MARK RUBERY CHESS

The chess world lost prematurely one of its greatest, if somewhat less heralded talents, when Leonid Stein (1934-73) passed away at the age of 39. A slow starter, he was initially a factory worker who attended evening classes to improve his education, all of which left little time for chess; but he nevertheless continued to improve and became a grandmaster in 1962. A three-time champion of the USSR, he was constantly on the brink of becoming a contender for the world championship, yet was always drawing the short straw when FIDE restricted the number of Russians who could compete at the Candidates stage. Stein’s style has been described as romantic and he had an intuitive approach to combinative play. He died of a heart attack just before the Rio de Janeiro Interzonal, which the author Raymond Keene refers to as “The chessplayer’s occupational hazard”, such are the tensions of competing at the highest level.

‘The following is regarded as Stein’s visiting card. It proclaimed to the world, that following Bronstein and Tal, another subverter of the strict positional truths of the Botvinnik era had arrived into the chess arena.’-Kasparov

Gligoric Svetozar (YUG) - Stein Leonid (UKR) [E92/11]

It Moscow (Russia) (11), 1967

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.d5 a5 8.0-0 Na6 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bh4 g5 11.Bg3 Nh5 12.Nd2 Nf4 13.Bg4 Nc5 14.f3 c6 15.Qc2 cxd5 16.cxd5 b5 17.a4 bxa4 18.Nc4 h5 19.Bxc8 Rxc8 20.Nxa4 Qc7 21.Ne3 Qa7 22.Bf2 Ncd3 23.Qd2 Nxf2 24.Rxf2 g4 25.Nf5 (25 Kh1 was required)… gxf3 26.Kh1 (Hoping for 26…fxg2+ 27 Rxg2 Nxg2 28 Qxg2 with a decisive attack. Instead Stein has a route to reach a winning ending)

Qxf2! 27.Qxf2 fxg2+ 28.Qxg2 (28 Kg1 Nh3+)…Nxg2 29.Kxg2 Rc2+ 30.Kf3 Rb8 31.Ke3 Rb3+ 32.Nc3 Rbxb2 33.Ra3 Rxh2 34.Kd3 Rh3+ 35.Ne3 Bh6 36.Ncd1 Rb1 0-1

‘Leonid Stein was staggering for both his talent and the flippancy of his play. He would find his bearings in a position like a clairvoyant. Whereas when an experienced player is considering his move, at any moment he sees only part of the board, Stein would “grasp” the entire board, foreseeing in someway the resulting positions. When he began to demonstrate the variations that he had seen, the board would appear to move…’ (Viktor Kart, Soviet trainer)