Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Russian chess player, who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigran Petrosian in 1966; defeated Petrosian in 1969 to become world champion; then lost to Bobby Fischer in a famous match in 1972.
Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal was a Soviet Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and one of the best players of all time. Tal played in attacking and daring combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability. It has been said that "Every game for him was as inimitable and invaluable as a poem". He was often called "Misha", a diminutive for Mikhail, and he earned the nickname "The Magician from Riga". Both The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games and Modern Chess Brilliancies include more games by Tal than any other player. He also previously held the record for the longest unbeaten streak in competitive chess history with 95 games between 23 October 1973 and 16 October 1974, until Ding Liren's streak of 100 games between 9 August 2017 and 11 November 2018. In addition, Tal was a highly regarded chess writer.
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was a Soviet and Russian chess player. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess.
Paul Keres was an Estonian chess player and writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s and in 1950, was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE on its inaugural list.
Leonid Zakharovich Stein was a Soviet chess Grandmaster from Ukraine. He won three USSR Chess Championships in the 1960s, and was among the world's top ten players during that era.
Isaac Yefremovich Boleslavsky was a Soviet Ukrainian chess player and writer.
Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky was a Soviet chess player. He was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE in 1962 and was a frequent contender for the World Championship, although he never achieved that title. He was one of the strongest players in the world from the early 1960s until the late 1980s, as well as a distinguished author and opening theorist whose contributions in this field remain important to the present day.
Alexander Koblencs was a Latvian chess master, trainer, and writer. He is best known as the trainer of the 1960-61 World Champion Mikhail Tal.
At the World Chess Championship 1963, Tigran Petrosian narrowly qualified to challenge Mikhail Botvinnik for the World Chess Championship, and then won the match to become the ninth World Chess Champion. The cycle is particularly remembered for the controversy surrounding the Candidates' Tournament at Curaçao in 1962, which resulted in FIDE changing the format of the Candidates Tournament to a series of knockout matches.
Evgeni Andreyevich Vasiukov was a Russian chess player, one of the strongest in the world during his peak. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1961. During his career, he won the Moscow Championship on six occasions and scored numerous victories in international tournaments, such as Belgrade Open 1961, Moscow International 1961, East Berlin 1962, Reykjavik 1968, and Manila 1974. He was rarely at his best in Soviet Championship Finals, which were among the very toughest events in the world, and never made the Soviet team for an Olympiad or a European Team Championship. Vasiukov won the World Senior Chess Championship in 1995.
Igor Platonov was a Soviet Ukrainian chess player. He was active between 1958 and 1984, with his best years from 1967 to 1972, when he earned the title of Grandmaster of the Soviet Union. Top tournament results included a tie for first in the Kiev Championship of 1963, a tied 3rd-4th place in the very strong 1964 Trade Union Championship, a tied 7th-9th place in the 1969 Soviet Zonal at Moscow, and 2nd place in the José Raúl Capablanca Memorial tournament, Cienfuegos 1972. He played in five straight Soviet finals from 1967 to 1971. After his active career, he became a chess trainer.
Gennady Pavlovich Kuzmin was a Ukrainian chess player and trainer. He reached his peak strength in the early to mid-1970s and in 1973, was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE, the governing body.
The World Blitz Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in chess played under blitz time controls. Since 2012, FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz chess tournament and billed it as the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships. The current world blitz champion is the Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen.
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi was a Soviet and Swiss chess grandmaster and writer. He is considered one of the strongest players never to have become World Chess Champion.
Kārlis Klāsups was a Latvian chess master who won Latvian Chess Championship in 1959.
Hillar Kärner was an Estonian chess player who won the Estonian Chess Championship seven times. International Master (1980).
The 1956 Soviet Chess Championship was the 23rd edition of USSR Chess Championship. Held from 10 January to 15 February 1956 in Leningrad. The tournament was won by Mark Taimanov who defeats Boris Spassky and Yuri Averbakh in a play-off. The final were preceded by semifinals events at Leningrad, Moscow and Riga.This edition marked the debut of the future world champion Mikhail Tal, often described as the magician from Riga, who demonstrated his over-adventurous tactical style, notably in the third round against Simagin, who had the honor to be one of the first to wonder about the soundness of the piece sacrifice that had defeated him.
The 1958 Soviet Chess Championship was the 25th edition of USSR Chess Championship. Held from 12 January to 14 February 1958 in Riga. The tournament was won by Mikhail Tal. The final were preceded by quarterfinals events at Tbilisi, Minsk and Ashkhabad ; semifinals at Leningrad, Sverdlovsk and Kiev.
The 1960 Soviet Chess Championship was the 27th edition of USSR Chess Championship. Held from 26 January to 27 February 1960 in Leningrad. The tournament was won by Viktor Korchnoi. The final were preceded by semifinals events at Cheliabinsk, Tallinn e Yerevan. Mikhail Tal was missing, preparing for his world title match against Botvinnik. Paul Keres was in Cuba as part of a cultural delegation from Estonia.
The 1967 Soviet Chess Championship was the 35th edition of USSR Chess Championship. Held from 7 December to 26 December 1967 in Tbilisi. The tournament was won by Lev Polugaevsky and Mikhail Tal. For the first time the Soviet Chess Championship was played on a Swiss system organized as a 13 round tournament for 130 players.
