1. Evgeni Andreyevich Vasiukov was a Russian chess player, one of the strongest in the world during his peak.
16 Facts About Evgeni Vasiukov
1. 2.
Evgeni Vasiukov was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1961.
3.
Evgeni Vasiukov was rarely at his best in Soviet Championship Finals, which were among the very toughest events in the world, and never made the Soviet team for an Olympiad or a European Team Championship.
4.
Evgeni Vasiukov's family was evacuated to Tula during World War II, and his father died in the Battle of Kursk.
5.
Evgeni Vasiukov learned to play chess at the age of 15, a very late age even for that time.
6.
That same year, Vasiukov represented Moscow in the Soviet Team Championship finals in Riga.
7.
Evgeni Vasiukov played in the Soviet Championship semi-final at Yerevan 1955 and finished in the middle of a powerful field.
8.
Evgeni Vasiukov scored his best result when he won the 1961 Belgrade Open, ahead of Svetozar Gligoric.
9.
Evgeni Vasiukov tied for first in the 1962 Moscow Championship, his fourth title there.
10.
Evgeni Vasiukov was unable to defeat top-ranking Soviet stars such as Viktor Korchnoi, Anatoly Karpov, Boris Spassky, or Stein.
11.
The next year at Kharkov, the format was a Swiss system, and Evgeni Vasiukov was just above the middle of the pack, as Tal and Polugaevsky won.
12.
Since Evgeni Vasiukov never placed near the top in Soviet Zonal competition, he was unable to earn an opportunity to play in an Interzonal tournament.
13.
Evgeni Vasiukov was unable to maintain his peak of the early 1960s, but he remained remarkably competitive for many years afterwards, especially in international tournaments outside the Soviet Union which had mixed-strength fields, where he scored most of his successes.
14.
Evgeni Vasiukov won several titles, and was almost always around the top places, when he competed outside the Soviet Union.
15.
Evgeni Vasiukov was Moscow Champion for the sixth time in 1978, and won at Dnepropetrovsk 1980.
16.
Evgeni Vasiukov played five times in the traditional match against Yugoslavia, at Lvov 1962, Rijeka 1963, Sukhumi 1966, Skopje 1969, and Tbilisi 1973.