By Paul Werner Wagner
The second-largest city in the Republic of Estonia is Tartu. Its first documented mention dates back to 1030. Under the name Dorpat, the city belonged to the German Hanseatic League. In 1721, Dorpat became part of the Russian Tsardom. The university, founded in 1632, was the only German-language institution of higher education in Russia from 1802 onwards.
Iivo Nei was born in Tartu in 1931. His role model was the Estonian Paul Keres, one of the world's best chess players. Iivo finished sixth at the 1947 USSR Junior Championship - the winner was his contemporary Viktor Korchnoi. The following year, he became Soviet Junior Champion jointly with Korchnoi.
Between 1951 and 1974, Nei won the Championship of the Soviet Republic of Estonia eight times and took part in the USSR Championship twice. He won the Baltic Championship four times. His greatest international success was his shared first place at the 1964 Hoogovens Tournament in Beverwijk with Keres. His grandmaster-level performance was recognised with the FIDE title of international master (IM). In 2024, Iivo Nei was awarded the title of Honorary Grandmaster.
Final crosstable - Hoogovens 1964
The linguistically gifted Estonian was an excellent trainer. Among his protégés were the women's world chess champions Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze, as well as grandmaster Lembit Oll. At the legendary 1972 World Championship match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer, he was part of the Soviet team of seconds, together with Efim Geller and Nikolai Krogius.
He later became the world's oldest grandmaster. Nei attached importance to deep game preparation and a classical positional style. Iivo Nei's work as a chess author and FIDE representative of the Baltic Zone is worthy of praise.
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