Mikhail Umansky

Mikhail Umansky (Russian: Михаил Маркович Уманский, scientific transliteration Mikhail Markovič Umansky; born January 21, 1952 in Stavropol, † 17 December 2010 in Augsburg ) was a German chess master with Russian roots, mathematician, worked as a programmer and the 13th Correspondence Chess World Champion.

OTB

Umansky began in 1963 with Chess hours in the Palace of Pioneers in Stavropol, where he drew attention early on his talent. Already as a teenager he was admitted to a particular sponsored youth squad, the other below grandmaster Igor Bondarewski trained. In the USSR Youth Championships in 1965 and 1966, he took second place. Four times he won the championship of the circle Stavropol. In 1967 he moved to Pyatigorsk. In 1968 he received the title of National Master of Sports. In the Russian Championship 1989, he was ranked fourth He was trained at the Russian State Sports Academy for chess coach and in 1997 received the title of International Master awarded for its achievements in OTB chess by FIDE. Since 1998, he played for the chess section of TSV Haunstetten, most recently in the national league southern Bavaria.

Correspondence Chess

1973 Umansky began the correspondence chess, in which he made ​​rapid progress. He was instantly on his first participation 1974-75 Russian champion in this discipline, in 1977-78 he was USSR champion. In 1998 he won the 13th Correspondence Chess World Championship ( 10, -0 = 6) and settled in the same year to Germany, but he continued to play correspondence chess in colors of Russia. In the years 2001 to 2004, the ICCF has a unique invitation correspondence chess tournament on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the organization organized, who participated in the all living Correspondence Chess World Champion. Umansky was obtained with six and two undecided portions of the superior winner. In correspondence chess, he is Grand Master since 1986 and International Master since 1995.

Game example

When jubilee tournament for the 50th anniversary of the ICCFs, Umansky has won with a beautiful black game against Grigori Sanakoev:

Sanakoev - Umansky, started on 1 July 2001, (played by e -mail)

1 e4 g6 2 d4 Bg7 3 Nc3 d6 4 Be3 a6 a4 Nf6 5 By Nf6 created the Pirc Ufimtsev - defense. 6 h3 0-0 7 g4 aggressive, but probably too hasty. White wins space on the kingside and prepares the Fianchettierung the white -field runner before, the purpose of supporting g2 the white center. But the plan is too ambitious, White loses too much time and weakens his kingside too c5 d5 e6 8 9 Lg2 exd5 10 exd5 Nbd7 After the white push d5 is the game in Benoni - Benoni Defence defense gone. 11 Sge2 Re8 12 Sg3 13 Ne5 0-0 Rb8 14 De2 Sfxg4! See diagram A nice positional piece sacrifice. For the Springer Schwarz receives two white farmers and the superior position 15 hxg4 Lxg4 16 Dd2 Sc4 now manages black also, abzutauschen the good dark-squared Le3, whereby its positional advantage becomes even greater and he wins a third farmers 17 Dc1 SXE3 18 fxe3 Txe3 19 Dxe3 Sanakoev is now faced with a difficult decision: The Sg3 hangs and does not have good field. Moreover threatens Black Ld4 plus Dh4 with probably decisive mating attack. Therefore accesses white to a final, desperate means: the queen sacrifice for a tower and a total of two minor pieces; Well, as Umansky took advantage of the hasty action of white kingside Ld4 20 Df2 f5 21 Sge2 Lxe2 22 Sxe2 Lxf2 23 Txf2 Df6 24 c3 Re8 25 Sf4 Te3 26 a5 De5 27 Kf1 g5 28 Se6 f4 29 Td1 Qf5 White gave up because the black pawns on the kingside are unstoppable.