Born in
Rostov-on-Don, Russia
in southern Russia on June 1, 1923, Shamkovich dropped out of
Leningrad State University where
he was studying engineering one
semester short of graduation to become a full-time player. Nicknamed
“Prince” for his regal bearing and speech, Shamkovich continued
to play into the 1990s.
He won the Russian Chess
Championship twice, in 1954 and 1956, and placed fifth in
the 1964-65 Soviet Championship. After becoming a grandmaster in
1975, he won several tournaments, the most impressive being at Sochi
1967. Shamkonvich's
son described him as always playing
with great emotion, which made his results very uneven, but
his expertise
was as an analyst and tactician, making
him a highly sought after
coach who
worked for two world champions, Mikhail Tahl
and Garry Kasparov.
During
the early 1970s, he immigrated briefly to Israel and then to Canada
before finally settling in the United States in
1973. Vladimir Liberzon and Anatoly Lein, the two who preceded him,
also went to Israel and eventually Lein also settled in the U.S. Not
many grandmasters were allowed to emigrate, and after Viktor Korchnoi
defected in 1976, the door was almost completely shut until the fall
of the Soviet Union 15 years later.
After arriving in the U.S. he quickly became
a powerful force on the American chess scene. In 1976 he was winner
of both the World Open and the U.S. Open, sharing the latter title
with Anatoly Lein and in 1977 tied again for the U.S. Open.
In addition to his achievements as a player,
Shamkovich was one of the most respected authorities on sacrifices and tactics. He is the author of more than a dozen books,
including The Modern Chess Sacrifice.
Married
and divorced three times, Shamkovich died on April 22 at his home in
Brooklyn at the age of 81 as the result of complications of cancer
and Parkinson's disease.
The location following game which is given
only as being played in the U.S. is short but very sharp. If you are
an OTB player, I suggest setting up the pieces and playing through it
and trying to visualize all the variations...it won't be easy, but
it'll be a good exercise in training your tactical vision. In the
game Shamkovich played a risky variation and in the ensuing
complications, which were enormous, Bonin was faced with a plethora of
good looking lines, but missed his way and lost.
Shamkovich left the USSR in 1975, not 1973.
ReplyDeleteHis NY Times obituary states he immigrated to Israel in 1972, moved to Canada in 1973 and to the US at the end of that year. Bill Wall wrote on chessdotcom that he moved to Israel in 1974, then the US in 1976. Wikipedia states Shamkovich left the Soviet Union in 1975. When he played in the international tournament in Cleveland, Ohio in 1975 (at which I was a spectator) I thought he was already representing the US, but perhaps not as that's the same year he won the Canadian Open Championship. Anatoly Lein was also playing in Cleveland and Bisguier wrote that during the 1977 US Championship Lein and Shamkovich had been sharing an apartment in New York City for a couple of years. The Times issued a correction stating they had his birthplace and survivors wrong...maybe they had the dates wrong too.
ReplyDeleteHis obituary in Chess Life (July, 2005), written by Michael Khodarkovsky, states he came to the United States in 1976 by way of Israel.
I saw both Shamkovich and Lein at the U.S. Open (Fairfax) in 1976 and with both of them, the buzz was that they were recent immigrants. Chssmetrics shows him playing two events in the USSR in 1973, so the NYT is definitely wrong.
ReplyDeleteI would assume that Khodarkovsky's obituary (which I only located yesterday) in CL is correct. Thanks for the correction!
ReplyDelete