Happy 100th Birthday GM Averbakh!

[Hans Jung]

Happy 100th Birthday GM Averbakh! Wayne Komer posted sometime last year (maybe July?) that GM Averbakh had come down with Covid. Does anyone know if he is still alive?

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

I looked around and none of websites wrote anything about his 100. Then checked the wiki - his birthday is on 8th - two days to publish all material.

[Peter McKillop]

Happy 100th Birthday GM Averbakh! Wayne Komer posted sometime last year (maybe July?) that GM Averbakh had come down with Covid. Does anyone know if he is still alive?

I wonder how many GMs have made it to age 100? Lilienthal almost (99) did it. Taimanov was 90-ish. Anyone aware of others? This is the kind of detail that Wayne Komer would have had at his fingertips.

[Hans Jung]

Nobody, unless GM Averbakh is still alive. Lilienthal was the oldest at 99.

[Erik Malmsten]

Zoltan Sarosy (1906-2017) of Toronto was still playing correspondence chess at the age of 107. Not mentioned in the online lists!

Dr. Aron Schvartzman (1908-2013) of Argentina was the world’s oldest chess player. He was still playing chess at the age of 104.

Jared Moore (1893-1995) was still playing correspondence chess at the age of 100. He died at 101.

Louis Zeckendorf (1838-1937) was a member of the Manhattan Chess Club.

Jane Lady Carew (1797-1901) lived to 104 and lived in three centuries. She played chess up to age 100.



GM Andor Lilienthal (1911-2010) died three days after his 99th birthday.

Gyorgy Negyesy (1893-1992) was a Hungarian chess master who died just short of his 99th birthday.

GM Enrico Paoli (1908-2005) became a Grandmaster at the age of 88. He was still playing chess at the age of 97.

GM George Koltanowski (1903-2000) was still playing blindfold chess in his 70s and giving his Knight’s Tour in his 80s.

Alina Markowski (1910-2011) was still organizing and playing chess in San Diego until 2005, age 95.

IM Edward Lasker (1885-1981) was playing chess until he died at 95.

Harlow Daly (1883-1979) was the chess champions of Maine at age 90, in 1973, he won the New Hampshire Open tournament with a perfect 5-0 score. He died at the age of 95. He played chess for 75 years.

Kirk Holland (1910-?) was once the President of the American Chess Federation. He was still playing rated USCF chess at 94 and was once considered the oldest active chess player in the United States.

Walter Muir (1905-1999) The Grand Old Man of Correspondence Chess, parents Canadian. Published chess biography in 1997.

GM Mario Monticelli (1902-1995) was awarded the Grandmaster title at the age of 83 and died at 93.



GM Svetozar Gligoric (1923-2012) was 89 when he died of a stroke. At the time of his death, he was the second oldest Grandmaster.

GM Arthur Dake (1910-2000) was once the oldest active chess Grandmaster. He was still playing in rated chess tournaments at the age of 89.

GM Jacquest Mieses (1865-1954) died at the age of 89.

GM Miguel Najdorf (1910-1997) played chess until he died at the age of 87.

GM Arnold Denker (1914-2005) died at the age of 90. He was active in chess into his late 80s.

Canada's IM Fedir Bohatyrchuk (1892-1984) died at 91, not sure when his last chess game was.

GM Viktor Korchnoi (1931-2016) At age 75 was the oldest person ever to be ranked among the world's top 100 players.

GM Vassily Smyslov (1921-2010) became the oldest qualifier for the World Chess Championship at the age of 61. He ended his chess career at the age of 81 because of failing eyesight, rated 2500.


http://www.chessmaniac.com/older-chess-players/
http://billwall.phpwebhosting.com/ar...%20Players.htm
https://www.chess.com/article/view/older-chess-players

[Peter McKillop]

Thanks, Erik, for that interesting list!

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

...

IM and correspondence GM Abram Khasin just passed away short of several days till his 99th. Someone posted his games played in 2018 (~95 old player). In the 2015 FIDE rating list his result was +2.6 @ 2318. Played in several final soviet championships.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Happy 100th Birthday GM Averbakh! Wayne Komer posted sometime last year (maybe July?) that GM Averbakh had come down with Covid. Does anyone know if he is still alive?

Russian started to congratulated him (time zone difference). Chess-news.ru reported that he was "more-or-less stable and in not-bad mood".

[Frank Dixon]

Another Canadian Master who made it to 100:
Arkadiy Gilman (Mar. 13, 1913 -- May 12, 2013). He was a Russian -- Canadian, who settled in Montreal. Raja Panjwani, when he was my student 2000-2003, played Mr. Gilman in a Quebec event. He was active as late as the 2008 Canadian Open, at age 95, according to chess.ca.

[Hans Jung]

https://www.chess.com/news/view/yuri-averbakh-100-years

[Brad Thomson]

One of my first (and last) tournament wins was against an older gentleman named E. (possibly Emil?) Saulitis. My gamescore notes that he was 83 years old at the time. The game took place in Toronto, I think in 1990. I recall the postmortem when he indicated that he had forgotten about the en passant rule. Does anyone remember this gentleman?

[Ian Findlay]

I remember playing Peter Avery, a former Toronto Champion in the mid 1970's, who must have been in his late eighties at the time. He was still very sharp.

[Hans Jung]

https://en.chessbase.com/post/congra...bakh-turns-100 Another interesting article on GM Averbakh. In the first game Najdorf - Averbakh, Zurich 1953 just look at that knight! Made me fall in love again.

[Ian Findlay]

https://en.chessbase.com/post/congra...bakh-turns-100 Another interesting article on GM Averbakh. In the first game Najdorf - Averbakh, Zurich 1953 just look at that knight! Made me fall in love again.

It should also be mentioned all the fabulous books Averbakh wrote on the endgame in the 1970's. All essential reading back in the day and probably even now.

[Kerry Liles]

I remember playing Peter Avery, a former Toronto Champion in the mid 1970's, who must have been in his late eighties at the time. He was still very sharp.

Yes, I remember playing Peter Avery several times ... on at least one occasion, I was watching a game he was playing against a much stronger opponent and when he went to make a move, his hand made it almost to the piece and then stopped... I realized that he had made an elastic band chain - one end around his thumb and the other fastened to his belt. The elastic band chain was short enough to always pull his hand back! After the game I asked him about this contraption and he said that at his age he was prone to forgetting to check for hanging pieces and this was a last second reminder to double check (so to speak). He said that with such a mischievous twinkle in his eye! I wish I knew him better - he was a very fine gentleman and a pretty strong player in his heyday.