Viacheslav Vasilyevich Ragozin (October 8, 1908 – March 11, 1962) was a Soviet chess Grandmaster, an International Arbiter of chess, and a World Correspondence Chess Champion. October 8 is the 281st day of the year (282nd in leap years). ... 1908 (MCMVIII) is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 11 March is the 70th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (71st in Leap year). ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Chess is an abstract strategy board game for two players. ... The title International Grandmaster is awarded to world-class chess masters by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. ... International Arbiter is a title awarded by the world governing body of chess, FIDE, to individuals deemed capable of acting as arbiter in important events (the arbiters are responsible for ensuring the rules and laws of chess are adhered to). ... Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through e-mail or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon. ...

Born in the city of St.Petersburg, Ragozin's chess career first came to the fore with a series of excellent results in the 1930s. In the earliest of these, he defeated the respected master Ilyin-Zhenevsky in a 1930 match and was himself awarded the title of soviet master. At Moscow in 1935, he won the best game prize for his victory against Lilienthal. At the very strong Moscow tournament of 1936, he beat Flohr and Lasker and came very close to defeating Capablanca, the ever-resourceful ex-world champion scrambling to find a perpetual check at the game's frantic conclusion. There followed a victory at the Leningrad championship of 1936 and second place shared with Konstantinopolsky (behind Levenfish) at the Soviet Championship of 1937. At the 1939 Leningrad-Moscow tournament, he finished third equal, behind Flohr and Reshevsky, but ahead of Keres. Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland... Andre Lilienthal (born 5 May 1911) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... Emanuel Lasker (December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player and mathematician, born at Berlinchen in Brandenburg (now Barlinek in Poland). ... Samuel Herman (Sammy) Reshevsky (born November 26, 1911, Ozorkow, Poland - died April 4, 1992, New York, USA) was a leading American chess Grandmaster. ... Paul Keres Paul Keres (January 7, 1916 – June 5, 1975) (approximate pronunciation CARE-ess) was an Estonian chess grandmaster (born in Narva), one of the strongest chess players of all time, apart from the World chess champions. ...

Success continued into the 1940s with first prize at Sverdlovsk in 1942 and a repeat triumph at the Leningrad Championship of 1945. In 1946, he finished outright first at Helsinki and beat Bondarevsky in a match. His greatest achievement in over-the-board chess then followed at the Chigorin Memorial (Moscow) tournament of 1947, where he placed second, a half-point behind Botvinnik, but notably ahead of such luminaries as Smyslov, Boleslavsky and Keres. Mikhail Chigorin (12 November 1850–25 January 1908) was a leading Russian chess player and the first grandmaster from Russia. ... Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik (Михаи́л Моисе́евич Ботви́нник) (August 17, 1911 - May 5, 1995) was a Russian International Grandmaster and long-time World Champion of chess. ... Vasily Smyslov Vasily Vasiliyevich Smyslov (Васи́лий Смысло́в) (born March 24, 1921) is a chess player. ... Isaac Yefremovich Boleslavsky (1919 – February 15, 1977) was a Ukrainian-Jewish chess grandmaster. ...

By the 1950s, he and most of his generation had been overtaken by the new wave of players emerging from the Soviet chess schools, but Ragozin continued his patronage of the Soviet Championship, competing a total of eleven times, from 1934-1956. Of his rare post-1950 international tournament appearances, his best result came at the 1956 Marianske-Lazne Steinitz Memorial tournament, where he finished second behind Filip, ahead of Flohr, Pachman, Stahlberg and a young Wolfgang Uhlmann. Wilhelm Steinitz Wilhelm (later William) Steinitz (May 17, 1836–August 12, 1900) was an Austrian chess player and the first official world chess champion. ... Ludek Pachman (May 11, 1924 – March 6, 2003) was a Czechoslovakian chess grandmaster. ... Gideon Stahlberg (1908 - 1967) was a Swedish chess grandmaster. ... Wolfgang Uhlmann (born March 29, 1935) is a prominent German International Grandmaster of chess. ...

Throughout his life, he displayed an interest and talent for almost every aspect of the game of chess. For his over-the-board play, he became a grandmaster in 1950 and in 1951, he obtained the title of international arbiter. From 1956–1958, his main focus switched to correspondence chess, where he showed that he was also an expert analyst and theoretician by becoming the 2nd ICCF World Correspondence Chess Champion in 1959. His correspondence chess grandmaster title was awarded the same year. International Correspondence Chess Federation ICCF is the International Correspondence Chess Federation. ...

With Ragozin's wide range of achievements, came a previously unparalleled range of expertise and specialised knowledge of the game; a fact that had not escaped the attention of world champion Mikhail Botvinnik. He recognised that Ragozin would make an ideal sparring partner and they played many secret training matches, as Botvinnik prepared for important world championship encounters. Ragozin's style had always been experimental and risky, particularly with regard to the sacrifice of pawns for the initiative. As Botvinnik was attempting to put together a repertoire of solid, reliable openings, it was vital that they were rigorously tested against any latent sacrificial play. Accordingly, many historians attribute Ragozin's contribution as a significant factor in Botvinnik's success. The 1984 World Chess Championship was between Anatoly Karpov (left) and Garry Kasparov (right). ... This is a list of chess openings by the ECO classification: See also Chess and chess openings. ...

Ragozin and Botvinnik also teamed up to train for the 1944 Soviet championship. To more or less simulate the noise that would be present in the tournament hall, they practiced with the radio blasting at high volume. Botvinnik won the tournament, whilst Ragozin, placing 13th out of 17, blamed his defeats on the unusual quietness of his surroundings.

His contributions to opening theory mainly concerned the development of systems by which the player of the black pieces could achieve equality in the Queen's Gambit and Nimzo Indian complexes. In each case, the moves were preparatory to the central pawn push e6-e5. The Queens Gambit is a chess opening that starts with the moves 1. ... The Nimzo-Indian Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves (in algebraic notation) 1. ...

For many years Viacheslav Ragozin edited the magazine publication Shakhmaty v SSSR, but he also had a career in the construction industry as a civil engineer. The term civil engineer refers to an individual who practices civil engineering. ...

He died in Moscow while putting together a collection of his best games, which his friends completed for publication in 1964, under the title Izbrannye Partii Ragozina. It contains 74 games spanning his career.

References

• Hooper, David and Kenneth Whyld (1996). The Oxford Companion To Chess, Oxford University. ISBN 0192800493.
• Cafferty, Bernard and Mark Taimanov (1998). The Soviet Championships, Cadogan Chess. ISBN 1857442016.