Members · Prefs · Laboratory · Collections · Openings · Endgames · Sacrifices · History · Search Kibitzing · Kibitzer's Café · Chessforums · Tournament Index · Players · Kibitzing

Leonid Stein

LEONID STEIN (born Nov-12-1934, died Jul-04-1973, 38 years old) Ukraine (federation/nationality Russia) PRONUNCIATION: [what is this?] Leonid Zakharovich Stein was born in (the) Ukraine. He became a master at the age of twenty-four--unusually late for one who goes on to become a player of his caliber. Three years later, Stein qualified for the Soviet Championship for the first time, placing third and gaining the International Grandmaster title (1962). He played board one for the Soviet team at the Helsinki 1961 Student Olympiad, scoring a strong +8, =3, -1, and helping his team to the overall gold medals. He also represented the USSR at the Tel Aviv Olympiad (1964) scoring a fine 10/13, and winning an individual gold medal on the first reserve board. Again, he was in the Soviet side at the Havana Olympiad 1966, scoring 9/12, winning an individual silver medal on board four. Both times, the Soviet Union won the team gold medals. In the 1960s, he accumulated a string of strong tournament victories, including three U.S.S.R. Championships 1963 [rusbase-1], 1965 [rusbase-2] and 1966/7 [rusbase-3]. Although Stein never qualified for the Candidates, he came extremely close in 1962 and 1964 (when he would have qualified if not for a rule restricting the number of candidates from one country) and again in 1967 (where he was eliminated after drawing a tie-break playoff with Vlastimil Hort and Samuel Reshevsky due to the latter's better tiebreaks). Two outstanding international tournament victories were attained at Moscow 1967 (commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution), and Moscow 1971 (Alekhine Memorial, equal with Anatoly Karpov). Both of the Moscow tournaments were considered to be among the strongest tournaments in chess history up to that time. Further international tournament victories were scored at Sarajevo (Bosna) 1967, equal with Borislav Ivkov, Hastings 1967/68 shared, Kecskemet 1968, Tallinn 1969, Parnu 1971, and Las Palmas 1973, equal with Tigran Petrosian. As Stein was preparing to leave for Bath, England (1973) for the European Team Championship, he collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack in the Rossiya Hotel in Moscow, aged 38. Stein defeated many of the top players of his era. He was one of the few players who had an even score against Vasily Smyslov, Tigran Petrosian, and Mikhail Botvinnik. He had plus records against Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky, and Paul Keres. Garry Kasparov wrote that Stein "went beyond the bounds of Botvinnik-Smyslov harmony, expanding the limits of our understanding of the game, changing our impressions of the correlation of material and quality of position, of situations with disrupted material and strategic balance, and created the grounds for the emergence of modern, ultra-dynamic chess". (My Great Predecessors Vol. 3, p. 231) Wikipedia article: Leonid Stein Last updated: 2024-05-27 17:29:59

Try our new games table.

page 1 of 41; games 1-25 of 1,022  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. V Golembo vs Stein 1-0 21 1948 Category IV Tt C34 King's Gambit Accepted 2. Stein vs V Golembo   ½-½ 34 1950 Lvov A15 English 3. V Shiyanovsky vs Stein   1-0 27 1950 UKR-chT B03 Alekhine's Defense 4. Stein vs V Golembo   1-0 49 1950 Lvov E40 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3 5. Stein vs V Golembo   ½-½ 53 1951 Lvov E26 Nimzo-Indian, Samisch 6. E Lazarev vs Stein 0-1 34 1951 Ukrainian Junior Championship C05 French, Tarrasch 7. O Yurasov vs Stein   ½-½ 29 1951 Ukrainian Junior Championship B88 Sicilian, Fischer-Sozin Attack 8. V Golembo vs Stein   ½-½ 36 1952 Lvov B65 Sicilian, Richter-Rauzer Attack, 7...Be7 Defense, 9...Nxd4 9. Stein vs V Golembo   1-0 43 1952 Lvov Region Championship C19 French, Winawer, Advance 10. B Vorobets vs Stein   1-0 24 1953 Lvov B95 Sicilian, Najdorf, 6...e6 11. Stein vs Lutikov   0-1 32 1955 Soviet Army Championship C77 Ruy Lopez 12. L Goltsov vs Stein 0-1 33 1955 RSFSR Young Candidates E69 King's Indian, Fianchetto, Classical Main line 13. G Kanayan vs Stein   0-1 35 1955 15th Ch RSFSR (sf) E62 King's Indian, Fianchetto 14. V Lyublinsky vs Stein 0-1 34 1955 Soviet Army Championship C63 Ruy Lopez, Schliemann Defense 15. E Bakhmatov vs Stein   1-0 24 1955 RSFSR Young Candidates C59 Two Knights 16. E Poltoranov vs Stein 0-1 25 1955 Soviet Army Championship A49 King's Indian, Fianchetto without c4 17. Stein vs N Golovko   0-1 35 1955 Soviet Army Championship C45 Scotch Game 18. Stein vs Y Shaposhnikov   0-1 28 1955 Soviet Army Championship C45 Scotch Game 19. D Rovner vs Stein   ½-½ 37 1955 Soviet Army Championship B32 Sicilian 20. Stein vs V Zheliandinov   0-1 51 1956 Soviet Army Championship B98 Sicilian, Najdorf 21. A Volovich vs Stein   1-0 47 1956 Moscow Championship semifinal E12 Queen's Indian 22. E Zagoryansky vs Stein 0-1 50 1956 Moscow Championship semifinal E70 King's Indian 23. Stein vs G Goldberg   ½-½ 47 1956 Moscow Championship semifinal C61 Ruy Lopez, Bird's Defense 24. A Lukin vs Stein   0-1 40 1956 Moscow Championship semifinal D11 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 25. Stein vs V Soloviev   1-0 36 1956 Soviet Army Championship B51 Sicilian, Canal-Sokolsky (Rossolimo) Attack  page 1 of 41; games 1-25 of 1,022

REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Stein wins | Stein loses

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 18 OF 18 ·  Later Kibitzing> Aug-24-15    zanzibar: <NA> I guess you're considering Spassky French then? Aug-24-15    NeverAgain: Absolutely. And you must be Arab, going by your nym. ;) Aug-24-15    zanzibar: <NA> The most you can safely assume from my name is that I'm a rather spicy character... https://www.google.com/search?q=zan... Aug-26-15    NeverAgain: <zanzibar>: that's a given. Feb-21-16    WorstPlayerEver: @FSR Uhm.. Mark Taimanov is 90 years old. According to my data Nadya is 35 years younger than Mark. So she cannot have been older than 13 when Leonid Stein died, but okay.. people like to hear nonsense, apparently it makes them feel 'good'... Nov-12-16    parisattack: Stein has long been one of my favorite players. Aggressive with a somewhat hypermodern repertoire. His English is excellent! Four tomes of games: Leonid Stein: Master of Attack - Keene Leonid Stein: Master of Risk Strategy - Gufeld Chess Secrets: Great Attackers - Crouch has a full section on Stein, though I see him more as a power player. Stein: Move-by-Move - Engquist The Engquist volume has a excellent biography with (perhaps) the true story of his untimely demise. It is my favorite book of the group. Jan-02-17    parisattack: Tom Unger's very excellent book, Strategical Themes (Thinker's Press 1989), has a number of Stein's games with the double-fianchetto both as white and black. Jul-29-18    ZonszeinP: This great player should have been in the 1965 candidates. Probably the only one who could have beaten Spassky.. But then There's no justice in this world Jul-29-18    ewan14: Spassky did manage two draws in the 1964 2nd zonal tournament. He might have been playing not to lose Jul-29-18    ZonszeinP: Fighting games. One of them was a famous Marshall game Jan-01-19    Dionysius1: I don't think I smoke after intercourse, but I've never looked to see. Jan-21-19    Gallicrow: "I know how he died. Stein was preparing for the inter-zonal tournament in Brazil. And, as they did with everyone travelling to exotic countries, the doctors have him strong injections against a variety of illnesses…his organism could not cope with this. In hotel “Russia” at the dead of the night, someone called me on the phone and did not say anything. Later I understood that it was Leonid calling, but he no longer had the strength to say anything. In this way, having bade a silent farewell, a most talented chess player departed at the bloom of his age and strength". (V. Korchnoi) from http://ruchess.ru/en/persons_of_day... Sep-25-20    ARubinstein: Leonid Stein was an incredibly strong Grandmaster. In the West, he never got the attention and respect he deserved. I did an analysis of lifetime head to head scores of the top 50 players from 1945 to 1980, and Stein came in fourth place behind Fischer, Karpov and Botvinnik and ahead of such legends as Korchnoi, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Keres, Smyslov, Geller and many others. This is absolutely remarkable for a player who only became a chess master at 24 due to the unfortunate circumstances of his youth. He had an equal or plus score against: Botvinnik, Bronstein, Keres, Kholmov, Polugaevsky, Reshevsky, Smyslov, Spassky, Tal, and many other great players. Sep-25-20    MissScarlett: Dying early (Stein), retiring early (Fischer), being close to one's peak in 1980 (Karpov), and playing very selectively (Botvinnik), are all winning strategies in that regard. Sep-25-20    plang: Dying early is not a strategy and not sure what you are saying about Karpov. Sep-25-20    MissScarlett: All these strategies serve to <hide the decline>. Sep-25-20    harrylime: Stein was a good commie Bobby had his number tho Sep-25-20    harrylime: stein was a good commie fischer had his number tho ... Sep-25-20    harrylime: Sometimes James Nick Parker and Friends https://youtu.be/HhQBA4dR4l0 Sep-25-20    moronovich: <ARubinstein> Thanks for your analysis. And Stein was indeed something special. One of the best ever. Sep-25-20    ARubinstein: <harrylime: Stein was a good commie Bobby had his number tho> Yes, Fischer won a grand total of ONE game against Stein... They only played twice, with one draw and one win for Fischer. The only player who really had Stein's number was Efim Geller. Geller won 7, drew 8, and lost only one game against Stein. Geller's score was by far the most lopsided result against Stein on my list -- nobody else came close. Jan-05-22    Messiah: <Albertan: Can someone please add this game to the Stein database as my iPad won’t download the pgn. file properly.Thanks: https://www.chess.com/games/view/13... Are you the mysterious database crap uploader? The game is already in the DB: Korchnoi vs Stein, 1965 Jan-06-22    pazzed paun: I was in a big chain bookstore I ran into a 2300 rated player who’s father had been a chess master He saw a copy of stein move by move And said why are they writing books about nobodies? He really had no idea who stein was ! Nov-12-23    offramp: Today is Stein's birthday.He would be 88 this year. He died 50 years ago. Oct-01-24    ewan14: No Moscow 67 or 71 in the notable tournaments either ! Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 18) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 18 OF 18 ·  Later Kibitzing>

NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion.

Please observe our posting guidelines: No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language. No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts. No vitriolic or systematic personal attacks against other members. Nothing in violation of United States law. No cyberstalking or malicious posting of negative or private information (doxing/doxxing) of members. No trolling. The use of "sock puppet" accounts to circumvent disciplinary action taken by moderators, create a false impression of consensus or support, or stage conversations, is prohibited. Do not degrade Chessgames or any of it's staff/volunteers. Please try to maintain a semblance of civility at all times. See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator. NOTE: Please keep all discussion on-topic. This forum is for this specific player only. To discuss chess or this site in general, visit the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors. All moderator actions taken are ultimately at the sole discretion of the administration.

Copyright 2001-2025, Chessgames Services LLC