Yakov Estrin

Yakov Estrin

Yakov Estrin
Full name Yakov Borisovich Estrin
Country Russia
Born April 21, 1923
Moscow, Russia
Died February 2, 1987 (aged 63)
Moscow, Russia
Title International Master (1975)
ICCF Grandmaster (1966)
ICCF World Champion 1972–76

Yakov Borisovich Estrin (April 21, 1923 – February 2, 1987) was a Russian chess International Master, International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster and world champion, chess theoretician, and writer.

Chess biography

After a brief foray into "over-the-board" play, he turned to correspondence chess in the early 1960s with immediate success (joint first place in the USSR Correspondence Championship in 1962.) He became an International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster in 1966, and would go on to compete in the final of the World Correspondence Championship five times. He is best known for being the seventh ICCF World Champion, 1972–76.

For over-the-board play, he was awarded the International Master title in 1975.[1][2]

Estrin wrote several chess books and was an authority on the Two Knights Defense. His game with Hans Berliner in which Berliner played the Two Knights Defense and defeated Estrin is one of the most famous and important games in correspondence chess.[3][4]

Books

References

  1. Brace, Edward (1977) An Illustrated Dictionary of Chess, Chartwell, ISBN 1-55521-394-4
  2. A few chess authors indicate the Estrin was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1984 (Gaige, Jeremy (1987), Chess Personalia, A Biobibliography, McFarland, p. 111, ISBN 0-7864-2353-6; Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), The Oxford Companion to Chess (2 ed.), Oxford University Press, p. 126, ISBN 0-19-280049-3). However the 1988 book co-authored by Estrin reports only that he was an IM and ICGM (The King's Gambit (Igor Glazkov and Jakov Ėstrin, Korolevskij gambit, Moskva, Fizkultura i Sport, 1988, p. 4). Other sources including Chess: an encyclopedic dictionary, Sovyetskaya encyclopediya, Anatoly Karpov, Moscow 1990, page 511, ISBN 5-85270-005-3 (in Russian) and FIDE Golden book 1924-2002, Willy Iclicki, Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, S. 92, also say Estrin was an IM and ICGM. All GM title awards in 1984 took place at the 55th FIDE Congress in Thessaloniki. The 1985 article by Nikolai Krogius, "At the FIDE Congress", 64 - Chess Review, , 2/85, pp. 2-3, lists all Soviet players awarded titles at that event and Estrin is not mentioned. Another report of the Congress mentions honorary GM awards only for Stojan Puc and Eero Böök (BCM, April 1985, p.159). Additionally, FIDE rating lists reproduced in Chess Informant during the 1984-1988 period all indicate that Estrin's title for "over-the-board" play was IM.
  3. Burgess, Graham; Nunn, John; Emms, John (2004), The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games, Carroll & Graf, pp. 309–15, ISBN 0-7867-1411-5
  4. Evans, Larry (1970), Modern Chess Brilliancies, Fireside, pp. 217–21, ISBN 0-671-22420-4

External links

Preceded by
Horst Rittner
World Correspondence Chess Champion
1972–1976
Succeeded by
Jørn Sloth