Tolush

#kingplusknight

Tolush was a strong theoretician in which openings?

i feel like these GMs were just sparring partners.  because a 2500 GM (Tolush) is going to lose to a 2700 GM (Spassky)

#leningrad

l. to r.   Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, Alexander Tolush, Vladimir Alatortsev,
             Paul  Keres, Efim Geller, Tigran Petrosian

Nice find batgal !  Tolush sharpened Spassky's play and taught him how to play with the initiative . It was during their work together that Spassky took up the kings gambit . Spassky once said that before Tolush he played like an " old man " . 

standing:
V.Korchnoi, A.Gankin, A.Lutikov, B. Spassky,V.Kondratev, V.Lyavdansky
sitting:
S.Avtonomov, V.Zak, A.Tolush, A.Geller, V.Staruhin

                                           Tolush during WWII

                                                  Tolush giving a simul


Tolush, born May 1, 1910  was called the "майским мальчиком," the "May Boy," but usually adressed as Sasha. His father died in 1925 and his mother remarried.  His step-father, a cobbler, was critical of Tolush's growing fascination with chess but that failed to discourage him.  Tolush's other fascination was soccer. He was forced to give up football competitively for health reasons. He dropped out of school after the equivalent of 9th grade.  When he was 31  - on June 22, 1941-  he volunteered not just for the army, but to go to the front to defend Lenningrad.  He stayed at the front for 2 years.  During his army years, he also gave simuls for the other soldiers' and officers' benefit.  Towards the end and after the war Tolush served years as Paul Keres' coach. In 1952, at the end of this tenure with Keres, a 15 year old Boris Spassky appeared and Tolush replaced Vladimir Zak as his coached and stayed with him until 1960.  Tolush, a great combinative player, instilled in Spassky a strong taste for attacking chess.  Tolush died on March 2, 1969, just a few months before his former protege won the World Championship title on June 17th.

those are nice photos.

were they from your family album?

#theweaknessofQ3

U ought to consider getting a better camera. Nobody uses black and white photos anymore. You could have gotten color photos if u had used a digital canera like Nokia

Stupid trolls ....

Family Album in color.

Hey Reb,

Thank you for being the worst degenerate in  my thread.

Sincerely,

The creator of the thread

And when have I been a degenerate ?  

Um...

When you ravished Alexander Tolush's greatgranddaughter?

well david bronstein did marry alex boleslavsky's daughter

and i think there was a 30 year old age difference.

david bronstein definitely likes his women young.

and young girls definitely do like dating older men

Tatiana Boleslavskaya, 21 years younger than David Bronstein, was also a professor of the History and Theory of Music and the University of Minsk.

   He married three times.
   His first wife was Olga Ignatieva, a future WIM who, born in 1920, was 4 years older than her husband. Together they had a son, Lev.
   His second wife was Marina Viktorovna.  I don't know her age.
   His third wife was Tatiana Boleslavskaya, the daughter of the Bronstein's friend, Isaac Boleslavsky.

As an afterthought: Photos of  other 20th century GMs and their wives can be viewed here.

Very interesting! Tal had good taste.

I don't remember Alexander and Valentina Ivanovna Tolush having any children. I tried looking for an answer, but found nothing conclusive.  I think I remember reading once that they were childless and that Tolush treated Boris Spassky as a substitute son.

According to chess journalist  Leo Chariton:
     In his book "Antishahmaty" Korchnoi wrote that he was jealous of Spassky, because his teacher was Tolush. The envy was rooted in the fact that Tolush taught Boris from a young age to abandon safety with chess material sacrifice; to play relying on intuition, and not to sit hiding in a trench for protection . Korchnoi was sorry that he did not have such a teacher.

Spassky himself wrote:
     Eight years (1952-1960) Tolush was my coach. For me, it's been years, not only a great success, but also frustrating. I confess that I was a difficult pupil - I lacked organization and internal discipline. A. Tolush had always been organized and demanded the same from me.
     In those years, I had too much faith in the permanence of the laws of positional play in the Nimzo-Indian. I played as is now called, "correct" chess: methodically, but dry and boring, in my games there was almost no tactics. "Kazimirych" (as friends affectionately called Tolush) revealed to me another world - the magical world of combinations. This change appeared to me extremely interesting and useful.
     Alexander Kazimirovich treated me with great love, and in fatherly way tried to impress and convey all that he knew and understood in chess. I liked to be in his small but close-knit family.