Great Players: Evgeny Sveshnikov

 News has come to the chess world of the death of Evgeny Sveshnikov (1950-2021). While I didn't know him myself, many people on the English Chess Forum did, and their tributes to him paint the picture of a friendly and gentlemanly player.

While never quite at the same level as the best Soviet players of his day (Chessmetrics lists his peak world ranking at #20, and most of the players above him were his fellow-countrymen), he was strong enough to qualify for eight USSR championships, with his best result being equal fifth at Tbilisi 1978.

After the breakup of the USSR, he represented both Latvia and Russia at various points, in particular playing for the former in four Olympiads, and then later winning gold medals with the latter in the World Senior Team Championships.

But what he is primarily remembered for is the opening that bears his name; 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 was a rather obscure sideline that was mostly avoided because of the weakness on d5; Sveshnikov's work on the opening proved that there was a lot more to the line than that, and that black had plenty of compensation for that weakness. It is now, thanks largely to his work, usually known as the Sveshnikov Sicilian.






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