Vitaly Tseshkovsky

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Vitaly Valerianovich Tseshkovsky (born September 25, 1944 in Omsk) is a Russian chess Grandmaster and a former champion of the USSR.

Tseshkovsky (Cieszkowski) was born in Siberia into a Polish family (his noble ancestors lived in Volhynia).

He was awarded the International Master title in 1973 and became an International Grandmaster in 1975.

His best tournament victories include first at Leipzig 1975, Dubna 1976, Yerevan 1980, Banja Luka 1981, Sochi 1981 and Minsk 1982. He was joint winner of the 1978 Soviet Championship with Mikhail Tal and in 1986, became the champion outright. He has beaten several world champions: Vasily Smyslov at the Moscow Spartakiad 1974, Mikhail Tal at Sochi 1970, and a young Garry Kasparov at the 1978 Soviet Championship. Tseshkovsky himself almost qualified for the World Championship candidates matches when he finished fourth in the 1976 Manila Interzonal, one place lower than was needed to progress to the next stage.

His 6/9 result in St Petersburg, 2004 qualified him to play in the Russian Championship final later in the year, alongside Russia's seven top players and five other qualifiers.

Throughout his career, Tseshkovsky has played 1.e4 when playing White. With Black he has played the Ruy Lopez, Sicilian Defence, Pirc Defence and Modern Defence against 1.e4, and against 1.d4 he has most often played the Grünfeld Defence and Benko Gambit.

In the April 2005 FIDE list, Tseshkovsky had an Elo rating of 2589.