Leonid Nikolayevich Yurtaev (3 April 1959, Frunze – 2 June 2011) was a Kyrgyz

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. In 1986 he was awarded the

FIDE title 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 ...

of International Master (IM) and in 1996 he became the first Kyrgyz player to receive the Grandmaster (GM) title. He was noted as a tactician, and in particular as a specialist in the

King's Indian Defence The King's Indian Defence (or KID) is a common chess opening. It is defined by the following moves: : 1. d4 Nf6 : 2. c4 g6 Black intends to follow up with 3...Bg7 and 4...d6 (the Grünfeld Defence arises when Black plays 3...d5 instead and ...

. He defeated a number of strong grandmasters during his career, including

Mikhail Tal Mikhail Tal (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet and Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as Comparison of top chess players throughout history, one ...

Vassily Ivanchuk Vasyl Mykhailovych Ivanchuk (; born March 18, 1969) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1988. A leading chess player since 1988, Ivanchuk has been ranked at No. 2 on the FIDE world rankings thr ...

and

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

, but he was not particularly successful in tournaments. According to the

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

web site, his best tournament performance was at the 1987 Armed Forces championship in Sverdlovsk, which he won with

Vladimir Tukmakov Vladimir Borisovich Tukmakov (, born March 5, 1946, in Odesa) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He gained the Grandmaster title in 1972. Career His career first blossomed when he helped and then led the USSR to consecutive wins of the World St ...

with a score of 7/8. He qualified for the final

USSR Chess Championship The USSR Chess Championship was played from 1920 to 1991. Organized by the USSR Chess Federation, it was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winne ...

in 1991, finishing in shared 23rd place. In 2007 Yurtaev won the 1st

Georgy Agzamov Georgy Tadzhikhanovich Agzamov (September 6, 1954, Tashkent – August 27, 1986, Sevastopol) was a Soviet chess Grandmaster, the first from Central Asia. He became an International Master in 1982 and was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1984. ...

Memorial held in

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

on tiebreak over

Marat Dzhumaev Marat Dzhumaev (born 12 January 1976) is an Uzbekistani chess Grandmaster (2001) and twice national champion (2012, 2015). He played for Uzbekistan in the Chess Olympiads of 2000 and 2002, in the World Team Chess Championship of 2001 and in th ...

and Sergey Kayumov. He represented Kyrgyzstan at seven

Olympiads An olympiad (, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not until Hippias that a cons ...

in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2006 and 2008. In 2008, he was a reserve player but didn't play a game.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yurtaev, Leonid 1959 births 2011 deaths Soviet chess players Kyrgyzstani chess players Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Sportspeople from Bishkek Place of death missing