Alexander Mikhailovich Iglitsky was born 27 November 1901 in Odessa, Ukraine. His father Mikhail Moiseevich Iglitsky was the headmaster of a private Jewish grammar school. In 1910, his brother Ilya was shot dead at a student protest, and Mikhail Moiseevich committed suicide two years later. At age 11, Alexander was the only surviving male in his family. In 1917 he took up chess and showed early promise, winning the student tournament at Novorossiysk University and defeating Alexander Alekhine in a blind simultaneous exhibition. After the Civil War ended in 1918, he participated in every Odessa championship up to 1925. Iglitsky won the hauptturnier of the USSR Championship (1923), earning 600 rubles and a 1st category rank. His best result in the Odessa championship came in 1925, where he finished 3rd, behind the Odessa master Yakov S Vilner and Sergei F Ballodit. He was the only contestant to defeat Vilner in this tournament. Iglitsky edited the chess column of "Silhouettes" magazine with Vilner, and when the chief editor Mikhail Kapchinsky moved to Moscow in 1925, Iglitsky also relocated to the capital with his family.
In Moscow, Iglitsky continued to pursue chess and journalism. In team tournaments he competed for the Pechatnik Printers Union. In May 1928 he finished 2nd behind Nikolay Dmitrievich Grigoriev in the Pechatnik championship, scoring +8-1-0. He also made the finals of several Moscow championships. His best result came in the Moscow National Tournament in 1929, where he shared 1st with Nikolay Dmitrievich Grigoriev and Solomon Moiseevich Slonim, ahead of Vasily Osipovich Smyslov and eight others. He defeated Vasily Osipovich, the father of Vasily Smyslov, in their game. In Moscow, Iglitsky also proved a prolific and popular chess journalist, publishing in Red Star (Krasnaya zvezda), Soviet Warrior (Sovetsky voin), Youth (Yunost), Young Engineer (Yuny tekhnik), 64, and Chess in the USSR (Shakhmaty v SSSR). He also edited books on Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker and Sergey Vsevolodovich Belavenets. During World War II, he was evacuated to Novosibirsk, where he worked on film productions with his old boss and mentor Mikhail Kapchinsky, who had been appointed "director of First Cinema Factory Goskino." Iglitsky completed a screenplay "Destroyers of Tanks" which was accepted by the Mostekhfilm Film Studio. The screenplay went in to production, but it is not known if the film was ever finished, or shown. In Novosibirsk, Iglitsky began to exhibit symptoms of lung disease. In a letter to his cousin, he wrote that "My health has... suffered greatly," and sadly reported that his friend Nikolai Nikolaevich Riumin had recently died of tuberculosis in Tomsk.
Iglitsky survived the war, returning to Moscow with his family. He began editing the journal New World (Novy mir), and also secured a well paid contract at Week (Nedelya), where he ran a book review section. He also resumed his chess career, winning both of his games against Rolf Schlieder in the 1957 USSR v Germany correspondence match. At the end of 1963, Iglitsky's lung disease became serious and he was hospitalized. Worse, there was also a shortage of the medicine needed to keep him alive. His close friend Salomon Flohr helped him obtain the medicine, but his health continued to deteriorate. Alexander Iglitsky died on 8 February, 1964.
Source Sergei Tkachenko "Alekhine's Odessa Secrets" (Elk and Ruby Publishing House 2018), pp. 93-96
Game Collection: Alexander Iglitsky Tournament Record
Kibitzing
