Gennady Kuzmin

Gennady Pavlovich Kuzmin (Russian: Геннадий Павлович Кузьмин, born January 19 1946) is a Soviet - Ukrainian chess master and trainer. He should not be confused with Russian Grandmaster, Alexey Kuzmin.

As a player, he reached his peak strength in the early to mid 1970s and in 1973, was awarded the International Grandmaster title by FIDE, the governing body.

A great patron of the Soviet Chess Championship, he participated eleven times between 1965 and 1991. His best results occurred in 1972 in Baku (3rd= behind Tal and Tukmakov) and 1973 in Moscow (2nd= behind Spassky). The Baku final was also a qualifier for the 1973 Leningrad Interzonal in which he placed 7th from 18, a respectable result.

He was invited to compete at the Biel Interzonal in 1976, but withdrew. A second Interzonal appearance occurred at Riga 1979, when he again finished in the top half of the table.

In other competition, he achieved outright or shared first place at Hastings 1973/74 (with Szabo, Tal and Timman), Baku 1977, Tallinn 1979, Kladovo 1980, Dortmund 1981 (with Speelman and Ftacnik) and Bangalore 1981. Other notable results included Lvov 1978 (third equal after Balashov and Vaganian) and Tallinn 1985 (second after Dolmatov). In 1990, he was the Moscow Blitz Champion.

He has three times been the Ukraine national champion in a period spanning an incredible thirty years; 1969 at Ivano-Frankivsk (shared with Vladimir Savon), 1989 at Kherson (shared with Igor Novikov) and 1999, when the title was shared several ways at Alushta.

In team chess, representing the USSR, he was awarded a team gold and individual bronze medal at the 1974 Nice Olympiad with a superb +10 =5 -0 performance, despite being selected only as a reserve.

Gennady Kuzmin is a renowned chess trainer in the Ukraine and along with Yuri Kruppa, has helped rising star Kateryna Lahno become the world's youngest Woman Grandmaster. He was also a trainer to Ruslan Ponomariov when he became the youngest (FIDE) world champion in history, at 18 years and 104 days. He runs a chess school on the official website of the Ukraine Chess Federation, where players are invited to join group and individual study sessions.

Notable games

[http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1163173, Kuzmin - Sveshnikov, Moscow Ch. 1973, Sicilian Kan, 1-0] Echoes of the famous Lasker - Bauer double bishop sacrifice, performed against a strong grandmaster, with a deadly outcome.

[http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1016931, Kuzmin - Alburt, USSR 1971, Benko Gambit, 1-0] White bravely crashes on with his kingside pawnstorm while his Queenside crumbles.

References

*

*
* [http://www.olimpbase.org Olimpbase - Olympiad and other Team event information]

External links

* [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=15300? Kuzmin's games at Chessgames.com]

*