Yermolinsky on Kupreichik: a chess eulogy

Sad news reached us a few days ago, legendary Belarussian GM Viktor Kupreichik passed away before reaching his 68th birthday. While I was not close to Viktor, we met at the chess board three times in what can only be described as extraordinary games, and I would like to present them to the reader. However, first a bit of introduction.

Viktor Kupreichik

In the early 1970's when I was about 14 and my chess began to improve, I started following chess events more closely by perusing Soviet chess magazines. That was the time of Fischer's ascension to the World Championship, with those whitewashes the American inflicted on the old ranks of Soviet Chess. I, together with my friends, cheered it on. Somehow, the old, tired names of the likes of Geller, Smyslov, Korchnoi and Petrosian, did not excite me. I wanted a new wave of chess talent to come and sweep them away. I followed the games of Balashov, Sveshnikov, Timoschenko, Averkin, Gulko and Vaganian, and rooted for their success.

Spassky's defeat in Reykjavik shook up the walls of the Soviet chess citadel. The “Pravda” newspaper published a scathing State of the Soviet Chess address by old hand GM Kotov (“Think Like A Grandmaster” anyone?) calling for greater involvement by top players in developing and nurturing new talent. In my Botvinnik article I mentioned the inaugural “Komsomolskaya Pravda GM simuls event, featuring Spassky, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Bronstein and Karpov. The National Championship, which in previous years had deteriorated into quite a mediocre event, was made great again, when all the best players gathered in Moscow 1973. Spassky won that one.

One more seminal event that took place a few years earlier was the 1970 Grandmasters vs Young Masters Challenge in Sochi. When the tournament report was published I saw one game that shook my world.

Tal - Kupreichik, 1970 (notes by Tal and Yermolinsky)

Tal's own notes in Chess Informant are rather skimpy, but what a game! The energy of the 21-year-old master besting Tal in his own game, the three pieces sacrificed, and the elegant finish made a great impression.

Kupreichik and Tal met numerous times over the board, and you can be sure there was never a boring game to be seen

Here I refer the Russian-speaking reader to an excellent article by Kupreichik's countryman GM Andrey Kovalev, an enterprising attacking player in his own right. It is titled "Kupreichik and Houdini" and appeared on the Russian internet chess source, chesspro.ru about two years ago. How I wish I would be granted permission to translate the entire article, but for now I'll restrict himself to quoting a few excerpts.

Kovalev makes an interesting attempt to verify the accuracy of Kupreichik's attacks by modern computer analysis and comes to a surprising conclusion that while some of Viktor's choices were excessively complicated and perhaps unnecessary, Houdini tends to agree with most of them!

As the years rolled by Viktor Kupreichik remained true to his swashbuckling style. Below are some of my favorite games by the creative genius.

A sample of Kupreichik's genius

There are many more of the kind. Kupreichik's chess is a breath of fresh air we all could use after feeling burned-out by the modern game that values the result and result alone.

Viktor Kupreichik, who himself was world no. 22 at the time, watches 18-year-old Garry Kasparov in action

By the end of the 1980's I got to meet Viktor in person, and we played together in some lower tier USSR Championship events. In those encounters I always felt compelled to enter the most complicated positions imaginable, and whatever the outcome might be I always enjoyed our battles.

Yermolinsky - Kupreichik, 1986 (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)

The post-mortem was even more fun. Viktor was always very friendly and eager to spend time looking at crazy stuff on the chessboard. As jaded as we were with the drab surroundings of life in the Soviet Union and the lack of prospects in our stalling careers, the chess part itself remained a single bright spot of joy.

Yermolinsky - Kupreichik, 1987 (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)

The last game is so insane I can't even annotate it properly. I checked my old notes, and the computer keeps on refuting everything both Viktor and I saw during the game and the subsequent analysis. In the end, all I can say is: Who cares? We sure had fun!

Yermolinsky - Kupreichik, 1988 (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)

There lies the answer as to why my dreams as a young chess fan didn't quite come true. The old generation of Soviet players, born before WWII, were simply performing better than most of the new players, with a notable exception of Anatoly Karpov. The old guard had entrenched themselves in a superior position in a society with more money and power. They had their regular trips to lucrative tournaments abroad, they had financial security and better personal situations. They could also obtain coaching help from our own rank of younger underachievers. In his interview, also published in chess.ru in 2014 Kupreichik recalls (without any bitterness) his experiences with helping Smyslov to prepare for World Championship Candidates matches in the 1980's. I just wish it could have been the other way around.

In the thirty years that have passed since our last encounter, Viktor remained active. He took part in many World Senior tournaments, and I was hoping to catch up with him somewhere in Europe one of these days. It wasn't meant to be. Sad.