Chigorin Memorial 1961

One of the earlier tournaments in the Chigorin Memorial series honouring Mikhail Chigorin (1850–1908), the leading Russian master of the pre-revolutionary era, was held not at the Black Sea resort of Sochi where the event later settled, but inland at Rostov-on-Don. Six Soviet masters and six invited foreign players contested it, and Mark Taimanov finished clear of the field.

◇A memorial away from Sochi

The Chigorin Memorial commemorates Mikhail Chigorin, the strongest Russian player of the late nineteenth century and a father-figure of the Russian and Soviet chess schools. Where the memorial would become a fixture of the Black Sea resort of Sochi from 1963 onward, this 1961 edition was staged inland at Rostov-on-Don.

The invitation mixed a Soviet contingent with players from across the Eastern bloc and beyond: alongside the home masters sat Dragoljub Ćirić of Yugoslavia, Heinz Liebert of East Germany, Ryszard Drozd of Poland, the Bulgarian Bobekov, Maximilian Ujtelký of Czechoslovakia, and Walter Estrada Degrandi of Uruguay.

◇Taimanov out in front

Mark Taimanov, one of the Soviet Union's leading grandmasters and a noted concert pianist, won the eleven-round round-robin with 8 points. Half a point behind, Rashid Nezhmetdinov — the great attacking master from Kazan — and Vitaly Tarasov shared second on 7½, with Lev Polugaevsky fourth on 6½.

The result reads as a strong home showing: the top four places all went to Soviet players, with the visiting masters filling out the field behind them.