Notable Games
Grigory Levenfish
14 celebrated games · 150 in the full archive
◈The games that made the legend
Levenfish – Alekhine · 1913 · 1–0
St Petersburg 1913. A 21-move win over the 20-year-old Alexander Alekhine — a future World Champion — the c-file skewer 20.Rc1+/21.Rxc3+ winning the queen.
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Levenfish – Grigoriev · 1920 · 1–0
The first Soviet Championship, Moscow 1920. A win over the celebrated endgame-study composer Nikolai Grigoriev.
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Lasker – Levenfish · 1925 · 0–1
Moscow 1925. A Black win in the French over former World Champion Emanuel Lasker, at the great international tournament — Levenfish's passed a-pawn queening (62…a1=Q+).
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Bogoljubow – Levenfish · 1925 · 0–1
USSR Championship 1925. A 16-move miniature: Levenfish (Black) lets Efim Bogoljubov's queen gorge on h8 and h7, then traps it — 15…Bg7 and 16…Bf5.
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Levenfish – Bohatirchuk · 1933 · 1–0
USSR Championship 1933. A Ruy Lopez win over Fedor Bohatirchuk, from the year Levenfish would go on to his first Soviet title.
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Levenfish – Ragozin · 1934 · 1–0
USSR Championship 1934. A French Winawer finished by a queen sacrifice and mate — 32.Rg8+ Qxg8 33.Rxg8+ Kxg8 34.Qh8#.
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Levenfish – Alatortsev · 1935 · 1–0
Moscow 1935. A Grünfeld endgame win over Vladimir Alatortsev.
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Levenfish – Flohr · 1936 · 1–0
Moscow 1936. A win over Salo Flohr — then a leading World Championship candidate — converted in a knight endgame (45.Nxb7).
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Levenfish – Botvinnik · 1937 · 1–0
From his celebrated 1937 match with Mikhail Botvinnik — the reigning Soviet champion and future World Champion — which the 48-year-old Levenfish drew 6½–6½. One of three wins he scored: a Grünfeld ground down to a won ending.
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Levenfish – Botvinnik · 1937 · 1–0
A second win from the 1937 Botvinnik match — a 67-move Nimzo-Indian in which Levenfish's technique wears down the future World Champion.
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Levenfish – Rauzer · 1937 · 1–0
USSR Championship 1937. A 92-move endgame win over the opening theorist Vsevolod Rauzer — the kind of technical marathon that made Levenfish, co-author of the classic Rook Endings, a byword for endgame mastery.
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Levenfish – Konstantinopolsky · 1939 · 1–0
Leningrad–Moscow 1939. A patient technical win over Alexander Konstantinopolsky in a long Caro-Kann endgame.
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Levenfish – Lilienthal · 1948 · 1–0
USSR Championship 1948. A Grünfeld win over Andor Lilienthal, the knights combining to a decisive fork (36.Nf6+, 39.Ne4+).
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Levenfish – Smyslov · 1949 · 1–0
USSR Championship 1949. At sixty, Levenfish beats Vasily Smyslov — the future World Champion — with a kingside attack (31.Nxe6+, 32.Rh8+).
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