Boris Mikhailovich Koyalovich (Koyalovitch, Kojalovich, Kojalowitsch, Kojałowicz) (March 2, 1867 – December 29, 1941)[1] was a Russian mathematician and chess master.
He was a professor of mathematics at the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology.[2][3] In 1930, he developed the special theory of limitants.[4]
Koyalovich lived and died in St. Petersburg (also known as Petrograd and Leningrad during his lifetime). He played in many of the city's chess tournaments, taking 4th place in 1901 (Sergey Lebedev won), 3rd in 1902 (Mikhail Chigorin and Alexander Levin won),[5] and 11th in 1903 (Grigory Helbach, Krzyzanowski and Emmanuel Schiffers won). In 1904 he competed at three events, tying for 4-5th in one (Eugene Znosko-Borovsky won), taking 5th in another (Chigorin won), and winning the third. He tied for 4-5th in 1905 (Chigorin won), tied for 8-9th in 1906 (Simon Alapin won), and tied for 5-6th in 1907 (Sergey von Freymann won).[6]
He played in a friendly match St. Petersburg vs. Moscow in 1911 (won a game against Parfenov on board 7),[7] and won a game against Alexander Alekhine in St. Petersburg in April 1912.[8]
After World War I, he tied for 5-9th at Petrograd 1921 (R.R. Platz won), took 6th at Novgorod 1923/24 (Ilya Rabinovich won), took 9th at Leningrad 1925 (Solomon Gotthilf won), and tied for 6-7th at Leningrad 1925 (Efim Bogoljubow and Peter Romanovsky won).[9]