Mark Taimanov
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Mark Evgenievich Taimanov (; 7 February 1926 – 28 November 2016) was one of the leading Soviet and 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 ...
players, among the world's top 20 players from 1946 to 1971. A prolific chess author, Taimanov was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 1952 and in 1956 won the USSR Chess Championship. He was a World Championship Candidate in 1953 and 1971, and several opening variations are named after him. Taimanov was also a world-class concert pianist.


Early life

Taimanov was born in
Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.
(now Kharkiv, Ukraine), where his parents studied at the time. They moved to
Leningrad 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 ...
when he was six months old. His father Evgeny Zakharovich Taimanov was
Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish; his family escaped to Kharkiv from
Smolensk Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...
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 ...
. Evgeny was a student at the
Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute The Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute ( KhPI, full official title National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute", , НТУ "ХПІ") is a public technical university in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Founded in 1885, it is the second-oldest ...
and later made a career as a head engineer at the
Kirov Plant The Kirov Plant, Kirov factory or Leningrad Kirov plant (LKZ) () is a major Russian mechanical engineering and agricultural machinery manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was established in 1789, then moved to its present site in 1801 ...
and the Hydraulic Plant, but left it to work as an engineer at the Leningrad Conservatory and various Leningrad theaters after his brother and his wife's relatives were imprisoned in 1937. Taimanov's mother Serafima Ivanovna Ilyina came from an Orthodox
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 ...
family; she studied at the Kharkiv National Kotlyarevsky University of Arts."Irina Taimanova: 'I collect impressions about people'"
Interview with Mark Taimanov's sister by the 33.6 Million Club woman's magazine (in Russian and English)
As a piano teacher she later introduced her son to music. Mark was the eldest of three children. When he was ten, he performed as a young violinist in the Soviet
children's film A children's film, or family film, is a film genre that generally relates to children in the context of home and family. Children's films are made specifically for children and not necessarily for a general audience, while family films are made f ...
'' Beethoven Concerto'' that was released in 1936. To practice for his role Taimanov studied the violin for a year. Many years later when on tour,
Isaac Stern Isaac Stern (July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was an American violinist. Born in Ukraine, Stern moved to the United States when he was 14 months old. Stern performed both nationally and internationally, notably touring the Soviet Union a ...
met Taimanov and complimented his violin playing in the movie, saying that all the young actors "didn't even know how to hold the violin properly. Only once I saw a violinist who did it, in the film Beethoven Concert". During the
Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...
he and his father evacuated to
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 ...
shortly before the
Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...
started; his mother along with his two siblings decided to stay in the city and had to survive the siege up till their evacuation in March 1942.


Chess career

He was awarded the
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 ...
title in 1950, and the
International Grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a Chess title, title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Chess Championship, World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is hel ...
title in 1952 by
FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...
. He played in the
Candidates Tournament The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The win ...
in
Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
in 1953, where he tied for eighth place. He was regularly in the world's top 20 players for over 25 years.


Soviet team play

He represented Leningrad in internal Soviet regional team competitions, scoring (+36−24=56) in 116 games, across 15 events, between 1948 and 1983. He represented the sports society "Burevestnik" (Students) in internal Soviet club team competitions.


Soviet championships

He played in 23 USSR Chess Championships (a record equalled by Efim Geller), tying for first place twice. In 1952 he lost the playoff match to
Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik (; ;  – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who held five world titles in three different reigns. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer sci ...
, who was World Champion at the time. In 1956, after finishing equal with Yuri Averbakh and
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 ...
in the tournament proper, he won a match-tournament ahead of them, for the title.


Loss to Fischer

Taimanov lost to
Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...
in the 1971 Candidates quarterfinal by the unprecedented score of 6–0. About this match, Taimanov later recalled that Fischer "was an incredibly tough defender" and that "the third game proved to be the turning point of the match". After his loss to Fischer, the Soviet government was embarrassed, and, as Taimanov later put it in a 2002 interview, found it "unthinkable" that he could have lost the match so badly to an American without a "political explanation". Soviet officials took away Taimanov's salary and no longer allowed him to travel overseas. The official reason given for punishing Taimanov was that he had brought a book by
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and Soviet dissidents, dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag pris ...
into the country, but that explanation was merely a bureaucratic pretext. The officials later "forgave" Taimanov, and lifted the sanctions against him. Fischer's overwhelming match wins later in 1971, first by 6–0 against
Bent Larsen Jørgen Bent Larsen (4 March 1935 – 9 September 2010) was a Danish chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second-strongest non-Soviet Union, Soviet player, behind ...
, then by 6½–2½ against
Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vardani Petrosian (; ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster and the ninth World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing s ...
, may have helped contribute to their change of mind. Taimanov considered this match "the culminating point" of his chess career and later wrote a book about the match, titled ''How I Became Fischer's Victim''.


Other tournaments

In 2001 he came second, a half point behind the winner Jacob Murey, at the first European Senior Chess Championship in Saint-Vincent.


International teams

Taimanov represented the USSR in international team play with enormous success. At the 1956 Chess Olympiad in
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
, as first reserve he scored (+6−0=5), winning team gold and board bronze medals. This was his only Olympiad appearance. Taimanov represented the USSR four times in the
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 ...
. At
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
1957, he played board seven, scored (+2−0=3), winning team and board gold medals. At
Oberhausen Oberhausen (, ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen ( ). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Rout ...
1961, he played board eight, scored (+6−0=3), and won team and board gold medals. At
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
1965, he played board seven, scored (+3−1=4), and won team and board gold medals. At
Kapfenberg Kapfenberg () is a city in the Bruck-Mürzzuschlag district of the Austrian state of Styria. It lies in the valley of the Mürz river in central Austria. With an estimated population of 22,080 individuals in 2024, it is the third largest city in S ...
1970, he played board six, scored (+4−0=2), and won team and board gold medals. In the inaugural Russia (USSR) vs Rest of the World team match,
Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
1970, he played board seven, and scored (+2−1=1) against
Wolfgang Uhlmann Wolfgang Uhlmann (29 March 193524 August 2020) was a German chess grandmaster. He was East Germany's most successful chess player between the mid-1950s and the late 1980s, reaching the 1971 Candidates Tournament. During his career, Uhlmann pla ...
.


Chess legacy

Taimanov was one of the few players to have beaten six world champions (Botvinnik,
Vasily Smyslov Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov (; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who was the seventh World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidates Tournament, Candidate for the World Chess Championship on ...
,
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 ...
,
Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vardani Petrosian (; ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster and the ninth World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing s ...
,
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 ...
, and
Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (, ; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, ⁣and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 ...
). Opening variations are named after Taimanov in the
Sicilian Defence The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: :1. e4 c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. The opening 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for Whi ...
,
Modern Benoni The Modern Benoni is a chess opening that begins with the moves 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 e6. It is classified under the ECO codes A60–A79. After the initial moves, Black proceeds to capture on d5, creating a majority of black pawns on t ...
and
Nimzo-Indian Defence The Nimzo-Indian Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. d4 Nf6 :2. c4 e6 :3. Nc3 Bb4 Other move orders, such as 1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.d4 Bb4, are also feasible. In the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'', the Nimzo-Indian ...
. He wrote books on two of his named variations, as well as an autobiographical best games collection. Taimanov's favorite chess players were
Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine. He disliked when Russians sometimes pronounced the of as , , which he regarded as a Yiddish distortion of his name, and insisted that the correct Russian pronunciation was . (March 24, 1946) was a Russian ...
,
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 ...
, 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 ...
.


Major chess writings

Note that several of Taimanov's books are available in Russian, German, and English. * ''Slawisch bis Reti-Eröffnung'', by Mark Taimanov, general editor Pavel Kondratiev, German language, Sportverlag, Berlin, 1976 * ''Damengambit bis Holländisch'', by Mark Taimanov, general editor Yakov Neishtadt, German language, Sportverlag, Berlin, 1980 * ''Modernes Benoni bis Wolga-Gambit'', by Mark Taimanov, general editor Eduard Gufeld, German language, Sportverlag, Berlin, 1982 * ''Holländisch bis Bird-Eröffnung'', by Mark Taimanov, general editor Pavel Kondratiev, German language, Sportverlag, Berlin, 1983 * ''Sicilian: Paulsen'', by Mark Taimanov, English language, Batsford, London, 1983 * ''Königsindisch bis Altindisch'', by Mark Taimanov, general editor Eduard Gufeld, German language, Sportverlag, Berlin, 1984 * ''Zasčita Nimzovica'', by Mark Taimanov, Russian language, 1985 * ''Englisch: Klassisch bis seltene Systeme 12. Königsindisch: Sämisch-Systeme bis Vierbauernvariante'', by Mark Taimanov, general editor Eduard Gufeld, German language, Sportverlag, Berlin, 1985 * ''Damenindisch bis Katalanisch'', by Mark Taimanov, general editor Eduard Gufeld, German language, Sportverlag, Berlin, 1985 * ''The World Chess Championship'', Karpov—Kasparov: Moscow 1985, by Yuri Averbakh and Mark Taimanov, English language, 1986 * ''The Sicilian Defence: Taimanov System'', by Mark Taimanov, English language, Batsford, London, 1989, * ''Winning with the Sicilian'', by Mark Taimanov, English language, Batsford, London, 1991 * ''Ja byl žertvoj Fisera'' (''How I Became Fischer's Victim''), by Mark Taimanov, Russian language, 1993. English translation, Quality Chess, Glasgow, 2021, . * ''Taimanov's Selected Games'', by Mark Taimanov, English language, Batsford, London, 1996 * ''The Soviet Championships'', by Bernard Cafferty and Mark Taimanov, Batsford, London, English language, 1998 (softcover reprint 2016, Everyman, London, ) * ''Šachmatnaja škola Marka Taimanova'', by Mark Taimanov, Russian language, Schachforum (German language), 2008; originally published St. Petersburg 2003 (autobiography)


Music career

Taimanov was a top concert pianist in the Soviet Union. With his first wife, Lyubov Bruk, he formed a piano duo, some of whose recordings were included in the Phillips and Steinway series ''
Great Pianists of the 20th Century ''Great Pianists of the 20th Century '' was a 200-CD box set released by Philips Records in 1999 and sponsored by Steinway & Sons. The box set comprises 100 volumes featuring 72Guttman 1999, 2005. pianists of the 20th century, each volume with ...
''. Taimanov personally knew composer
Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer. Shostak ...
, cellist
Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian Cello, cellist and conducting, conductor. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well known for both inspiring and commissioning new works, which enl ...
and pianist
Sviatoslav Richter Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter ( – August 1, 1997) was a Soviet and Russian classical pianist. He is regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time,Great Pianists of the 20th Century and has been praised for the "depth of his interpreta ...
.


Personal life and death

Taimanov married four times. He remarried late in life, and became the father of twins at the age of 78. Fifty-seven years separate his oldest child (who was also a strong chess player and on one occasion, participated in the final of the Leningrad City Championship) and his twins. His younger sister Irina Taimanova (born 1941) is a prominent opera director, TV presenter and professor at the
Saint Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory () (formerly known as the Petrograd Conservatory and Leningrad Conservatory) is a school of music in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty member ...
.Irina Taimanova. Benefit
talk-show by the Tsarskoye Selo TV (in Russian)
Taimanov died on 28 November 2016 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 ...
, at the age of 90.


See also

*
List of Jewish chess players Jewish players and theoreticians have long been involved in the game of chess and have significantly contributed to the development of chess. Chess gained popularity amongst Jews in the 12th century. The game was privileged by dis ...


References


External links


Interview with Mark Taimanov
* * *
Mark Taimanov
at Chessmetrics * *


Filmography on kinoglaz.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taimanov, Mark 1926 births 2016 deaths Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Chess theoreticians Classical piano duos Jewish chess players Russian chess players Soviet chess players Soviet chess writers Chess players from Kharkiv Chess players from Saint Petersburg Ukrainian Jews Russian Jews Russian male classical pianists World Senior Chess Champions Jewish classical pianists Soviet engineers Academic staff of Saint Petersburg Conservatory