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Yuri Sergeyevich Razuvaev was a historian by profession, but also distinguished himself as a player, coach and a talented chess journalist. He played for the Soviet Union squads in the 1970s and 80s, becoming an IM in 1973 and a GM in 1976. His tournament wins included Dubna and Polanica-Zdrój in 1979, Zalaegerszeg 1981, London 1983, Dortmund 1985 and Jurmala 1987.
Our ChessBase Player's Dossier also lists first places in Moscow 1988, Smokovec 1990, Geneve 1993 and Reggio Emilia 1995. The Dossier function ("Find player" – "Razuvaev" – "Dossier") also produces the following Elo graph.
In the second USSR vs Rest of the World match in 1984 he kept full control of his much higher rated opponent Robert Hübner, and finished their encounter with four draws. The ChessBase Dossier on Razuvaev pulls out two spectacular games from his long career.
Vladimir Tukmakov and Yury Razuvaev, spectators at Aeroflot Open 2007
"Gee, I sure hope Teimour doesn't play the McCutcheon against me, Yuri. But don't tell him I said that." That is how we captioned the above picture of Peter Leko with trainer and father-in-law GM Arshak Petrosian (center) and Ponomariov's trainer, GM Yuri Razuvaev, in our 2003 report on the XX International Chess Tournament Cuidad de Linares.
On the Russian Chess News site Boris Gulko remembers his friend and colleague:
It is hard to say something when a person with whom you have been friends for fifty years departs. We met in a class at the Central Chess Club. Yura came in one day before the USSR championship, and we chatted. Then we played a lot of games, all of which ended in his victories. It was a very heavy blow to my vanity, since I considered myself very strong at the time, and yet I had met someone who understood chess much more deeply than I did. So, our first contact was memorable.
After that we played together for the team of Moscow State University. All the young players at the time spoke of him with a gasp of awe. He was not just the strongest of all, he also had a unique style, won extraordinary games against opponents of all kinds. As a chess player he was very good, but he did not have the killer instinct – you will find a number of games in which Jura agreed to a draw in positions in which he had a large or even a decisive edge. So it was, for example, in games against Smyslov and Tal, whom he greatly respected. On the other hand he had a unique ability to save totally hopeless positions, an ability that helped him in his final three years of life when he knew about his terminal illness.
Yuri Razuvaev was a wonderful coach, and to a large extent my chess teacher. When I played in the PCA World Championship Candidated [against Nigel Short in New York in 1994] Yura came to train with me. Our work was very successful, even though I lost the match in the tiebreak. But the knowledge I acquired stood me in good stead for many years – for example I was able to convincingly win the US Championship with it.
One of his excellent qualities was exceptional kindness. When he was trainer of the USSR team, the young Volodya Kramnik came along. Yura fought for his inclusion in the team. Slightly earlier, Peter Svidler and Borya Gelfand appeared. For Yura, this was always like some kind of personal delight.
