Anthony Lein (1931-2018)

[Wayne Komer]

Anthony Lein (1931-2018)

March 2, 2018

From:

https://new.uschess.org/news/hall-fa...ies-1931-2018/

US Chess Hall of Famer, Grandmaster and US Open Champion Anthony Lein died on March 1, 2018, in Cleveland, Ohio one week after the death of his wife of 40 years, Barbara Lein. Lein, who was born in 1931 in Soviet Leningrad, emigrated to the United States in 1976 and was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame in 2004. Lein's stepson, William Jacobson, told US Chess,

Anatoly was a chess purist and great enthusiast of the game. I recall when I, a lifelong patzer, had decided to join Anatoly at an open tournament after a 30-year hiatus, he came to my home regularly and taught me some relatively trap free openings so that I could make it past move 10.

During the tournament, I believe that he was more interested in the progress of my games than his own.

Anatoly also loved to read and when we finally had to move him into a nursing home, he was less perturbed by the loss of personal freedom then the fact that he would be unable to take with him, the library of great literature that he had accumulated over his lifetime which occupied about 2/3 of the apartment.

One of life's great characters. He will be missed.

[Ian Findlay]

Re: Anthony Lein (1931-2018)

He was quite a character. I remember Lawrence Day telling me the story of how someone attempted to mug him in Manhattan, but he quickly took the knife away from the assailant. I believe when he was younger he worked as an acrobat in the circus.
RIP

[Hans Jung]

Re: Anthony Lein (1931-2018)

I'll never forget the famous story of GM Lein literally smoking his opponent out of the room (apparently he was a several pack a day smoker even in his 50"s). In 2014 I was playing in the Chicago Open and observed GM Lein playing in the under 2300. He was still battling tournament chess two rounds a day at age 82!

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: Anthony Lein (1931-2018)

He made numerous Canadian appearances including:

1984: Toronto International (tied for 4th)
1984: Grand Manan (tied for 1st with Seirawan - 6 players)
1986: Quebec International (tied for 4th - 10 players)
1988: Saint John Opens 1 (17th) and 2 (40th)

Others?

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Anthony Lein (1931-2018)

Anatoly Lein (1931-2018)

March 3, 3018

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index...n_interna.html


CLEVELAND, Ohio - Services were Friday for international chess champion Anatoly Lein, who died Thursday in Beachwood. He was 86 and a resident of Shaker Heights.

The Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz Funeral Home, which handled arrangements, did not cite a cause.

Lein emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1976, according to his family.

"Anatoly was a giant in the chess world," his stepdaughter, Aimee Gilman, said in an email. "At his height, he was one of the five best players in the world, and was Cleveland's only international grandmaster."

A winner of the World Open, Lein was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 2004 and was the author of at least four books on chess.

An engineer by profession, he moved to Greater Cleveland to be close to his in-laws. He was less than enthused about the local weather, he told a Plain Dealer reporter in 1999, but not for the usual reason.

"I prefer to be in Alaska," Lein said. "It's pretty hot here sometimes."

Chess Life magazine referred to Cleveland as "GM city USA" -- GM as in grandmaster -- in 1999 because of its influx of top chess players including Lein. He was at that time ranked first among American senior citizens, and tied for first in some senior world championships.

His wife of almost 40 years, the former Barbara Gottlieb, predeceased him two weeks ago.

Surviving, in addition to his stepdaughter, are two stepsons and four grandchildren.

++++++++

Books by/with Lein

1. The Latvian gambit: a grandmaster view
Hays 1995

2. Sharpen your tactics! 1125 brilliant sacrifices, combinations and studies
(with Boris Archangelsky)
Hays 1996

3. Alekhine's block
Victor Charushin, translated from the Russian by Anatoly Lein
Pickard and Son 1997

4. Combination cross
Victor Charushin, translated from the Russian by Anatoly Lein
Pickard and Son 1997

5. In the world of tactics
Pickard and Son 1998

6. Mitrofanov's deflection
Victor Charushin, translated from the Russian by Anatoly Lein
Pickard and Son 1998

7. Lasker's combination
Victor Charushin, translated from the Russian by Anatoly Lein
Pickard and Son 1998

8. Kasparov vs Karpov, 1990
Kasparov, Geller, Lein and Chepizhny
Cadogan 1991

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Anthony Lein (1931-2018)

Anatoly Lein (1931-2018)

March 6, 2018

The New York Times obituary by Dylan Loeb McClain is out:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/o...ies-at-86.html

It has a photo of Anatoly playing against Michael Wilder, a 13-year-old prodigy, at the Manhattan Chess Club in 1976.

An excerpt:

Mr. Lein was a formidable opponent. He recorded victories over Mikhail Tal (before Mr. Tal won the world championship) and Vasily Smyslov, who had been world champion and was still among the world's elite. He also beat world championship contenders like David Bronstein, Lev Polugaevsky, Leonid Stein and Mark Taimanov.

Mr. Lein won the Moscow Championship in 1971 and international tournaments in Cuba and Hungary in 1972 and 1973. Despite his success, in 1976 he was given permission to emigrate to the United States. As he told The Jewish News, "You have to have lived in the U.S.S.R. to understand why I emigrated." He initially settled in New Jersey.

Mr. Lein became part of a leading edge of Eastern Bloc players who would soon flood the United States chess scene, profoundly influencing it throughout the 1970s, '80s and '90s.

Though Mr. Lein was past his peak when he emigrated - which may have been one reason the Soviet authorities allowed him to leave - he showed that he was still a formidable player. In 1976, he tied for first in the United States Open, one of the country's most prestigious tournaments, with Leonid Shamkovich, another recent emigre.

The same year, he also tied for first in the World Open with Bernard Zuckerman. Two years later, Mr. Lein played for the United States on its Olympiad team. He was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2004.

[Ian Findlay]

Re: Anthony Lein (1931-2018)

Also a nice tribute by Joel Benjamin on ICC weekly recap. Lein helped Benjamin, Wilder, Rhode and Fedorowicz become the players they became. Lein was a 'barnacle' who knew little about openings, but was a great grinder. Lein had a big plus score against Benjamin and Benjamin was nice enough to share some of those losses. Meanwhile Shamkovich his fellow Soviet emigre was a fierce attacking player and great theoretician. They complimented each other nicely.