Chigorin Memorial 1979

◇Sochi in September

The Chigorin Memorial had been an annual fixture in the Black Sea resort of Sochi since 1963, honouring Mikhail Chigorin (1850–1908), the founding figure of the Russian chess school. The 1979 edition followed the series' standard pattern — sixteen players, fifteen rounds, 120 games — with a Soviet core of Evgeny Sveshnikov, Vladimir Antoshin, Eduard Gufeld, Alexey Suetin, Igor Zaitsev and Alexander Panchenko facing a broad international contingent: Bulgaria's Nikola Kirov, Yugoslavia's Božidar Ivanović, England's William Hartston, Czechoslovakia's Josef Augustin, Romania's Theodor Ghițescu, Hungary's László Bárczay and East Germany's Günther Möhring.

◇An unbeaten champion

Rashkovsky, a product of the Sverdlovsk Palace of Pioneers and an international master since 1976, scored 10½ from 15 without losing a game — six wins and nine draws — to finish half a point clear of Sveshnikov, who was also unbeaten on 10. The victory is recorded as the most successful international tournament result of Rashkovsky's career; the grandmaster title followed in 1980, and he later became a prominent Russian trainer and director of the Urals Chess Academy.

Shared third on 9½ told a story of its own: alongside the 20-year-old Andrei Kharitonov stood Lev Psakhis, also 20 and still untitled. Within two years Psakhis would be a double USSR champion, sharing the 1980 title with Alexander Beliavsky and the 1981 title with Garry Kasparov. Panchenko, in mid-field here, would return to win the next Chigorin Memorial outright in 1980.