Chess player (1910?1975)
Nicolas Rossolimo
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Nicolas_Rossolimo_1950_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-Nicolas_Rossolimo_1950_%28cropped%29.jpg) Rossolimo in 1950
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Full name
| Nikolai Spiridonovich Rossolimo
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Country
| Russian Empire
Greece
France
United States
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Born
| February 28, 1910
Kiev
,
Russian Empire
(now Ukraine)
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Died
| July 24, 1975 (aged 65)
New York, U.S.
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Title
| Grandmaster
(1953)
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Nicolas Rossolimo
(
Russian
:
Николай Спиридонович Россоли?мо
,
romanized
:
Nikolai Spiridonovich Rossolimo
; February 28, 1910 ? July 24, 1975) was a Russian Empire-born chess player. After acquiring Greek citizenship in 1929, he was able to emigrate that year to France, and was many times chess champion of Paris. In 1952 he emigrated to the United States, and won the 1955 U.S. Open Chess Championship. He was awarded the title of
International Grandmaster
by
FIDE
in 1953. Rossolimo was a resident of
New York City
until his death.
The
Rossolimo Variation
of the Sicilian Defence bears his name.
Biography and chess career
[
edit
]
Nikolai Spiridonovich Rossolimo was born into an upper-middle-class Russian-Greek family in Kiev, then part of the Russian Empire. His father was Spiridon Rossolimo, a Russian painter and
portraitist
of Greek ancestry, while his mother nee Xenia Nikolaevna Skugarevskaya was an
aristocratic
writer and
war correspondent
.
[1]
He was a nephew of the famous Russian neurologist and psychiatrist
Grigory Ivanovich Rossolimo
. He lived in Moscow during the mid-1920s, and moved to Paris with his Russian mother in 1929.
Having finished second behind former
World Champion
Jose Raul Capablanca
in a tournament in Paris in 1938, he won the
French Championship
in 1948.
[2]
He was
Paris champion
a record seven times,
[3]
and drew two matches in 1948 and 1949 with
Savielly Tartakower
. In 1955, he won the U.S. Open Championship held in Long Beach, California, on tiebreaks ahead of
Samuel Reshevsky
. The prize was a new
Buick
automobile.
Rossolimo played for France in the
Chess Olympiads
of 1950 and 1972, and for the United States in 1958, 1960, and 1966.
[4]
FIDE awarded him the
International Master
title in 1950 and the International Grandmaster title in 1953.
In 1952, he moved to the U.S. with his wife Vera and son
Alexander
to rejoin his mother and Russian-Greek father in New York. (After moving to the U.S., his first name was often spelled "Nicholas".) In New York, he worked as a waiter, a taxi driver, played the accordion, and worked as a singer and ran a chess studio as well to support himself and his family. The Rossolimo Chess Studio was located in
Greenwich Village
in Manhattan. It was somewhat like a cafe that served food and drinks, and also sold chess sets and books, but where members of the public ? including famous artists such as
Marcel Duchamp
? could come and play chess with each other and occasionally play Rossolimo himself for a fee (Rossolimo would play
simultaneous chess
with many of the patrons).
Death
[
edit
]
Rossolimo died of head injuries following a fall down a flight of stairs, just after finishing third in his final event, the 1975
World Open
.
[5]
He was buried in a
Russian Orthodox
cemetery in
New Jersey
.
[6]
Chess talent
[
edit
]
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Rossolimo vs. Reissman, position after 22...Kh8
The strongest players Rossolimo defeated were
Efim Bogoljubov
,
David Bronstein
, and former World Champion
Max Euwe
, against whom he had two wins and a lifetime plus score. He also scored draws against four world champions: Jose Capablanca, Max Euwe,
Bobby Fischer
, and
Vassily Smyslov
. According to the site
Chessmetrics
, which estimates historical ratings of players based on results, his highest ranking was 15th in the world, reached in December 1953.
[7]
[8]
Rossolimo won many
brilliancy
and "best-game" prizes for his beautiful chess games, and has been called an "artist of chess".
[9]
[10]
He has been quoted to have said (here in translation): "What am I supposed to do, trade in my romantic style and become a hunter of points at any price? No, I will not do so. I will fight for the art of chess. I shall not turn into a monster".
[11]
[12]
[13]
Here is one of Rossolimo's most celebrated brilliancies.
Al Horowitz
, the late chess columnist for
The New York Times
, called this game "a brilliancy of astonishing character, elegant and explosive".
[14]
- Rossolimo vs. Paul Reissman,
San Juan
1967
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Bd2 Bxd2+ 8.Nbxd2 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Qb3 Nce7 11.0-0 c6 12.Rfe1 0-0 13.a4 b6
?
14.Ne5 Bb7 15.a5 Rc8 16.Ne4 Qc7 17.a6
!
Ba8 18.Qh3 Nf4 19.Qg4 Ned5 20.Ra3 Ne6 21.Bxd5 cxd5 22.Nf6+ Kh8 (
diagram
) 23.Qg6
!!
Qc2 24.Rh3!
1?0
The Boston Globe wrote: "The truly talented Nicolas Rossolimo played one of the most amazing moves ever in Rossolimo?Reissman: 23.Qg6!!".
[15]
Legacy
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One of Rossolimo's more enduring innovations is the variation of the
Sicilian Defence
which bears his name ? the
Rossolimo Variation
: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 (see diagram). While generally steering clear of the tactical fireworks common to
open Sicilians
, the Rossolimo Variation offers White some chance of an
opening
advantage.
[16]
Other
[
edit
]
Rossolimo wrote two books:
Les Echecs au coin du feu
, a collection of his studies and endgames with a preface by Savielly Tartakower, published in Paris in 1947; and
Rossolimo's Brilliancy Prizes
, self-published in New York in 1970. He also made a record of songs in Russian, French, and English, with an album cover designed by Marcel Duchamp and produced by the Kismet Record Company.
[17]
He is the hero of a chapter in the book,
Losing Moses on the Freeway
.
[18]
He also held a
brown belt
in
judo
and recorded an album of Russian songs.
[19]
Tournaments and matches
[
edit
]
The following table gives Rossolimo's placings and scores in a number of major tournaments and matches. (The "Score" column gives the number of points / the total possible. The "+" indicates the number of won games, "?" the number of losses, and "=" the number of draws.)
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Globe Trotter, "Дневник 1899–1906", New York: Rausen Bros., 1951.
- ^
http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr/1948.htm
(Retrieved 12/29/16)
- ^
http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr/paris1932.htm
(Retrieved 12/29/16)
- ^
OlimpBase Men's Chess Olympiads Nicolas Rossolimo
- ^
Nicholas Rossolimo: 1910?1975. Requiem for a Grand Master, by Jerry Kantor
// The Village Voice ? Aug 25, 1975.
- ^
Pal Benko
(October 1975).
"Nicolas Rossolimo 1910-1975"
.
Chess Life and Review
.
XXX
(10). New York: 647.
- ^
"Career ratings for: Rossolimo, Nicolas",
Chessmetrics
,
http://www.chessmetrics.com/cm/PL/PL34119.htm
(Retrieved 9/25/13).
- ^
"All active players as of December 31, 1953",
Chessmetrics
,
http://www.chessmetrics.com/cm/DL/DL108.htm
(Retrieved 9/25/13).
- ^
Авербах Ю. "Художник шахмат. К 100-летию Николая Россолимо" // 64 ? Шахматное обозрение, № 10, 2010. (Translation of reference: "Artist of Chess. On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nicolas Rossolimo", by
Yuri Lvovich Averbakh
? Shakhmatnoye Obozrenie,
64 (chess magazine)
, № 10, October 2010.)
- ^
Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolff, "Chess Notes",
The Boston Globe
, 7 November 2011, page G15.
- ^
Alex Anil,
[1]
(Retrieved 6/24/13). The original quote in Russian reads in part: "Я буду сражаться за искусство шахмат. Я не превращусь в монстра," Николай Россолимо.
- ^
Nicolas Rossolimo Documentary, "Rossolimo: Chess Artist", written by Jessica Fischer, narrated by Richard Dewoskin, Chess.com,
https://www.chess.com/blog/jessicafischerqueen/nicolas-rossolimo-documentary
(Retrieved 2/8/16).
- ^
Jessica Fischer, "Rossolimo: Chess Artist", videos 1/2 and 2/2, YouTube,
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA3C6D97874E59930
(Retrieved 2/8/16).
- ^
Al Horowitz, "Chess: An Offer of a Queen Leads To a Brilliant White Victory". The New York Times, 12 June 1967.
- ^
Harold Dondis and Chris Chase, "Chess Notes",
The Boston Globe
, 23 June 2015, page B5.
- ^
Victor Bologan
,
The Rossolimo Sicilian: A Powerful Anti-Sicilian that Avoids Tons of Theory
, New In Chess, 2011,
ISBN
978-90-5691-345-8
, 256 pp.
- ^
Nicolas Rossolimo ? Russian Songs
, Kismet Hi-Fi Recordings, vol. KR-5.
- ^
Chris Hedges,
Losing Moses on the Freeway
, Chapter IX. Free Press, Simon & Schuster Inc., 2005.
- ^
"Nicolas Rossolimo Dies",
Chess Life & Review
, vol. XXX, no. 9, p. 571, September 1975
- ^
Mendez, Pedro; Mendez, Luis (2019).
The Gijon International Chess Tournaments
. McFarland. pp. 117?132.
ISBN
9781476676593
.
- ^
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Individual standing
External links
[
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1950s
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1960s
| none
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1970s
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1980s
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1990s
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2000s
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2010s
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2020s
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Chess players for the United States with the
FIDE title
of grandmaster (GM) by title decade
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1950?1959
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1960?1969
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1970?1979
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1980?1989
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1990?1999
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2000?2009
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2010?2019
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2020?2029
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