Soviet Jewish chess legend Taimanov dies at 90

Mark Taimanov, a Jewish chess grandmaster who was ostracized by the Soviet authorities after losing to American Bobby Fischer during the Cold War, has died aged 90, Russia’s chess federation says.

Taimanov was born in 1926 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and moved to Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, where he studied piano at the prestigious music conservatory. He became a chess grandmaster at the age of 26, kicking off a career which flourished throughout the 1950s and 60s.

In 1956 he became the Soviet champion, and participated in the Soviet championship more than 20 times while pursuing a professional career as a concert pianist. Yet he is best known for his stinging 0-6 loss to American grandmaster Bobby Fischer in 1971 at the World Championship Candidates match.

Soviet Jewish chess grandmaster Mark Taimanov, who died on November 28, 2016 at the age of 90 (Wikimedia Commons, Stefan64, CC BY-SA 3.0) — Soviet Jewish chess grandmaster Mark Taimanov, who died on November 28, 2016, at the age of 90 (Wikimedia Commons, Stefan64, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Soviet authorities during the Cold War viewed the US-Soviet chess matches as having symbolic importance, and punished Taimanov for the embarrassing failure, suspecting that he had lost on purpose. Following this, officials stripped Taimanov of his titles and forbade him from going abroad for a year and a half, making it impossible for him to earn a living.

“I was a victim of our regime because of that match, they could not forgive me for losing,” Taimanov said in a 2009 interview. “They suspected me of treason… I was subjected to a public execution.”

— AFP