Alexey Pavlovich Sokolsky (3 November 1908

Penza Governorate Penza Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR, located in the Volga Region. It existed from 1780 to 1797 and again from 1801 to 1928 ...

, Russian Empire – 27 December 1969

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and 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 status in Belarus and is the administra ...

, USSR) was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

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 ...

player of

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 (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

strength in chess, a noted

correspondence chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less commo ...

player, and an

opening Opening may refer to: Types of openings * Hole * A title sequence or opening credits * Grand opening of a business or other institution * Inauguration * Keynote * Opening sentence * Opening sequence * Opening statement, a beginning statemen ...

theoretician.

Chess career

In 1935, he took second in the RSFSR Championship. He won the Ukrainian Chess Championship twice, in 1947 and 1948, and was the runner-up in the 1958 Belarusian Chess Championship. He also played in the 13th Soviet Championship in 1944, finishing with 7½/16 (tie for 8th–10th place); the 17th Championship in 1949, finishing with 8½/19 (12th place); and the 21st Championship in 1954, finishing last with 5/19. He was the first Soviet

Correspondence Chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less commo ...

Champion (1948–1951).

Legacy

The name of Sokolsky is known now mostly for his opening research and development of the

chess opening The opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established Chess_theory#Opening_theory, theory. The other phases are the chess middlegame, middlegame and the chess endgame, endgame. Many opening sequences, known as ''op ...

''1.b4'' which became known as the Sokolsky Opening. It is also known as the Polish Opening or the Orangutan. Sokolsky Memorial master-norm tournaments have been held regularly in

since 1970. Sokolsky wrote over a dozen books. The most famous of these are ''The Modern Openings in Theory and Practice'' (1962) and ''Debyut 1.b2-b4'' (1963), a book about his

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

ous opening.

References

External links

* 1908 births 1969 deaths Soviet chess players Chess theoreticians {{ukraine-chess-bio-stub