Alexander Kazimirovich Tolush (1 May 1910 – 3 March 1969) was a
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
grandmaster. He was one of
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilyevich Spassky (; January 30, 1937 – February 27, 2025) was a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigra ...
's mentors. Tolush was born and died in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
(in 1969 called Leningrad). He earned the title of
International Master (IM) in 1950, Grandmaster (GM) in 1953, and International Master of Correspondence Chess (IMC) in 1965.
Tournament career
Tolush won the
Leningrad Championship in 1937 (joint), 1938, 1946, and 1947 (joint).
He played in the
USSR Championship ten times. His best result was second place (+8−3=6 shared with
Aronin and
Lipnitsky) behind
Keres in 1950. He finished fourth in 1952 (+8−4=7, equal with
Boleslavsky and behind
Botvinnik,
Taimanov, and
Geller) and fourth 1957 (+10−5=6 equal with
Spassky and behind
Tal,
Bronstein, and Keres). Going into the last round, he was 1st equal with Tal with Tal winning their last round individual encounter and secured gold.
His best international result was first place (+10−1=8) at Bucharest 1953, ahead of
Petrosian,
Smyslov, Boleslavsky, and Spassky. In 1968 he was second at Keszthely +7−1=3 behind
Portisch.
Tolush never played in the
Olympiads, but represented the USSR in two
European Team Chess Championship
The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...
s.
Legacy
Although he never reached the very highest level of chess, Tolush was an imaginative attacking player. He worked as a chess journalist, and was a noted trainer whose pupils included Keres and Spassky. His biography ''Alexander Tolush'' (1983) was compiled by his wife Valentina and includes 92 games.
Tolush introduced the Tolush–
Geller Gambit of the
Slav Defense
The Slav Defense is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
:1. d4 d5
:2. c4 c6
The Slav is one of the primary defenses to the Queen's Gambit. Although it was analyzed as early as 1590, it was not until the 1920s that it started to be ...
to master play in the games Tolush–Smyslov USSR Championship 1947, and Tolush–
Levenfish Leningrad Championship 1947.
References
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Further reading
*British Chess Magazine, 1969, p. 116
*Shakhmatny Bulletin, 1969, pp. 146–150
External links
*
Alexander Tolushat OlimpBase.org (European Team Championship results)
*
1910 births
1969 deaths
Chess Grandmasters
Russian chess players
Soviet chess players
Russian chess writers
Chess coaches
Burials at Bogoslovskoe Cemetery
Chess players from Saint Petersburg
{{Russia-chess-bio-stub