Leonid Shamkovich
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Leonid_Shamkovich_1980_Malta.jpg/220px-Leonid_Shamkovich_1980_Malta.jpg)
Leonid Aleksandrovich Shamkovich (Russian: Леони́д Алекса́ндрович Шамко́вич; June 1, 1923 – April 22, 2005)[1] was a chess Grandmaster, and chess writer.
He was born in a Jewish family in Rostov-on-Don in Russia.
Chess career
Shamkovich became a Grandmaster in 1965 and won several tournaments, with his best victory coming at Sochi in 1967, where he tied for first place with Nikolai Krogius, Vladimir Simagin, Boris Spassky and Alexander Zaitsev. Other notable results included a tie for 3rd at the 1962 Moscow Championship (behind Yuri Averbakh and Evgeny Vasiukov) and finishing third at Mariánské Lázně 1965 (behind Paul Keres and Vlastimil Hort).
Shamkovich left the Soviet Union in 1975, moving first to Israel, then Canada, and finally the United States, where he lived the remainder of his life. He won the 1975 Canadian Open Chess Championship. He continued to play through the 1990s, and wrote several chess books.
His Sacrifice in Chess begins, "A real sacrifice involves a radical change in the character of a game which cannot be effected without foresight, fantasy, and the willingness to risk."
His aristocratic bearing and manner of speech earned him the nickname "Prince".
Shamkovich died of complications from Parkinson's disease and cancer in his Brooklyn home on April 22, 2005.
References
External links
- Leonid Shamkovich player profile and games at Chessgames.com
- 1923 births
- 2005 deaths
- Chess grandmasters
- Chess theoreticians
- Russian chess players
- Israeli chess players
- American chess players
- Soviet chess players
- Jewish chess players
- Russian Jews
- American people of Russian-Jewish descent
- American Jews
- Israeli Jews
- Deaths from Parkinson's disease
- Russian chess writers
- Deaths from cancer in New York
- Russian chess biography stubs
- American chess biography stubs
- Asian chess biography stubs
- Israeli sportspeople stubs