A late bloomer, Krogius was delayed as a result of living through the Second World War during his formative chess years. Additionally, his graduate studies were a priority until he finished his doctorate. Unheralded as a player, for a brief period of time in the mid-1960s he was, according to Chessmetrics, ranked in the world's top twenty players.
He coached Boris Spassky for several years, served as chairman of the USSR Chess Federation and co-authored five chess books.
His national debut came in 1946 when he scored 4.5-10.5 and tied for 13th-14th places at Leningrad in the Soviet Junior Championship; the winner was Tigran Petrosian.
His first creditable result in a Master tournament came in the semi-finals for the Soviet Championship in Leningrad in 1949 where he scored 8-11 to tie for 12th-15th. The mid-1950s saw him working his way up through the ranks and he qualified for his first Soviet final at Leningrad 1957. The final (won by Tal) was at Riga 1958, and Krogius scored 9.5-8.5 tying him for 9th-11th places. Altogether he appeared in seven Soviet finals from 1958–71.
His result in the Soviet tournaments would indicated that Krpgius was of at least IM strength and his first international tournament was Varna 1960 where he tied for 1st-2nd with Nikola Padevsky. He was awarded his IM title 1963. Then in the Chigorin Memorial in Sochi 1964 he finished first which earned him the GM title.
Krogius' first trip to Western Europe for a tournament was at Le Havre 1966 and he performed well and shared 2nd-3rd place behind Bent Larsen. The late 1960s saw him scoring a number of successes in Soviet-bloc events.
With a doctorate in psychology, he specialized in sports psychology. Since the end of the nineteenth century chess has been a popular topic of research in cognitive psychology, the field of scientific psychology that studies perception, memory, learning, and thinking.
He served as part of Boris Spassky's team for his second world title match against Tigran Petrosian at Moscow 1969, where Spassky won. Krogius again assisted Spassky against Bobby Fischer at Reykjavík 1972. At the same time he remained active in tournament play and was having good results in several international tournaments, mostly inside the Soviet Union.
His tournament play was scaled back by the mid-1970s and he played only in occasional lower-level events. It was at that time he began making contributions as an author writing or co-writing five chess books. He also moved into chess administration and was the captain of the USSR team in the USSR vs. Rest of the World match at London 1984. He served as President of the USSR Chess Federation and was the head of delegation for Karpov's team for the 1990 title match against Kasparov in New York City and Lyon.
Krogius returned to tournament play in the 1990s when he scored 8.0-3.0 and tied for 3rd place in the 1991 World Senior Championship. He tied for the title 1993 along with Lein, Taimanov, Bukhuti Gurgenidze, and Boris Arkhangelsky. Krogius stayed fairly active in tournament play until 1998, mostly at the Senior level.
Style-wise Krogius was a tactician as we will see in the following game from the USSR Championship that was held at the Chigorin Chess Club in Leningrad in1960. It was in this tournament that the famous King's Gambit game between Boris Spassky and David Bronstein that would be featured in the James Bond film, From Russia With Love, was played.
Nikolai Krogius - Efim Geller
Result: 1-0
Site: USSR Champ, Leningrad
Date: 1960.02.03
Sicilian: Richter-Rauzer
[...] 1.e4 c5 2.♘f3 ♘c6 3.d4 cxd4 4.♘xd4 ♘f6 5.♘c3 d6 6.♗g5 This move threatens to double black's Ps after Bxf6 and it avoids the Dragon by rendering 6...g6 unplayable. After 6...e6, Vsevolod Rauzer introduced the modern plan of Qd2 and 0-0-0 in the 1930s. White's pressure on the d6-pawn often compels black to respond to Bxf6 with ...gxf6, rather than recapturing with a piece (e. g. the Q on d8) that also has to defend the d-Pawn. This weakens the K-side P-structure, in return for which black gains the two Bs, plus a central P-majority, though these assets are difficult to exploit. There is an overwhelming amount of theoretical material on the Richter-Rauzer. 6...e6 This is most often seen although 6...Bd7 and 6...Qb6 are good alternatives. 7.♕d2 Back in the old days my favorite move here was the Rossolimo-like 7.Bb5?!
7.♗b5 ♗d7 8.♗a4 ♘xd4 This is not good because now white's Q occupies a dominating position in the center. 9.♗xd7+ ♕xd7 10.♕xd4 ♗e7 11.O-O-O Tartajubow-Opponent, Postal game 1960. The position is equal, but black played passively and lost rather quickly.
7.♗b5 ♗d7 8.♗a4 ♗e7 9.f4 O-O 10.♕d2 ♘xd4 11.♕xd4 ♗xa4 12.♘xa4 ♕a5+ 13.♘c3 h6 And here in a tournament game at Oberlin 1975 I played a move that was successful in a similar position in an old postal game: 14.h4 offering to sacrifice the B. In both games my opponent wrongly declined the sacrifice and I eventually won!
7...a6 8.O-O-O ♗d7 9.f4 b5 10.♗xf6 gxf6 11.♔b1 ♕b6 12.♘xc6 ♗xc6 White has tried a this as well as 13.Qe1 and 13.f5 which seem equally good. 13.♗d3 h5 14.♖hf1
14.♕e1 ♖a7 15.f5 b4 16.♘e2 e5 17.♕h4 ♕e3 18.♕xf6 ♖h6 19.♕h4 white is slightly better. Tiviakov,S (2634)-Nijboer,F (2558)/ Hilversum 2008
14...O-O-O It might have been better to avoid this and play 14...b4 at once.
14...b4 15.♘e2 a5 wi5h about equal chances. This is a known position and white has several reasonable moves at his disposal.
15.f5 ♗h6
15...b4 16.♘e2 e5 17.c4 ♗h6 18.♕e1 ♖dg8 with equal chances. Byrne,R (2465) -Waitzkin,J (2320)/ New York Open 1991
16.♕e1 b4 17.♘e2 e5 18.♘c1 a5 19.♗c4 ♖d7 20.♗d5 ♗b5 21.♖f3 ♖c7 22.♘b3 Black has a choice of moves that keep the chances even: 22...Qa6, 22...Ba6 or 22...Rg8 22...♔b8 This reasonable looking move aims to double Rs on the c-file, but it has a tactical flaw. It's somewhat surprising that Geller, himself a superb tactician. missed white's next move. 23.♘xa5 ♖hc8 (23...♕xa5 24.♖a3 wins 24...♗a4 25.♗b3 and black can resign.) 24.♕xb4 and just like that black is lost. 24...♖xc2 25.a3 ♔a7 26.♖b3 ♔a6
26...♖2c5 runs into 27.a4 ♗d3+ 28.♖dxd3 ♕xb4 29.♖xb4 ♖xa5 30.♖db3 and white wins.
27.♗b7+ Geller resigned. Black's 23rd move resulted in a sudden end!
27.♗b7+ ♔a7 28.♗xc8 ♖xc8 29.♖xd6 ♗d3+ 30.♖bxd3 ♕xb4 31.axb4 ♖c1+ 32.♔a2 ♔b8 33.b5 ♗e3 34.♖xe3 ♖c5 35.♖c3 ♖xb5 36.b4 ♖xb4 37.♖d8+ ♔a7 38.♘c6+ ♔a6 39.♘xb4+ ♔b7 40.♖d7+ ♔b6 41.♖c6+ ♔a5 42.♖b7 h4 43.♖a6#
Powered by Aquarium
No comments:
Post a Comment