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YURI SAKHAROV

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oksana213
oksana213
May 9, 2019
0
#1

To all chess players who fought against Nazism in 1941-1945 dedicated

Yuri Sakharov was born in Yuzovka (Stalino since 1924, Donetsk since 1961) in September 1922. 

He learned how to play chess from Apollinary Gaevsky, who was a Physics and Math teacher.
 
In 1937 Sakharov's father, an official of Donbass mining industry, was proclaimed as "an enemy of  the people" and executed. 
 
After high school, Yuri became a student of the Department of Germanic Philology of Donbass State Pedagogical University.  
 
In 1940 he won the Stalino Region Chess Tournament and defeated I. Boleslavsky in the XXII Championship of Ukraine in Kiev.
 
In 1941, when the Great Patriotic War began, Yuri was 18. As a son of "an enemy of the people" he was not mobilized to serve in the Red Army. When Stalino was occupied by Nazis, he became a part of the underground and started working as a translator for Nazis Administration. In 1943 he was arrested and sent to Belgium to work as a labor force on coal mines. He found a way to sneak around at night to go to play chess for money. He spent money to buy some food and shared it among his compatriots. There were rumors he even played against Alberic O'Kelly.
 
In 1944 when the Allied forces entered Belgium, Yuri Sakharov joined to the US Army and even got the Purple Heart Medal. In 1945 he reached the Elbe with his unit where he joined the Soviet troops. 
 
In 1946 he was offered a job as a sport inspector of the Ukrainian Sport Federation in Kiev. He was responsible for development of different sport activities, including chess. He helped financially to organize chess clubs at small towns and villages. Also, he became a correspondence student of Kiev University to complete his degree in Philology.
 
In summer 1946 Yuri Sakharov played in XV Championship of Ukraine and shared 4-6 place with E. Geller and Y. Shaposhnikov gaining 11.5 out of 17.
 
In 1947  he shared 1-2 place with A. Kofman (8.5/13) in Kiev Championship and became the absolute champion of Kiev in 1948 and 1949. 
 
Chess Team of Ukraine during https://chesspro.ru/thesaurus/jakir_life_and_fate (Ukranian Chess Team in Morshyn, 1948. Yuri Sakharov is the second from the right  sitting on the stairs)

In 1950 candidate master Yuri Sakharov won the Quarterfinal of XIX USSR Chess Championship in Tbilisi and then, in 1951 the Semi Final in Lvov, too.
 
 
A. Sokolsky in his article "Unexpected results" about the tournament published in the magazine "Shakhmaty v SSSR" (9, 1951, p.264-266),  mentioned a beautiful combination of Y. Sakharov as White against D. Rovner.
 

34. Nd6 Bxd6 35. Rxd6 Be8 36. Rxg6! hxg6 37. Bxe5 Kf8 (if Rook retreats, there is a killer move Qxg6) 38. Bxb8 Rxb8 39. Qd3 and White wins.
 
 
Y. Sakharov  was qualified to participate in the XIX USSR Chess Championship in Moscow. Also, he over-fulfilled the norm requirement of Chess Master. His photos were at every newspaper. But soon he was arrested by denunciation and his Chess Master Title was revoked. According to one rumors, he was denounced by a woman who was once interrogated by gestapo in Yuzovka/Stalino after she saw his photo and recognized him as a translator during her interrogation. According to other rumors, he was denounced by a woman who was a forced labor too at Belgium on coal mines. She saw his photo and denounced him as a Nazis collaborator because he always got good food and shared it with her and others. 

Sakharov faced a closed-door trial. He denied all the accusations but was sentenced anyway to 25 years in jail for fighting against Nazis in the US Army. He  was sent to Vladimir Central Prison, then transferred to build Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station.  Lev Aronin and Vladimir Simagin who tied up up the second and third places and Salomon Flohr were qualified from Lvov and went to Moscow. All the chess games by Yuri Sakharov disappeared.

After Stalin's death in 1953, mass amnesty of the victims of Stalin's repressions started. In 1955 Yuri Sakharov was offered amnesty too, but he refused insisting on full rehabilitation. In 1956 he eventually was freed on full rehabilitation. His father was rehabilitated, too (posthumously).

 

Sakharov started drinking but nevertheless rebuilt his chess career. In 1956 he fulfilled the norm requirement of Chess Master again.

Sakharov won the Ukrainian championship twice, repeatedly went to the finals of the USSR championships, won the Kiev championship three times, won the Sport Society "Avangard" championship, where he worked as a coach. Twice he was a part of the USSR national team in the match against Yugoslavia, in 1966 in Sukhumi (3 out 5 points) and 1968 in Sochi (3.5 points out of 4).

 Yuri Sakharov is the second from the right

Soon, Sakharov was assigned to take care of the Ukrainian junior men team, who, under his training, had won the USSR team championships in 1958, 1962 and 1963. Sakharov was awarded a title of Merited Coach of Ukraine.

However, backstage forces intervened again, and Sakharov was dismissed as the junior team’s senior coach. Fortunately, Viktor Kart invited Yuri Sakharov to work with him with the adult team of Ukraine, which, under the guidance of the star tandem, immediately distinguished itself at the Games of the Peoples of the USSR. 

 

After winning the championship of Ukraine at the second time, in 1968 Yury Sakharov was allowed to go to the International Tournament in Varna (Bulgaria), where he won the gold medal and gained  the first score for the title of the International Master. He became the 17th highest rated playerin the world. He was 46  years old. 

Chess Results by Gino di Felice


But then until the end of his life, Yuri Sakharov remained “restricted to leave”. He started to play chess by correspondence and in 1971 he became an International Master of the ICCF. He won the  Olympics twice, playing for the USSR national team. 

 

The last serious success of Yuri Sakharov in the game at the board - a victory in the championship of trade unions of the USSR in 1971. 


Till his very end he coached children at Sport Society "Avangard" where in the summer he fetched buckets of strawberries from his suburban orchard in Bucha to give away to his students.

 

Yuri Sakharov with his students at Avangard Schachmaty v SSSR, 3, 1968
Yuri Sacharov with his students ("Avangard", Kiev, 1968)

 

He tragically died in 1981 at Bucha Train Station. The circumstances of his death remains unknown.

 

 

 

 

Ninifu
Ninifu
Oct 23, 2020
0
#2

See the ChessPro website with new data on Yuri Sakharov (in Russian):

https://chesspro.ru/enciklopediya/yuriy-saharov-izlomy-sudby 

https://chesspro.ru/enciklopediya/yuriy-saharov-izlomy-sudby-ch2