Fedir Bohatyrchuk - Russian-Ukrainian and Soviet Chess

Russian-Ukrainian and Soviet Chess

As a youth, Bohatyrchuk sometimes traveled to chess tournaments with the great Mikhail Chigorin (1850–1908), who had earlier lost a match for the World Championship to Wilhelm Steinitz. Chigorin trained the young player, and influenced his style and openings.

In 1911, Bohatyrchuk won, followed by Stefan Izbinsky, Efim Bogoljubov, etc., at Kiev. In February 1914, he lost an exhibition game against José Raúl Capablanca at Kiev. In 1914, he took 3rd at Kiev. In July/August 1914, he tied for 6th–10th at Mannheim (the 19th DSB Congress, Hauptturnier A). Bohatyrchuk, along with 10 other "Russian" players from the interrupted Mannheım tournament, was interned by Germany after the declaration of war against Russia, which began World War I. In September 1914, Bohatyrchuk and three others (Alexander Alekhine, Peter Petrovich Saburov, and N. Koppelman) were freed and allowed to return home.

Bohatyrchuk played in six USSR Chess Championships: 1923, 1924, 1927, 1931, 1933, and 1934. In July 1923, he tied for 3rd–5th at Petrograd (St Petersburg, Leningrad) at 2nd USSR Championship. In 1924, he took 2nd, behind Vilner, at Kiev (1st Ukrainian SSR Ch.). In August–September 1924, he tied for 3rd–4th at Moscow (3rd USSR Ch.).

In December 1925, he took 11th of 21 at Moscow (1st IT). The event was won by Efim Bogoljubov, followed by Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Frank Marshall, etc. It was the first Soviet government-sponsored tournament, and had 11 of the world's top 16 players, based on ratings from chessmetrics.com. Bohatyrchuk achieved a 2628 performance, according to the Chessmetrics website, which calculates historical ratings.

In 1926, Bohatyrchuk wrote the first chess book "Шахи" (Szachy, Shakhy, Chess) in Ukrainian. In 1927, he won at Kiev. In October 1927, he tied for 1st–2nd with Peter Romanovsky at Moscow (5th USSR Ch.). In 1929, he won at Kiev.

In November 1931, he tied for 3rd–6th at Moscow (7th USSR Ch.), with 10/17, as Mikhail Botvinnik won. In 1933, he won at Moscow (Quadrangular), with 4.5/6. In September 1933, he took 8th at Leningrad (8th USSR Ch.), with 10.5/19, as Botvinnik won again. In December 1934 /January 1935, he tied for 3rd–4th at Leningrad (9th USSR Ch.), with 11.5/19, just half a point behind the joint winners Grigory Levenfish and Ilya Rabinovich.

In March 1935, he tied for 16th–17th at Moscow (2nd IT), with 8/19. The event, which had 8 of the world's top 18 players, according to chessmetrics, was won by Botvinnik and Salo Flohr, but Bohatyrchuk beat Mikhail Botvinnik in their individual game. Bohatyrchuk has mentioned in his autobiography (printed in Russian in San Francisco in 1978) that just after this game the head of the Soviet chess delegation, Minister of Justice Nikolai Krylenko, approached him and said: "You will never beat Botvinnik again!" That was indeed the case as Bohatyrchuk never played Botvinnik again, leaving him with a lifetime score of (+3 =1 –0) against Botvinnik.

In March 1936, he took 3rd at Kiev (8th Ukrainian SSR Ch.), with 11.5/17. In July 1937, he won at Kiev (the 9th Ukrainian Chess Championship), with 12.5/17. In 1938, he took 2nd at Kiev (USSR Ch. semi-final), with 11/17, behind only winner Vasily Panov, but he did not play at the 11th USSR Championship in 1939.