Alexander Vasilyevich Cherepkov (russian: Александр Васильевич Черепков, 30 October 1920 – 12 July 2009

''. Championat.ru. July 13, 2009.) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combinatio ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

. He was champion of Leningrad three times: 1967, 1968 (after a playoff), and 1982 (after a playoff). He played in three Soviet finals (1961, 1967, and 1968), and was awarded his IM title at the age of 64 in 1984, one of the oldest players to have reached this standard.

Biography

Alexander Vasilyevich Cherepkov was born in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. He served in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, and was decorated four times. He was a Soviet Master from the late 1940s, but took some time to climb through the deep hierarchy of talent. His first important result was clear 1st at

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl ( rus, Ярослáвль, p=jɪrɐˈsɫavlʲ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence ...

1948 with 12.5/17 (this was likely a Soviet Championship quarter-final). His first attempt to qualify for the Soviet final saw him score 6.5/16 in the semi-final at

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, 1949. In the Leningrad Championship of 1950 he scored 7/13 for 6th place, but he fell short again at the Soviet semi-final level (

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast o ...

1950) with 5.5/15. Improving gradually, he made 50 per cent in two Master tournaments in Leningrad. In 1955 he scored 9/18, with the winner

Vladimir Antoshin Vladimir Sergeyevich Antoshin (; 14 May 1929 in Moscow – 13 May 1994) was a Soviet chess Grandmaster, a theoretician and a national champion of correspondence chess. Student Olympiad performances As a young man, he was a high achiever, princip ...

, and in 1957, he scored 9.5/19, with the winners

Boris Spassky Boris Vasilievich Spassky ( rus, Бори́с Васи́льевич Спа́сский, Borís Vasíl'yevich Spásskiy; born January 30, 1937) is a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 196 ...

and

Alexander Tolush Alexander Kazimirovich Tolush (1 May 1910 – 3 March 1969) was a Soviet chess grandmaster. He was one of Boris Spassky's mentors. Tolush was born and died in Saint Petersburg (in 1969 called Leningrad). He earned the title of International Mast ...

. At

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...

1960, he made 11.5/17 in the Soviet semi-final to advance to his first final at Moscow 1961 (URS-ch28), and scored a respectable 7.5/19; the winner was

Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian (, ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style, ...

. A good result followed, 9.5/17 in the Spartak Club Championship at

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...

1962, won by

Anatoly Bannik Anatoly Alexandrovich Bannik (December 1921, in Kyiv – 19 January 2013) was a Ukrainian chess Master. He was a five-time Ukrainian champion, and qualified for the Soviet Chess Championship final seven times. He was among the top half-dozen Ukrai ...

Chessmetrics Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo rating system. Implementation Chessmetrics is a weighted average of past performance. The score considers a player's win perce ...

.com, which rates historical chess performances, ranks Cherepkov as 34th in the world in May 1961 with a 2630 rating. Cherepkov kept his strength and improved gradually as he got older. He won the first of his three Leningrad Championships in 1967 at age 47, and repeated the next year following a playoff. He qualified for the Soviet final in 1967 at

Kharkov Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.

(URS-ch35); this was a Swiss format event with more than 100 players. He made his third and last appearance in the Soviet final at

Alma Ata Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1936 as an autonomous republic as part of ...

1968 (URS-ch36), but could manage just 4.5/19. The next decade was filled with appearances in minor events and team championships, with mixed results. He had a very good tournament at the Sokolsky Memorial,

1981, scoring 8.5/15 to tie for 5th–7th places; the winner was

Valery Chekhov Valery Alexandrovich Chekhov (Russian: Валерий Чехов; born 27 November 1955) is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Junior Chess Champion (1975). He was awarded the International Master title in 1975 and became a Grandmaste ...

. Cherepkov won his third Leningrad title in 1982 after a playoff. He then put together the best result of his career, winning the 1984 Leningrad White Knights tournament with 8/13, ahead of several Grandmasters. This was a sensational achievement at age 64. He earned the

title. Another superb showing at age 70 came in the 1990 Leningrad International, where he finished clear 2nd with 9.5/13, behind

Konstantin Sakaev Konstantin Rufovich Sakaev (russian: Константи́н Ру́фович Сака́ев; born 13 April 1974 in Leningrad) is a Russian chess Grandmaster (1993), chess author and Russian champion in 1999. Sakaev is on the staff of the Grandmas ...

References

External links

Alexander V Cherepkov rating card at FIDE
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cherepkov, Alexander 1920 births 2009 deaths Chess International Masters Russian chess players Soviet chess players Soviet military personnel of World War II Sportspeople from Saint Petersburg 20th-century chess players