Russian chess grandmaster (1926?2001)
Alexey Stepanovich Suetin
(
Russian
:
Алексе?й Степа?нович Суэ?тин
; November 16, 1926 – September 10, 2001) was a
Soviet
and
Russian
chess grandmaster
and author. He was the World Senior Chess Champion from 1996 to 1997.
Biography
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A resident of
Minsk
(in 1953-1968), a
mechanical engineer
by profession, he became an
International Master
in 1961 and a Grandmaster in 1965. His philosophy was always that "mastery is not enough; you must dare, take risks". It was an axiom that fashioned him into a tough and fiercely competitive player and appeared to bring him his fair share of success.
His first major success came in 1955, when as a member of the Soviet team at the World Student Team Championships, he scored 80% and took individual and team gold medals.
As an active tournament player in the 1960s and 1970s, he achieved many fine results, including sharing or winning outright first place at
Sarajevo
1965,
Copenhagen
1965, Titovo
U?ice
1966,
Hastings
1967/68,
Havana
1969,
Albena
1970,
Kecskemet
1972,
Brno
1975 (the inaugural Czech Open Championship ? the title of Champion going to
Vlastimil Hort
on tie-break),
Lublin
1976, and
Dubna
1979. Third place finishes at
Debrecen
1961 and
Berlin
(Lasker Memorial) 1968 were also noteworthy.
Suetin participated in seven
USSR Championships
from 1958 to 1966, his best finishes being 4th?6th in 1963 (behind
Stein
,
Spassky
and
Kholmov
) and 4th-6th in 1965 (behind Stein,
Polugaevsky
and
Taimanov
).
Until 1971, he served as a second and trainer to
Tigran Petrosian
for many of his most important matches, including his world championship victory in 1963. He was for many years Moscow's senior coach, overseeing the development of promising new talents, including
Vassily Ivanchuk
and
Andrei Sokolov
. Though less distinguished than before, his playing career stretched into the 1990s and beyond. He won the Hastings Challengers event of 1990/91, but was like
Efim Geller
, a chain-smoker, and found it difficult to adjust to the 1990
FIDE
directive that banned smoking in tournament halls.
A renowned commentator on the game, he was from 1965 the correspondent for
Pravda
and his voice was often heard on Moscow radio and TV during the 1970s and 1980s.
As a veteran player, he won the
World Senior Championship
in 1996.
He wrote many chess books; principally those concerned with the
middlegame
or
opening
. These include:
Modern Chess Opening Theory
,
Three Steps To Chess Mastery
(a treatise which combines his earlier works,
The Chess Player's Laboratory
and
The Path To Mastery
),
Plan Like A Grandmaster
,
A Contemporary Approach To The Middle-game
,
French Defence
,
The Complete Grunfeld
and
The Complete Spanish
. His last book,
Chess through the prism of time
, was published in Moscow in 1998.
Alexey Suetin was married to
Woman Grandmaster
Kira Zvorykina
and together they had a son Aleksandr, who was born in 1951. They lived in Belarus for some years and Suetin frequently competed in the
national championship
. Suetin was a six-time winner of the event (in 1953 ? together with Vladimir Saigin; then in 1955, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961). At the beginning of the 1960s Suetin divorced with Zvorykina and married for the second time.
He died aged 74 of a heart attack shortly after returning home from the Russian Senior Chess Championship.
Notable games
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- White builds pressure on Black's over-extended kingside, culminating in a deadly attack (33...Rxg7 34.Nf8+ and 35.Rxh6+).
- White catches Black's K in the centre with two exchange sacrifices, and Black is forced to go into a lost endgame.
- White opened up the Q-side, while Black didn't castle. In the final position, Black is faced with both Rb1 winning the pinned N on b6, as well as 25. Rxb6! because the Black rood must cover the mate on D6, and 24... Ne7 allows 25. Rd6.
- From a blocked position, White fights ingeniously for the win. Suetin won a prize for best endgame of the tournament for the domination of Q and Ps vs Q and B.
References
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External links
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