Vasily Nikolayevich Panov (, November 1, 1906 – January 13, 1973) was a Soviet

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, author, and journalist. Winner of the Moscow City Championship in 1929, he also played in five

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 ...

s from 1935 to 1948. His greatest tournament victory was

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, 1938. 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 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 ...

in 1950. The website Chessmetrics.com, which assigns retroactive ratings to older players, ranks Panov as 21st in the world in 1948. This ranking was higher than that of many Grandmasters. In 1950s his chess results started to decline but his popularity as a chess writer kept on increasing. Panov is best known for his chess writings and theoretical work on the openings. He was chess correspondent for ''

Izvestia ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, r=Izvestiya, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in February 1917, ''Izvestia'', which covered foreign relations, was the organ of the Supreme Soviet of th ...

'' from 1942 to 1965. His many books include a beginners' guide, biographies of

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 ...

and Capablanca, and ''Kurs debyutov'' (1957), Russia's best-selling book on the

chess openings The opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory. The other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences, known as ''openings'', have standard names such as " Sicilian Defense". ' ...

. He has also written some non-chess poems, articles and plays.

Contribution to openings

Panov contributed greatly to the theory of the

Caro–Kann Defence The Caro–Kann Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 c6 The Caro–Kann is a common defence against 1.e4. It is classified as a Semi-Open Game, like the Sicilian Defence and French Defence, although it is thought to b ...

and the

Ruy Lopez The Ruy Lopez (; ), also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bb5 The Ruy Lopez remains one of the most popular chess openings, featuring many variations. In ...

. A variation of the Caro-Kann starting with the moves 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 is known as the Panov Attack (sometimes Panov–Botvinnik Attack). He is also credited with a sound variation of

Alekhine's Defence Alekhine's Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. e4 Nf6 Black tempts White's pawns forward to form a broad , with plans to undermine and attack the white structure later in the spirit of hypermodern defence. White's imposi ...

for White, 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.h3, known as the Panov Variation.

Books

* ''Comprehensive Chess Openings'', by

Yakov Estrin Yakov Borisovich Estrin (Russian: Я́ков Бори́сович Эстрин, April 21, 1923 – February 2, 1987) was a Russian chess player, chess theoretician, writer, and World Correspondence Chess Champion who held the chess titles of In ...

and Vasily Panov, in three volumes, Pergamon, 1980. (for set of three volumes in flexicover)

References

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Contribution to openings

Books

References

Further reading