Eugene Znosko-Borovsky (; 16 August 1884 – 31 December 1954) was a Russian

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,

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

and

drama critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

, teacher and author. Born in Pavlovsk,

Saint Petersburg Governorate Saint Petersburg Governorate was a province (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Saint Petersburg. The governorate was composed of of area and 2,112,033 inhabitants. It was bordered by Governorate of Estonia, Estonian and G ...

, he settled in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1920, and lived there for the rest of his life.

Biography

Znosko-Borovsky learned to play chess as a young boy. He won prizes in local and regional tournaments, whilst progressing to a first-class education at the

Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum The Imperial Lyceum () in Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg, also known historically as the Imperial Alexander Lyceum after its founder Tsar Alexander I, was an educational institution which was founded in 1811 with the object of educating yo ...

. Making his international chess tournament debut at

Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...

in 1906, where he won the brilliancy prize for his game against

Amos Burn Amos Burn (31 December 1848 – 25 November 1925) was an English chess player, one of the world's leading players at the end of the 19th century, and a chess writer. Burn was born on New Year's Eve, 1848, in Hull.Richard Forster, ''Amos Burn: ...

, Znosko-Borovsky's playing career was frequently interrupted by other events in his life. Between 1909 and 1912 he was a prominent critic of the

Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

''Apollo'' magazine, befriended many Russian poets and writers of the

Silver Age The Ages of Man are the historical stages of human existence according to Greek mythology and its subsequent interpretatio romana, Roman interpretation. Both Hesiod and Ovid offered accounts of the successive ages of humanity, which tend to pr ...

, and was

Nikolay Gumilev Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev (also Gumilyov; , ; – August 26, 1921) was a Russian poet, literary critic, traveler, and military officer. He was a co-founder of the Acmeist movement. He was the husband of Anna Akhmatova and the father of Lev ...

's second in his 1909 duel against

Maximilian Voloshin Maximilian Alexandrovich Kirienko-Voloshin (; May 28, O.S. May 16">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. May 161877 – August 11, 1932), commonly known as Max Voloshin, was a Russian poet. He w ...

. Decorated and wounded in military conflicts, he first served as a volunteer in the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

of 1904 and 1905 and was again called into service during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Following evacuation, he was taken by a British ship to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

and from there proceeded to Paris, which remained his home from 1920 onwards. As a player, Znosko-Borovsky fell short of the very highest level. He did have some notable results in international competition, including Paris 1930, where he finished first without loss, ahead of

Savielly Tartakower Savielly Tartakower (also known as ''Xavier'' or ''Ksawery'' ''Tartakower'', less often ''Tartacover'' or ''Tartakover''; 21 February 1887 – 4 February 1956) was a Polish chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster (chess), Internatio ...

Andor Lilienthal Andor (André, Andre, Andrei) Arnoldovich Lilienthal Reuben Fine, ''The World's Great Chess Games'', Dover Publications, 1983, p. 216. . (5 May 1911 – 8 May 2010) was a Hungarian and Soviet chess player. In his long career, he played against ...

and

Jacques Mieses Jacques Mieses (born Jacob Mieses; 27 February 1865 – 23 February 1954) was a German chess player. Mieses, who was Jewish, fled the Nazi regime in 1938 and later became a British citizen. Hooper, David and Kenneth Whyld 1996. ''The Oxford comp ...

, and first prize in the premier tournament at Folkestone 1933. Success often came in individual encounters with his more distinguished peers; he won impressive games against

José Raúl Capablanca José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was the third World Chess Championship, world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he was widely renowned for his exceptional Chess ...

Akiba Rubinstein Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein (1 December 1880 – 14 March 1961) was a Polish chess player. He is considered to have been one of the greatest players never to have become World Chess Champion. Rubinstein was granted the title International Grandma ...

Max Euwe Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 ...

and

Efim Bogoljubov Efim Bogoljubow, also known as Efim Dimitrijewitsch Bogoljubow (April 14, 1889 – June 18, 1952), was a Russian-born German Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Early career Bogoljubow learned how to play chess at 15 years old, and dev ...

as well as a short match with

Edgard Colle Edgard Colle (18 May 1897 – 19 April 1932) was a Belgian chess master. He scored excellent results in major international tournaments, including first at Amsterdam 1926, ahead of Savielly Tartakower and future world champion Max Euwe; fi ...

in 1922. He was also highly skilled at simultaneous exhibition play. In conversation and as a

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

, teacher or writer of chess, his abilities were widely acknowledged, particularly in Russia and France where he contributed regular articles and columns to magazines and newspapers. Indeed, it was in the field of writing that he excelled, penning many popular books including ''The Evolution of Chess'' (1910), ''Capablanca'' and ''The Muzio Gambit'' (both 1911). ''Capablanca and Alekhine'' followed

and most of his later offerings were translated into English, principally ''The Middle Game in Chess'', ''How Not to Play Chess'', ''How to Play the Chess Openings'', ''How to Play Chess Endings'' (1940), and ''The Art of Chess Combination''.

Tribute

After hearing of his death,

Gerald Abrahams Gerald Abrahams (15 April 1907 – 15 March 1980) was an English chess player, author, and barrister. Chess career He is best known for the Abrahams Defence of the Semi-Slav, also known as the Abrahams– Noteboom Variation, or the Noteboom ...

wrote a personal tribute:

British Chess Magazine ''British Chess Magazine'' is the world's oldest chess journal in continuous publication. First published in January 1881, it has appeared at monthly intervals ever since. It is frequently known in the chess world as ''BCM''. The founder and ...

, March 1955 :The death of Znosko-Borovsky deprives the chess world of one of the few survivors of an intellectually rich generation, the Russian Masters of the old regime ... My own memories of Znosko go back to 1923–24. I found him then, and at all times later, a stimulating friend and a delightful conversationalist in many subjects. His reputation as a dramatic and literary critic was, at one time considerable in Europe, though England knew little of this. Those who have read his chess works, however, must be aware that their writer was a ''kultur mensch'' in the best sense. Withal, he was stoical in adversity (adversity was always his lot) and possessed of great humour and resilience ... As a player, he suffered from the demands of a professionalism that is incompatible with great performance: but he leaves records of many games which reveal, if not genius, then a great talent ... those who knew him will all agree that his life enriched, and in a degree inspired, the chess world.

Books

* * * * *

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Znosko-Borovsky, Eugene 1884 births 1954 deaths People from Pavlovsk, Saint Petersburg People from Tsarskoselsky Uyezd Chess players from the Russian Empire Russian chess writers French chess players Russian military personnel of the Russo-Japanese War Russian military personnel of World War I People of the Russian Civil War White Russian emigrants to France Burials at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery Writers from the Russian Empire