Minev was an IM, Bulgarian Champion in 1953, 1965 and 1966, played for Bulgaria in six Olympiads (1954, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, and 1966) and had some decent tournament results: third at Varna 1960, second at Warsaw 1961, first at Sombor 1966 and second at Albena 1975.
In 1958, he received invitation to play in Hastings, but was not allowed an exit visa by the Bulgarian government. In 1966 the Bulgarian Federation refused to allow him to participate in the Havana International where GM norms were possible.
Minev was also a noted chess author and contributed to early editions of the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings and the Encyclopedia of Chess Endings and the Informants. After he and his wife emigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s and settled in Seattle, Washington he was associated with Yasser Seirawan’s magazine Inside Chess up until the 1990s. Inside Chess ran from 1988 to 2000 during which time it was one of the world's top chess magazines. If you $80 to spend you can still purchase DVDs containing over 10,000 pages of the magazine.
Minev learned to play at the age of 8, but didn’t take chess seriously until he was 15 when he was suffering from a long illness. His progress was quick. He played in a regional qualifier for the Bulgarian national championship in 1947 and his score of 10-2 qualified him for the 1948 Bulgaria Championship which was only his second tournament.
The year 1951 saw him tying for first in the Bulgarian Championship, but he lot the playoff. All together he played in the Championship 22 times. His career high rating was 2576 in 1966.
During the course of his international career, he played most of world's leading players, including every recent world champion through Bobby Fischer. He beat Korchnoi, drew Spassky, Petrosian, and Bronstein (twice).
While many of the strong Bulgarian players were chess professionals sponsored by the government, Minev remained an amateur. He was offered a position as a chess professional, but in 1949, he chose to pursue a medical career and completed his studies in 1956. He founded the Bulgarian national toxicology lab in Sofia in 1965.
Chessmetrics puts his rating well into the 2500s in the mid 1960s. While that may not sound too high by today’s standards, it puts him in a group that included names like Levente Lengyel, Petar Trifunovic, Lothar Schmid, Gideon Stahlberg, Dragoljub Janosevic, Hector Rossetto, Gedeon Barcza, Dragoljub Velimirovic and Wolfgang Pietzsch...all prominent GMs and names frequently seen in tournaments of the day. Minev probably should have had the GM title.
In 1972, he elected to leave medicine and became editor of the Bulgarian monthly chess magazine, Shakmatna Misl. His reason for leaving medicine was there was no political danger plus the salary was better. On average doctors, after years of study, received about half of what a skilled industrial worker received and had to put in longer hours, etc. For anybody that’s interested, there is a lot of detail on Bulgarian politics during that time frame HERE.
At the same time he became a coach and chess educator. He continued as editor through 1978 and was the trainer and friend Ivan Radulov who went on to become a GM.
After becoming fed up with communist rule in Bulgaria, Minev and his wife went to Greece, then Vienna and later to Seattle. Once settled in the U.S. he edited Northwest Chess and began his long association with Seirawan. Derrick’s Blog has an in depth interview with Minev that is quite interesting. The Chess Library has complete details of Minev's career, contributions to chess and games.
In the following game Minev’s opponent is Gerhard Lorson (1919 – 1992) who was German and played for Saar in the 1952, 1954 and 1956 Olympiads. Minev’s conduct of the attack is brilliant.
Minev wrote a lot of very interesting books, several in collaboration with John Donaldson. I have a copy of his solo effort "Mastering Tactical Ideas," and along with being very instructive, it's great fun. I haven't read his "Practical Guide to Rook Endgames," but I've been told it's very good
ReplyDeleteI do not own Rook Endgames but have browsed through it. It’s one of those books that has a wealth of information but requires INTENSE STUDY.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's the downside of really good chess books, they require really good readers
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