AS CORONER I MUST AVERBAKH
Go me, I came up with a pun that wasn’t checkmate. Yuri Averbakh was the first chess grandmaster to live to 100, a milestone he probably wouldn’t have accomplished without his shoe size. As the German army marched into Moscow in 1941, Averbakh escaped conscription because his feet were too large for any available army boots. Most conscripted Soviet men his age died at the front. After establishing his chess credentials, he became something of the Soviet ambassador for the game as his fluency in English allowed him to play in Australia and the US. 1954 was his best year as a player with several key wins, despite infuriating his captain by showing up late to a match which he ultimately lost. He later mentored figures like Boris Spassky and Garry Kasparov, and wrote several books on chess with a particular gift for concisely explaining endgames. His own endgame has arrived three months after his centennial, in a rare instance of the Financial Times being the first to the QO punch. Three teams advance forth on the checkered board.
Yuri Averbakh
8 February 1922 – 7 May 2022, aged 100
3 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀 4 POINTS)