Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Vladimir Simagin

     GM Lubomir Kavalek told the story of how on the night of August 21, 1968 his wife met Simagin pacing back and forth in the lobby of a hotel in Polanica Zdroj, repeating:”Stupid people, stupid people, stupid people.” Simagin explained to her that Soviet tanks had invaded Czechoclovakia overnight. 
     The Rubinstein memorial in the spa town of Polanica Zdroj, which is only about 20 miles from the border where the Soviets crossed, continued.  But, because of the confusion of the times many of the games were not published and the arbiter planned to publish them later, but on a train journey home someone stole his briefcase and the games were lost to posterity. Trying to find complete information on the tournament is therefore impossible. 
     Kavalek wrote that after the invasion, Smyslov remained silent while Simagin, who had been Smyslov’s second during his world championship matches, was exhausted and distressed. 

     Kavalek described Simagin as a philosopher who believed that violence has no place in our lives and it is best to leave it on the chessboard and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia had broken his heart. It can't happen in the United States...or can it? Read an article at Ammo.com HERE.

     Vladimir Simagin (June 21, 1919 – September 25, 1968) was a Russian GM who won the Moscow City Championship in 1947, 1956 and 1959 and who made many significant contributions to the openings. He was much admired as both a player and teacher. He was awarded the IM title in 1950 and the GM title in 1962. He was also an IM in correspondence play and won the Soviet correspondence championship in 1964. 
     As a high school student he was often among the winners of junior tournaments.  His play was distinguished by originality and he was always experimenting and taking risks with the result that mistakes were common. Friends often asked why he played opening variations that no one else played, but he consistently followed his own path. Nevertheless, many of his ideas turned out to be feasible and soon became popular.  At the same time, his tournament success increased. 
     He was awarded the title of Soviet Master at the age of 24 in 1944 for his fine showing in the Moscow City Championship. In the mid-1940s his success in the city championships can be assessed by the fact that players like Smyslov, Bondarevsky, Kotov, Lilienthal, Ragozin, Alatortsev and Panov were participating. 

     He died of a heart attack at the early age of 49 while playing in a tournament in Kislovodsk which is in the North Caucasus region of Russia. The tournament was won by Geller who scored 10.0-5.0. At the time of his demise, Simagin’s score was +4 -4 =3, so his 5.5-5.5 score with four unplayed games placed him in a tie for 13th-14th places out of 15. 
     The following game attracted a lot of interest because of Simagin’s ingenious and play. 



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