Russian GM dies in fall....

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  • Russian GM dies in fall....

    Many news sources are reporting this:

    "MOSCOW – Russian news reports say a prominent young chess grandmaster has died after falling from a balcony apparently while undertaking the extreme sport of parkour.
    The reports cited police as saying 20-year-old Yuri Eliseev died late Saturday after falling from the 12th story of his apartment building in Moscow.
    Eliseev was the world under-16 chess champion in 2012 and was given grandmaster status at age 17.
    The reports said Eliseev died while trying to reach the balcony of a neighboring apartment. He was described as a practitioner of parkour, which involves climbing, jumping to difficult perches and acrobatic moves.'

  • #2
    Re: Russian GM dies in fall....

    That's very sad news.

    I'm a fan of Parkour, there's a Parkour Fed:

    World Parkour and Freerunning Federation
    http://www.wfpf.com/

    And Parkour got a boost earlier this year a thrilling action-adventure platform game feature this fresh sport:

    Mirror’s Edge
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GBVMGXXFMw

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    • #3
      Re: Russian GM dies in fall....

      Russian GM dies in fall....

      November 21, 2017

      After someone’s death, there is still the story of his life and the friends who loved him:

      Fedoseev stars in Eliseev Memorial

      Vladimir Fedoseev conceded just a single draw to Maxim Matlakov as he won the Eliseev Memorial with a commanding 4.5/5. It was an unusual tournament, organised by Daniil Dubov in memory of his friend Yuri Eliseev, who died last year at the age of only 20. Daniil will have been pleased with the combative chess – out of 15 games only 4 were drawn – but also his own result. He beat Maxim Matlakov in the final round to finish in clear second place.

      Yuri Eliseev was not a well-known chess figure outside of Russia, though in most countries his achievements would have made him stand out. He won the U16 World Youth Championship, became a grandmaster at 17 and won the 2016 Moscow Open (the most memorable game of that event was the only one he lost!). Then, just after turning 20, he died in tragic circumstances that were sensational enough to attract widespread media coverage. He slipped while attempting a parkour trick to get from a window to a 12th floor balcony and fell to his death on November 26, 2016.

      It’s testimony to the impact Yuri had on those around him, though, that one year later Dubov both decided and was able to organise a top-level tournament to celebrate the life of his friend - with no prizes other than for beautiful games. In an article at the Russian Chess Federation the players remembered their contemporary, and we’ve selected extensive highlights (see link below for the rest of the tribute)

      Daniil Dubov says he became close friends with Eliseev in 2013, after which they were almost inseparable:
      He was probably the most all-round gifted person I know: he sang well, wrote poetry, had a great knowledge and love of the Russian language, and possessed an incredible memory – I remember that once we were travelling in a train, there was nothing to do, and he read half of Eugene Onegin to me from memory. Given time he could probably have read the whole thing.

      We always helped each other out at tournaments, preparing each other; of course he had an incredible talent for analysis. Often I’d find an interesting idea the night before a game, note down a couple of variations and send it to him – and by the morning the file had tuned into a huge tree of variations in which (I checked more than once) there were no mistakes. That made a powerful impression: he didn’t stop where many would have cut off their analysis. In general, he had a drive towards perfection: whether in poetry, chess games or music – he always repeated that it was possible to do better. That’s very well illustrated by his best games: powerful play in the opening, accurate calculation of variations and clinical conversion.

      That would all have been of no great significance if he wasn’t a good person and a devoted friend: we knew we could always count on him. For the sake of friends he was willing to do anything; I don’t know of a single case when he refused to help someone. We had a funny ritual: every night when he analysed something that might occur in my game in the morning I said “thank you” – and each time he came up with a new reply.

      As with many highly talented people he could be absolutely unbearable in everyday life: he always wanted to play, to talk, to think – no doubt all of his friends came up against that. He simply couldn’t bear to be inactive – not a single journey, wait or dinner could go by without intellectual games. Once we were walking along during the Higher League in Kaliningrad and playing word games. At some point I looked at the water: “Let’s enjoy the scenery for a while!” I said. “Ok”. About 10 seconds later: “Well, did you enjoy it? Shall we get back to playing?”

      At some point his fanatical love of chess was passed on to me as well – at least in part. We could study and play blitz for days on end, absolutely forgetting about everything: food, business, phone calls, our loved ones – from some point onwards all of that ceased to matter.

      Yuri was a very vivid person – both in chess and in life; I hope that our tournament ends up being worthy of his memory.

      https://chess24.com/en/read/news/fed...iseev-memorial

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