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Mark Taimanov

MARK TAIMANOV (born Feb-07-1926, died Nov-28-2016, 90 years old) Russia PRONUNCIATION: [what is this?] Mark Yevgenyevich Taimanov was born in Kharkov, Ukraine (formerly USSR) and was awarded the IM title in 1950 and the GM title in 1952. Despite this, he never devoted himself fully to chess, splitting his time and talents between the game and his career as a concert pianist. He still enjoyed several tournament successes over his lengthy career, particularly in the years 1950 to 1956 when he was considered to be among the top ten players in the world. He was a World Championship Candidate in 1953 and 1971, finishing 8th in the 1953 tournament, while in the Fischer - Taimanov Candidates Quarterfinal (1971), he famously lost to Fischer 6-0. Although he never beat Fischer, he won many games against world champions, beating Botvinnik (twice), Smyslov (thrice), Tal (thrice), Petrosian (four times), Spassky (thrice), and Karpov. He was more successful in national tournaments: he played in 23 USSR Championships from 1948 to 1976, which is a record equaled only by Efim Geller. In the 1952 Soviet Championship, he tied for first with Mikhail Botvinnik, but lost to him in their playoff for the title*. However, he won the title in 1956 after a play-off with Yuri L Averbakh and Boris Spassky. Playing hors concours, he won the Latvian Championship in 1949, and the Leningrad Championship in 1948, 1950, 1951, 1961 (jointly) and 1973. In 1993 and 1994 he won the World Senior Championship. In 2008, he played in his last FIDE rated tournament. Taimanov has authored important opening works on the Dutch and Nimzo-Indian Defences, and on the Reti Opening. As an opening theoretician, he left a legacy of openings that bear his name, including a variation in the Benoni, the King's Indian, and most notably the Sicilian, Taimanov Variation (B46) (1.e4 c5 2.♘f3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.♘xd4 ♘c6 5.♘c3 a6). * [rusbase-1] ** [rusbase-2] Wikipedia article: Mark Taimanov Last updated: 2021-05-18 23:22:36

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page 1 of 99; games 1-25 of 2,463  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. G Lisitsin vs Taimanov 0-1 30 1938 Telephone Match C45 Scotch Game 2. V Chekhover vs Taimanov   0-1 68 1944 URS-ch sf E87 King's Indian, Samisch, Orthodox 3. Taimanov vs Koblents 1-0 44 1944 Ch URS (1/2 final) C11 French 4. Taimanov vs Panov 1-0 31 1944 URS-ch sf B83 Sicilian 5. V Makogonov vs Taimanov 1-0 21 1944 URS-ch sf E70 King's Indian 6. Ragozin vs Taimanov 1-0 26 1945 Leningrad Championship B74 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical 7. Taimanov vs G Zachodiakin 1-0 23 1945 Trade Unions Team Championship sf-2 C74 Ruy Lopez, Modern Steinitz Defense 8. Taimanov vs K Vinogradov   ½-½ 37 1945 Leningrad Championship D07 Queen's Gambit Declined, Chigorin Defense 9. Taimanov vs A Model 1-0 23 1945 Leningrad Championship B02 Alekhine's Defense 10. Taimanov vs A Model   0-1 41 1945 URS-ch sf Leningrad C18 French, Winawer 11. M Katetov vs Taimanov   0-1 40 1946 Leningrad-Prague A15 English 12. Taimanov vs M Katetov   ½-½ 42 1946 Leningrad-Prague C16 French, Winawer 13. Taimanov vs E Kuzminykh   0-1 54 1946 20th Ch Leningrad C79 Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defense Deferred 14. Taimanov vs V Chekhover   1-0 38 1946 Leningrad E41 Nimzo-Indian 15. G Lisitsin vs Taimanov 0-1 37 1946 20th Ch Leningrad D44 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav 16. Simagin vs Taimanov   1-0 41 1946 URS-ch sf Leningrad C80 Ruy Lopez, Open 17. A Budo vs Taimanov   0-1 41 1947 21st Ch Leningrad D43 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav 18. G Lisitsin vs Taimanov   0-1 37 1947 Leningrad D44 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav 19. Taimanov vs E Kuzminykh   ½-½ 36 1947 21st Ch Leningrad B67 Sicilian, Richter-Rauzer Attack, 7...a6 Defense, 8...Bd7 20. Taimanov vs Averbakh   0-1 90 1947 Trades Union Team Ch. E53 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3 21. Bronstein vs Taimanov   ½-½ 20 1947 URS-ch sf Leningrad D46 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav 22. A Sokolsky vs Taimanov   ½-½ 18 1947 URS-ch sf Leningrad C55 Two Knights Defense 23. Taimanov vs G Goldberg 1-0 43 1947 URS-ch sf Leningrad B10 Caro-Kann 24. Taimanov vs N Kopilov 1-0 52 1947 URS-ch sf Leningrad B10 Caro-Kann 25. S Zhukhovitsky vs Taimanov   ½-½ 84 1947 URS-ch sf Leningrad D31 Queen's Gambit Declined  page 1 of 99; games 1-25 of 2,463

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< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 11 OF 12 ·  Later Kibitzing> Nov-28-16    ozmikey: RIP. An absolutely outstanding grandmaster. Historical tournament of the day, I think: Game Collection: Wijk aan Zee Hoogovens 1970 Nov-28-16    qkxwsm: RIP :( Nov-28-16    WannaBe: Although never a world champion, still one of the giants in chess history. Nov-28-16    harrylime: RIP You can join Bobby in Chess heaven now xxx Nov-29-16    bengalcat47: R I P Master Taimanov. Nov-29-16    KlingonBorgTatar: Rest in Peace , Grandmaster of Chess, the Piano and Literature. You will live forever in our hearts. Your variations in the KID, Gruenfeld, Benoni, Nimzo, Ruy Lopez and Sicilian plus your 2, 4, and six hands piano pieces, and the scholarly chess books you wrote , will never die, nor will they fade away! Nov-29-16    Al2009: Vary sad news. Tajmanov was one of the great GM who builded today's opening theory through their Genius (particularly in Sicilian and King Indian openings) along with Boleslavsky, Keres, Korchnoi, Spassky, Tal, Geller, Larsen, Petrosian, Botvinnik, Smyslov, etc., in a time when there was no computer to help them. It was of course ungenerous to link his name to the 1971 candidates match (remembering that Larsen too scored the same result!), also because Bobby Fischer himself (who was very honest in his comments of his games) overtly admitted that he was lucky in winning a couple of totally draw (or even lost! See game 1 and 3 of match) games, and the actual and right score should have been 3.5 : 2.5 for him! Nov-29-16    perfidious: Dang, that post by <alex> means I have now played two of the three oldest living GMs (have never met Averbakh, of course). Nov-29-16    HeMateMe: Didn't he father a kid at age 75, or something like that? Quite manly. Hef must have been proud. Nov-29-16    diagonal: Mark Taimanov - A true artist in different fields of life, always educated and elegant. Last November (three months before his 90th birthday), Mark Taimanov has been playing a four games rapid match at the Swiss Chess Museum near Lucerne with Viktor Korchnoi (a few months before his 85th birthday). At a total of 174 years, Korchnoi vs. Taimanov is supposed to be the oldest combined aggregate for a chess match between grandmasters. Rapid match with Viktor Korchnoi: http://www.chessdiagonals.ch/402840... (scroll down) Portrait of Mark Taimanov in celebration of his 90th birthday this February: http://www.chessdiagonals.ch/402840... Rest in peace, Mark Evgenievich, and Condolence to his Family. Nov-29-16    whiteshark: He lived his life to the fullest. Nov-29-16    piltdown man: Farewell GM Taimanov, another great to leave us too soon. Nov-29-16    wordfunph: "When I play chess, I am resting from music. When I play music, I am resting from chess. That way, I am taking it easy my entire life!" - GM Mark Taimanov rest in peace, grand maestro Taimanov.. Nov-29-16    kdogphs: A huge loss! My favorite Benoni response is the Taimanov Attack. RIP sir. Nov-29-16    TheTamale: The New York Times linked to an interesting picture today of Che Guevara watching Taimanov play. RIP, GM Taimanov. http://chessintranslation.com/wp-co... Nov-29-16    Howard: To elaborate on a couple of the above comments, according to the NYT article in today's paper, Taimanov DID favor a baby at 77. Not only that, it's rather surprising that the article conveniently forgot to mention exactly HOW Taimanov qualified for the 1971 Candidates. In other words, his blatantly suspicious last-round interzonal game, with the late Matulovic, wasn't mentioned. Nov-29-16    schnarre: ...R.I.P. GM Taimanov Nov-29-16    cunctatorg: Just to quote a <paavoh's> post from above: <Sad, sad news, ... An era is ending.> Well, many of the men and women of this era lived in the midst of a worldwide turmoil, tragedy and horrors but they proved that they were -more or less- able to fight for a better world and they delivered to us a inheritance of determination and respect for life, they fought <against the dying of the light>... Hence, I hope that they also delivered to us a strong and convincing example!! These are the main reasons I have great respect for many a man of that era! Nov-29-16    Dionysius1: <Howard> How does one favor a baby? Is that the same as fathering a baby? Nov-30-16    HeMateMe: searched the Times to see if there was a Taimonov obit. The last article was from 1971, something to with a fellow named Bob, and the number 20: <http://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/06/a...> Nov-30-16    Howard: Alright, wiseguy, I meant "father a baby". I think the phone rang when I was typing that comment. Ya got me there ! Nov-30-16    zanzibar: Here's McClain's NYT obit of Taimanov: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/w... . Dec-01-16    HeMateMe: from the obit: "That same year Mr. Taimanov tied for first with Mr. Botvinnik in the Soviet championship, but he lost a playoff for the title. He tied for first again in 1956, but this time he prevailed in a playoff against Mr. Spassky and Yuri Averbakh. Altogether, he played in <23 Soviet championships,> a record he shared with Efim Geller." It's amazing to me that a person would have the time required to excel in both pursuits. Seems rare. Dec-01-16    zanzibar: <It's amazing to me that a person would have the time required to excel in both pursuits. Seems rare.> Which two pursuits? Chess and fathering a child at 77? Dec-01-16    HeMateMe: ...a man of rare talents! He knew how to tickle the ovaries. Jump to page #    (enter # from 1 to 12) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 11 OF 12 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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