Yuri Balashov

◇Shadrinsk

Balashov was born on 12 March 1949 in Shadrinsk, in the Kurgan Region, into a large working-class family. His older brother Alexander taught him the game. He was the regional champion at twelve, and at fifteen he became the youngest master in the country.

He was one of the first pupils of Mikhail Botvinnik's chess school. Older players, Efim Geller and Vladimir Bagirov among them, were struck by how much opening theory he knew. In 1967 he entered the chess faculty of the Moscow institute of physical culture, where he wrote his diploma on the games of Bobby Fischer, and he later helped Mark Taimanov prepare for his match with Fischer.

◇Moscow champion

In 1970 Balashov won the Moscow championship and finished fourth in the USSR Championship at Riga. FIDE made him an International Master in 1970 and a grandmaster in 1973. He played on the second board for the Soviet teams at the World Student Team Championships of 1971, 1972 and 1974, and in 1971 won the individual gold medal on his board with 6½/8.

He played in fifteen USSR Championships. His best result came at Moscow in 1976, where he finished second with 11 points, one behind Karpov.

◇Tournaments and Interzonals

Balashov shared first place at Lone Pine in 1977 with Nona Gaprindashvili, Oscar Panno and Dragutin Sahović, and at Wijk aan Zee in 1982 with John Nunn. He beat Smyslov at Tilburg in 1977. According to Chessmetrics, he was the eleventh-strongest player in the world in July 1977.

He played in four Interzonals: Manila 1976, where he beat Spassky, Rio de Janeiro 1979, Toluca 1982 and Taxco 1985, from which he withdrew after eleven rounds. He did not reach the Candidates.

◇Playing for the team

Balashov played in four European Team Championships, in 1970, 1973, 1977 and 1980, and won the individual gold medal on the fifth board in 1977. At the 1980 Olympiad in Valletta he scored 7½/10 as first reserve, and the Soviet Union won the gold medal.

◇Karpov's second

Before the Karpov–Spassky Candidates match of 1974, Balashov faced requests from both sides. Kasparov's Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part V says that Spassky approached him without knowing he was already on Karpov's team. Balashov chose neutrality and did not help Karpov in that match (p. 249).

Igor Zaitsev's account in the same volume places Balashov with Tal and Zaitsev at Karpov's six-week training camp in Gagry before Baguio in 1978. He recalled Tal and Balashov setting the tone in analysis, supported by exceptional memories. As an example, Zaitsev said Balashov could tell them the day of the week on which Alekhine had been born (pp. 316–317).

Balashov was Karpov's second in the World Championship matches of 1978, 1981 and 1984, and the work cost him time at the board. In 1992 he was Boris Spassky's second for the return match with Fischer in Yugoslavia. He was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples in 1981 and became a FIDE Senior Trainer. With Eduard Prandstetter he wrote Basic Endgames (1992).

◇Senior champion

In 2014 Balashov won the senior section of the Moscow Open and tied for first place in the 65+ section of the World Senior Championship with Anatoly Vaisser, Viktor Kupreichik and Herman van Riemsdijk, taking the silver medal on tiebreak. In 2018 he tied for first with Vlastimil Jansa and again took silver. He played for the Russia team that won the European Senior Team Championship in 2014, and for the Russian teams that won the 65+ section of the World Senior Team Championship every year from 2015 to 2019.