Nov-16-03
 | | Benzol: Another tragic figure in Soviet Chess. He was a friend of Tal and Alvis Vitolins ( why is there no infomation on this player ) and was a master at blitz play. He took his own life in Yerevan on the 30th of October 1989 by jumping off the city's highest bridge. It seems very strange that Georg Illivitsky, Alvis Vitolins, Karen Grigorian and Lembit Oll all brilliant players, ended their lives in a similar manner by falling from a great height like Nabokov's Luzhin. |
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Nov-16-03
| | Benzol: I must amend my previous post. It was Alvis Vitolins who was Tal's friend and the name should be Grigory Ilivitsky not Georg Illivitsky. Apologies for these oversights. |
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Nov-16-03
 | | Chessical: Vitolins is the subject of an informative and moving essay by Sosonko in his book "Russian Silhouttes".
Grigory Ilivitsky came 5th in the extremely strong 22nd Soviet Championship and 10th in the Gothenburg Interzonal. It seems it was his bad luck that as with other strong players such as Aronin, Bannik, Borisenko, Nezhmetdinov never became a GM. They were all frustrated by a lack of opportunity to play in foreign tournaments. The Soviet authorities instead concentrated on the crop of post-war super-talents e.g. Averbakh, Petrosian, Korchnoi, Spassky etc. I believe that Illivitsky finished his days in poverty. |
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| Mar-13-07 | | argishti: poor guy... |
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Mar-13-07
 | | chancho: Here's another talented player who jumped to his death. Lembit Oll |
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| Mar-13-07 | | TrueFiendish: Vitolins was a truly brilliant player whose abilities received the highest praise from Tal. |
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| Aug-19-08 | | sleepkid: Chessgames needs to fix their database. There is another Grigorian who plays and apparently his games are being linked here. Either that, or this Grigorian has had a remarkable career ever since his tragic death. |
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| Aug-19-08 | | Davolni: <sleepkid> thanks for bringing that up to chessgames, but no need to be sarcastic about someone's tragic death!!! Karen Grigorian was a great player who has had nice victories in such a short time of his life. |
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Aug-19-08
 | | BishopBerkeley: Several years ago, a fine acquaintance of mine ended his own life. He was a physician who had done some very beneficial work over the course of a long career. (My own life had been enriched by knowing him.) His family, friends, and acquaintances are still bewildered as to why he made this choice. In thinking about him, I've tried to remind myself that suicide need not be the defining event of a person's life. Suicide may occur in a moment of uncharacteristic sadness, depression, or anxiety, perhaps the lowest emotional state a person has experienced in decades. It may be a very unrepresentative act in an otherwise very complex and often positive life. I know almost nothing about GM Grigorian, Lembit Oll , or some other great Chessplayers who have ended their own lives, but I'm glad we have their games and other stories about them that can remind us that their lives were much, much bigger than the way they chose to leave them. If you have had any friend or loved one who has ended their own life, perhaps you too have considered the vastness of their life compared with the brief, sad event of their death. I hope we will always remember the former when we consider the latter. Best wishes to all....
♗ Bishop Berkeley ♗
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| Sep-01-08 | | JohnBoy: If Grigorian died in 1989, the games under his name from then to 2007 must be from someone else. This needs to be corrected. |
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| Sep-07-08 | | artyom2008: happy bday |
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Sep-11-08
 | | maxi: Nobody wins a chess game by committing suicide. |
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Sep-11-08
 | | Phony Benoni: Most of the games after 1989 can be credited to <Karen Grigoryan>, an IM from Turkmenistan born in 1954. See http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?.... He does not appear to have an entry in the chessgames.com database as yet. The one exception would be the very last game from the World U-12 in 2007; that must be somebody else. I've sent in a correction. |
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| Sep-11-08 | | Avarus: <BishopBerkeley> Fine words there, fine words. |
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| Oct-30-08 | | gambitfan: I am astounded at the not so negligeable number of chess players whosse life ends tragically (suicide, crime, madness,...) |
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| Apr-17-09 | | stanleys: A photo of him :
http://www.e3e5.com/upload/articles... |
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| Oct-09-10 | | Ostap Bender jr: The confusion about the Karen Grigorians is quite understandable, since the name and the given name are quite popular in that geographical area. Few years ago, I got paired against a certain Karen Grigoryan and could not really understand who I was going to play against. I vaguely knew that the GM with this name died some time ago, but my opponent was born in 1954 (only 7 years later than the late GM, practically the same epoque) which just increased my confusion. After the game, I asked my opponent about the whole matter and he made my thrills about having played against a legend vanish immediately. Anyway, coming back to GM Karen Grigorian, I am impressed about how he punished the premature e4-e5 in his games against Karasev 1976 and Pereszupkin in 1977, in positions that looked rather suspicious for him. |
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| Apr-17-12 | | Marmot PFL: The old Soviet nations have the world's highest suicide rates. Maybe they always did but the numbers were not formerly revealed. |
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Feb-20-15
 | | offramp: Another death by jumping suicide, one of the strangest, was Carl Theodor Goering. |
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Aug-24-16
| | offramp: Karen Ashotovich Grigorian played in a tournament held between 10th June 1978 and 27th June 1978. It was held in the North Bohemian town of Děčín, on the river Elbe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C4%....
Its title was "VIII Primat Mesta Děčína."
Karen Ashotovich Grigorian withdrew after 10 of the 15 rounds. Craig William Pritchett, who was there, wrote (BCM 1978 p458): <The sad spot of the tournament was when Grigorian had to drop out. As the tournament progressed it became increasingly obvious that he was suffering from an acute form of depression. His spirits deteriorated rapidly and he had to be taken to hospital. There were murmurs among the players (E European players always murmur!) that this would be the end of his chess career. I hope the Russian Federation don't take steps toward that end. He is undoubtedly a player of some talent.> |
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Jan-31-23
 | | FSR: Who wouldn't be upset if someone did this to their name? <Karen is a pejorative slang term for an obnoxious, angry, entitled, and often racist middle-aged white woman who uses her privilege to get her way or police other people’s behaviors.> https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/... |
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Jan-31-23
 | | HeMateMe: I loved Karen Carpenter. I never thought she was racist, privileged or angry. Heck, she wasn't even middle aged. |
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Jan-31-23
| | FSR: <HMM> She was amazing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woK... |
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Jan-31-23
 | | perfidious: Regrettably, Karen Carpenter experienced her own personal difficulties. |
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Kibitzing
