Yuri Averbakh

Yuri Averbakh
Yuri Averbakh at his 80th birthday
Full name	Yuri Lvovich Averbakh
Country	Russia
Born	(1922-02-08) February 8, 1922 (age 95) Kaluga, Russian SFSR
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2445 (March 2017)
Peak rating	2550 (July 1971)

Yuri Lvovich Averbakh (Russian: Ю́рий Льво́вич Аверба́х; born February 8, 1922) is a Soviet and Russian chess player and author. As of 2016, he is the oldest living chess grandmaster. He was born in Kaluga, Russia. He was chairman of the USSR Chess Federation from 1973 to 1978.

His father was German Jewish, and his ancestors came from Germany and were named Auerbach, meaning "meadow brook". His mother was Russian. Both sets of grandparents disapproved of their marriage because his father was likely an atheist and his mother was Eastern Orthodox, as well as the fact that his maternal grandmother died very young so his mother was expected to look after the family. Yuri himself calls himself a fatalist.

His first major success was first place in the Moscow Championship of 1949, ahead of players including Andor Lilienthal, Yakov Estrin and Vladimir Simagin. He became an International Grandmaster in 1952. In 1954 he won the USSR Chess Championship ahead of players including Mark Taimanov, Viktor Korchnoi, Tigran Petrosian, Efim Geller and Salo Flohr. In the 1956 Championship he came equal first with Taimanov and Boris Spassky in the main event, finishing second after the playoff. Later Averbakh's daughter, Jane, would marry Taimanov. Averbakh's other major tournament victories included Vienna 1961 and Moscow 1962. He qualified for the 1953 Candidates' Tournament (the last stage to determine the challenger to the World Chess Champion), finishing joint tenth of the fifteen participants. He also qualified for the 1958 Interzonal at Portorož, by finishing in fourth place at the 1958 USSR Championship at Riga. At Portorož, he wound up in a tie for seventh through eleventh places, half a point short of advancing to the Candidates' Tournament.