Ilya Lvovich Maizelis (; 28 December, 1894 in

Uman Uman (, , ) is a city in Cherkasy Oblast, central Ukraine. It is located to the east of Vinnytsia. Located in the east of the historical region of Podolia, the city rests on the banks of the Umanka River. Uman serves as the administrative c ...

Cherkasy Oblast Cherkasy Oblast (, ), also referred to as Cherkashchyna (, ) is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in central Ukraine located along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. The Capital city, administrative center of the oblast is the cit ...

, today in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

– 23 December, 1978 in Moscow) was a Soviet

chess player This list of chess players includes people who are primarily known as chess players and have an article on the English Wikipedia. A * Jacob Aagaard (Denmark, Scotland, born 1973) * Manuel Aaron (India, born 1935) * Nijat Abasov (Azerbaijan, bor ...

, writer, and theoretician. Maizelis was better known as a writer than as a player. He played in several Moscow city championships during the 1920s and 1930s, his best result being 4th place in 1932. Under the Soviet system he was ranked as a "first category" player, the next rank below

Master Master, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

. In modern terms, this is equivalent to an

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

in the 2200s.Maizelis at Edochess
/ref> He was on the editorial board of '' 64'' from 1925 to 1930, and was executive secretary of the English-language ''Soviet Chess Chronicle'' from 1943 to 1946. He was the author of a number of instructional works on chess, including ''Shakhmat (1949, English version: "Soviet Chess Primer"), and theoretical works on the endgame. ''Pawn Endings'' was published by

Batsford Batsford is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cotswold (district), Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. The village is about north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. There is a falconry centre close to the village ...

in English in 1974. He also translated a number of German language chess books into Russian, including

Aron Nimzowitsch Aron Nimzowitsch (; , ''Aron Isayevich Nimtsovich''; 7 November 1886 – 16 March 1935) was a Latvian-born Danish chess player and writer. In the late 1920s, Nimzowitsch was one of the best chess players in the world. He was the foremost f ...

's ''

My System ''My System'' () is a book on chess theory written by Aron Nimzowitsch. Originally over a series of five brochures from 1925 to 1927, the book—one of the early works on hypermodernism—introduced many new concepts to followers of the modern ...

'' and

Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher. He was the second World Chess Champion, holding the title for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially ...

's ''Manual of Chess''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maizelis, Ilya 1894 births 1978 deaths Soviet chess players Chess theoreticians