- Yuri Nikolaevsky
Yuri Nikolaevsky (born February 1937), is a Ukrainian-
Soviet chess master. He won theUkrainian Chess Championship three times (1963, 1967 (jointly), and 1977), and represented theSoviet Union three times in international student team competition, winning a total of four medals. He was of Grandmaster strength at his peak in the early 1960s, but never received an international chess title. He played in three Soviet finals (1966, 1967, 1971).Biography
Yuri Nikolaevsky made his first important chess result when he won the 1958
Kiev Championship with 9.5/13 ahead of a strong field. This qualified him for theUkrainian Chess Championship at Kiev later that same year, where he scored 8/16 to finish 10th; the winner wasEfim Geller . These two strong performances earned selection to the Soviet student team for the 1958 Student Olympiad atVarna , where he scored 1.5/3 on the second reserve board, and contributed to the team's gold medal win.He placed second in the 1959
Ukrainian Chess Championship at Kiev with 16/21, as Geller won again. Another appearance at the 1959 Student Olympiad atBudapest went exceptionally well as he scored 8/10 on board four, earning the board gold medal, and the Soviet team won silver. He scored 9.5/16 in the semi-final of the 1960Ukrainian Chess Championship at Kiev, asAnatoly Bannik won. He held down board four at the 1960 Student Olympiad atLeningrad , scoring 5.5/9, as the Soviets won team silver.Nikolaevsky won his first
Ukrainian Chess Championship in 1963 at Kiev with 11/17. He repeated this success in 1967 at Kiev, tied with Valery Zhidkov, and won this title for the third time in 1977 atZhytomyr . He represented Ukraine in two team matches againstBulgaria , in 1962 at Kiev where he scored 2/2, and again in 1968 atOdessa where he scored 1/1.He qualified for his first Soviet final at
Tbilisi 1966, where he struggled with only 7.5/20, as fellow UkrainianLeonid Stein won. An excellent performance in the 1967 Soviet Team Championship atMoscow saw him post 7/9. He played in the Soviet final that year atKharkov , which had a Swiss format and over 100 players; the winners wereMikhail Tal andLev Polugaevsky . His final Soviet final appearance was atLeningrad 1971, where he scored 8.5/21, asVladimir Savon won.Nikolaevsky got his sole chance at an individual international tournament at
Varna 1968, where he tied 4th-5th places with 8/14, whileYuri Sakharov won. He retired from most high-level competitive play after 1978, but played in theIgor Platonov Memorial tournament at Kiev 1995, an event won byYuri Kruppa . His current FIDE rating is 2315.Chessmetrics .com, a site which ranks historical chess performances, ranks Nikolaevsky as high as 38th in the world, with a rating of 2631, in early 1960. This is clear Grandmaster territory. There is a selection of 96 of his games at chessgames.com.
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