He definitely was one of world's elite in late 1970s and early 1980s. According to chessmetrics.com he was even in top ten for a short period.

Perhaps he could be compared to Korchnoi. Although Korchnoi of course doesn't play 1.e4 .

We now have added most of the games from the Agzamov Memorial which took place in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) in March of this year. Tseshkovsky tied for 1st place with 7/10, along with Amonatov and Filippov.

Also we now have a recent photograph (taken from the aforementioned Agzamov Memorial), and we've dubbed him "Player of the Day".

Two draws secured him the tournament win ahead of GMs like Amonatov,Kasimdzhanov,Volkov,Kuzubov,Golod...

I greatly admired both Tseshkovsky's strength (positional and tactical) and his style of play. It would be nice if this was the occasion to have another look at some of his best games.

Dorfman vs Tseshkovsky, 1978

<The number of unconditionally devoted chessman , as Vitaly Valeryevich was , is small and getting smaller. He was also independent , proud , he didnt like any kind of pressure and behind-the-scenes stuff. Most likely for that reason he wasnt getting to play much international tournaments , because in those times you had to `oil the machine` here and there , a smile , a small present on the right place ... He really was above that , so he was not playing much abroad.

In that sense he belonged to `The Lost Generation`.I believe that , if he could go abroad as Korchnoi , he would become top player , the level of , Lessay, Timman , he would be constantly in top 10. Although its very hard to me to imagine Vitaly abroad , he was so much ours , so connected to the Russian culture and heritage.

Here , he rusted a bit : talent without tournaments. He was even telling me that at some point he lost the interest to building serious chess career. He understood that he is not big name as Karpov , who was `given` all the possible tournaments , and without serious play you cant really raise your level. He , in a way , capitulated and decided to simply play the game for his own pleasure.>

<In 1994. our cooperation ended , because at that point chess started changing drastically. The computers emerged , and Vitaly Valeryevich was working the way he used to for decades , falling behind the enormously growing amount of data.

He analysed unbelieveably deep , but in slow , classical manner. I had the feeling that i can`t accomplish enough in preparation , deciding that its better to sacrifice a bit of depth for the `width`. So I started working with younger folks that were better in computer work.With Vitaly Valeryevich I never had any personal problems , but our ways silently parted.

He was the man of different generation, it was very hard for him to re-orient on computer preparation. He loved chess as game much more than as profession. And in those times preparation became highly professional business. I was already in top 10 , I had to play various positions no matter if I liked them or not. For example , finding clear ways of drawing the weaker endgames that emerged by force in some opening lines ...Vitaly Valeryevich wasn`t mentally prepared for such ways of work , he loved chess creatively , artistically.

I perfectly understand and support such POW , but such approach was insufficient , impractical for reaching the top. We talked few more times since then , anyway our cooperation was very useful to me.>

<It is highy symbolical that he died at the board. He played till the very end , simply because he liked the game so much...

Farewell , Vitaly Valeryevich !>.