Yeah Stein was very very good... but if I recall correctly he could be uneven... he wasn't one of those guys who never lost. I think Stein and Nezhmetdinov are at the top of most "best chess player you never heard of" lists. I would add Klaus Junge.
Leonid Stein
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I have a book about the guy: "Leonid Stein, Master of Attack". Stein was famous for his combative style and ferocious attacks.
"Leonid Stein's Best Games" :
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1012988
"Leonid Stein - Master of Risk Strategy" :
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1011627
tonydal wrote:
He also--twice--was unable to move on to the Candidates tournament from Interzonals due to the rule at the time forbidding too many players from the same country from advancing
Yeah, he was robbed.
*bump*
I encountered him while reading through Kasparov´s my great predecessors, and while I didn´t play through most of the games, I read the book as a novel instead. I did play through a few here and there, and the Leonid Stein game I played through left an immence impression on me. As soon as I´m done with David Bronstein and another book, I´m jumping all over Leonid's games.
Jan 8, 2010
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#9
Stein was a brilliant tactical player, some said he was even better than Tal...
tonydal wrote:
There was also the story about him beating Fischer in blitz (when Fischer had never heard of him). Sort of a "country cousin" setup on the American champion (and Bobby was a bit disgruntled, it seems...).
As one story gets told, yes Fischer was supposedly unaware of him, but I've read other accounts that seem to cast doubt on it. One point was that Fischer certainly was up on who was who in Soviet chess (remember how he devoured the Soviet chess mags, and remembered everything) so how could he be ignorant about this already strong and respected player?
I think it was Geller who said to Fischer, "Play him." Did Fischer really tote a losing score? Hard to say. Like many of our chess anecdotes, they become history without being sifted for yarn-ing and tale-telling.
Stein is my favorite all time player. I think it was Stockholm 1962 when Stein dealt with Fischer in blitz. Sounds like Fischer was set up by Geller. Stein had a plus lifetime score vs both Tal and Spassky. He defeated World Champions Botvinnik,Smyslov and Petrosian. Yes Leonid stein had the potential to be an all time great. If he had lived some speculate that Stein and Karpov would have bumped heads to challenge Bobby Fischer.
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#12
I have played through all of Stein's games, from his early wins in the 50s and onwards. I picked him as the player I wanted to learn from. He is strong with white and black, loves combinations and has an ability to emerge from positional discussions with an undeniable advantage. I can't begin to name the number of instances he's made me laugh out loud due to the audacity or impudence of his attacks. It's not "perfect" chess - if you run through his games with an engine as referee, you will find many instances where he chose apparently inferior lines. But it is very rare to see him outplayed. Chessgames has a nice pgn games collection.
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I'd never even heard of this guy until I recently read a biography of Fischer and read about the 1970 Russia vs. The World match. Apparently he was in the world Top 10 during the 1960s. He won the USSR Championship 3 out of 4 times he entered - no mean feat.
From Wiki: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Stein)
"He was one of few players who had an even score against Vassily Smyslov, Tigran Petrosian, and Mikhail Botvinnik. He even had plus records against Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky, and Paul Keres. Stein defeated virtually all of the top players of his era."
Stein's games:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=20234