Tseshkovsky dies at 67

PeterDoggers

Updated: Dec 24, 2011, 1:51 PM | 0 | Chess Event Coverage

Sad news on Christmas Eve: two times Soviet Champion Vitaly Tseshkovsky passed away on December 24th in Krasnodar, Russia. The well-known Russian grandmaster died in harness: participating in the Krai Cup, Tseshkovsky became ill during the first round, lost consciousness and died. This was reported today by the Russian Chess Federation.

Vitaly Tseshkovsky | Photo courtesy of the Russian Chess Federation

Tseshkovsky was born September 25, 1944 in Omsk into a Polish family (his noble ancestors lived in Volhynia). He was awarded the International Master title in 1973 and became an International Grandmaster in 1975.

His best tournament victories include first at Leipzig 1975, Dubna 1976, Yerevan 1980, Banja Luka 1981, Sochi 1981 and Minsk 1982. He was co-winner of the 1978 Soviet Championship (with Mikhail Tal) and winner of the 1986 Championship.

He has beaten several world champions: Vasily Smyslov at the Moscow Spartakiad 1974, Tal at Sochi 1970, and a young Garry Kasparov at the 1978 Soviet Championship. Tseshkovsky himself almost qualified for the World Championship candidates matches when he finished fourth in the 1976 Manila Interzonal, one place lower than was needed to progress to the next stage.

At the 27th Chess Olympiad in 1986, he scored 2.5/5 as the second reserve board to help the USSR team win the gold medal.

His 6/9 result in St Petersburg, 2004 qualified him to play in the Russian Championship final later in the year, alongside Russia's seven top players and five other qualifiers. In 2010, he tied for 2nd-4th with Algimantas Butnorius and Nikolai Pushkov in the European Seniors’ Rapid Championship.

We used Wikipedia's article for the above. The Russian Chess Federation adds that over the years Tseshkovsky trained players such as Vladimir Kramnik, Bartlomiej Macieja and Boris Savchenko.

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Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

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Tseshkovsky dies at 67

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