Vladimir Simagin

Simagin was most highly regarded by his peers. Bronstein had some very complimentary words in his book The Sorcerer's Apprentice (co-author Tom Furstenberg). Mikhail Botvinnik, who devoted many pioneering years to computer chess research, relied on Simagin's assistance in 1966 to publish a preview article from his forthcoming book Algorithm of Chess in the Bulletin of the Central Chess Club, of which Simagin was editor. The article's publication had first met with resistance, so Botvinnik was grateful, and the article was a success.

Simagin, along with Vladimir Makogonov, trained Vasily Smyslov for several years, leading to his World Championship title in 1957. His best results were a tied second place at Sarajevo 1963, and a tied first place at Sochi 1967.

Vladimir Pavlovich Simagin was a much-admired Soviet player and teacher. He was a late bloomer by chess standards, although much of this can be put down to the timing of World War II, which stopped most chess competition in the Soviet Union for several years. He received the International Master title in 1950- the year F.I.D.E. implemented the title- and earned the Grandmaster title in 1962. He also earned the International Master title in Correspondence chess in 1965, and was Soviet correspondence champion in 1964.

At Pärnu 1947, he struggled with 4/13, far behind winner Paul Keres. Being Moscow champion helped earn him a place on the Moscow side for the home-and-home match series with Budapest in 1949. This was one of the very best results of his career, as he scored a powerful 12/16, good for a 2732 performance, according to chessmetrics.com. Chessmetrics ranks Simagin as #21 in the world from December 1946 to February 1947, and calculates his peak rating at 2650 in October 1949. However, this data seems to be missing several of his tournament results. In the Moscow Championship of 1949, he made 8.5/15 for 4th place, behind winner Averbakh. In the Moscow Championship of 1950, he scored 8/15 for 5th place, behind winners Averbakh and Alexander Chistiakov.

He scored 8.5/17 in the 1945 Moscow Championship, for a tied 7th-8th places, well behind champion Vasily Smyslov. Simagin's first important high-class result was second place in the 1946 Moscow Championship, with 11/15, behind winner David Bronstein. In the 1946 Baltic Championship at Vilnius, he scored 13/19 while playing 'hors concours', and this was good for fourth place, behind the top placed Yuri Averbakh (also h.c.). In the 1947 Moscow Championship, he tied for top place with Bronstein and Georgy Rivinsky, with 9/14, and then won the playoff match-tournament. Also in 1947, he tied for 1st-2nd with Semyon Furman in the Championship of the Spartak Club, with 15/19, and also won that playoff match.

It took him some time to qualify for his first Soviet final. He was unsuccessful in the semi-final at Leningrad 1945 (URSchsf-14) with 5.5/15 for a tied 14th-15th place. He improved the next year, also at Leningrad (URSchsf-15) with 9.5/18, but this was not good enough to advance. In the semi-final at Vilnius 1949 (URSchsf-17), he again failed to move on with a tied 7th-8th place, at 9/17, with the winners being Furman, Vladas Mikėnas, and Alexey Sokolsky. He improved at Tula 1950 (URSchsf-18) with 8/15 for a tied 5th-7th place, but still fell short, as the winners were Averbakh and Georgy Borisenko.

Vladimir Simagin (June 21, 1919 in Moscow – September 25, 1968 in Kislovodsk) was a Russian chess grandmaster. He was three times Moscow champion (1947, 1956, and 1959), helped to train Vasily Smyslov to the World Championship, and made many significant contributions to chess openings. He died of a heart attack while playing in the Kislovodsk tournament.