USSR Championship A15 English 7. Tseshkovsky vs Polugaevsky   ½-½ 21 1976 USSR Championship B30 Sicilian 8. Romanishin vs Dorfman 0-1 32 1976 USSR Championship B88 Sicilian, Fischer-Sozin Attack 9. K Grigorian vs Vaganian ½-½ 20 1976 USSR Championship D80 Grunfeld 10. Sveshnikov vs Balashov 0-1 35 1976 USSR Championship C02 French, Advance 11. Gulko vs Geller   ½-½ 17 1976 USSR Championship D00 Queen's Pawn Game 12. Karpov vs Taimanov   ½-½ 27 1976 USSR Championship B44 Sicilian 13. Tal vs Kupreichik 1-0 43 1976 USSR Championship B51 Sicilian, Canal-Sokolsky (Rossolimo) Attack 14. A I Zakharov vs Petrosian   ½-½ 21 1976 USSR Championship C07 French, Tarrasch 15. Polugaevsky vs N Rashkovsky   ½-½ 24 1976 USSR Championship A28 English 16. Smyslov vs Romanishin 1-0 38 1976 USSR Championship A07 King's Indian Attack 17. Vaganian vs Dorfman 0-1 34 1976 USSR Championship A04 Reti Opening 18. K Grigorian vs Tseshkovsky   ½-½ 25 1976 USSR Championship A57 Benko Gambit 19. Balashov vs Gulko   1-0 36 1976 USSR Championship D86 Grunfeld, Exchange 20. Geller vs Karpov 1-0 42 1976 USSR Championship C16 French, Winawer 21. Kupreichik vs A I Zakharov 0-1 29 1976 USSR Championship C45 Scotch Game 22. Petrosian vs Sveshnikov 1-0 28 1976 USSR Championship D14 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Exchange Variation 23. Taimanov vs Polugaevsky 0-1 42 1976 USSR Championship A04 Reti Opening 24. Romanishin vs Tal 1-0 30 1976 USSR Championship A35 English, Symmetrical 25. Dorfman vs Smyslov   ½-½ 17 1976 USSR Championship A29 English, Four Knights, Kingside Fianchetto  page 1 of 7; games 1-25 of 153    REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)   Jun-17-18    ughaibu: Half of Karpov's wins were with black, I thought that wasn't meant to happen. Aug-29-18    Joseph Blackcape: Karpov was really determined to win this one. A Soviet World Champion would not be taken seriously in Soviet Russia unless he would also win the Soviet Championship (which Karpov has never managed before), much less a WC that has not won the title in a match. Mar-22-19    morphynoman2: USSR Chess Championship, 1976: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eja... May-11-20    Open Defence: Karpov managing to do a +8 -1 against this field and Balashov managing +6 -1 to finish ahead of Petrosian and Polugaevsky… but any idea what happened to Spassky ? Why didn't he play in this edition ? May-11-20    keypusher: <Open Defence> <Karpov managing to do a +8 -1 against this field and Balashov managing +6 -1 to finish ahead of Petrosian and Polugaevsky… but any idea what happened to Spassky ? Why didn't he play in this edition ?> Might have been a bit awkward. :-) <In 1976, Spassky emigrated to France with his third wife; he became a French citizen in 1978, and has competed for France in the Chess Olympiads.> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris... May-12-20    Open Defence: <keypusher> thanks! for some reason I thought he migrated in the 1980s! now its clear! May-12-20    keypusher: <Open Defence: <keypusher> thanks! for some reason I thought he migrated in the 1980s! now its clear!> And that's understandable on your part, because Spassky didn't totally sever ties with the USSR until after he thought they mistreated him for finishing ahead of Karpov at some event in the early 80s...was it this one? Linares (1983) For example, Spassky played the '77-'78 match against Korchnoi under the Soviet flag. Korchnoi called him a <one-legged defector>. May-12-20    Damenlaeuferbauer: This was Tolya Karpov's first and deserved win of altogether three Soviet championships (1976, 1983, and 1988), but the undisputed best game of this tournament played Efim Geller in the third round against the champion. May-12-20    Sally Simpson: Not only the best game of the tournament, the Geller v Karpov game was voted best game in the Informator Vol 22. Geller vs Karpov, 1976 May-12-20    perfidious: Out of curiosity, I checked to see how often Karpov tried the French and was surprised to see the frequency with which it appeared, with the loss to Geller being the first time he responded with 1....e6 to 1.e4 in his mature praxis (a 1973 draw with Hecht transposing via 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 etc): https://www.chessgames.com/perl/che... Oct-23-20    Chessdreamer: Wrong game here? Tseshkovsky vs Geller, 1976, I think it should be: Tseshkovsky vs Geller, 1976. 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