Dr. Nikolay Minev

GRIVAS CHESS INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY FOUNDED 2012 DR. NIKOLAY MINEV EFSTRATIOS GRIVAS Dr. Nikolay Minev ® Efstratios Grivas 2017 1 Dr. Nikolay Minev Dr. Nikolay Nikolaev Minev (Bulgarian: Our friendship has continued for close to Николай Минев) born on November 8th, twenty-eight years now. I recently realized 1931 in Rousse, Bulgaria and passed away that I was uniquely positioned to share Niko- on March 10th, 2017 in Seattle, USA. He lay’s story and perspective on chess with a was an International Master (IM) and noted wider audience than they had known before. chess author. First, he is my friend; and second, I have a Dr. Minev was awarded the IM title by blog! When I spoke with him about my blog, FIDE in 1960. He was the champion of Bul- and suggested doing this interview, he garia in 1953, 1965, and 1966. He played for agreed immediately. What follows is the Bulgaria in the Chess Olympiad six times conversation that took place in his study (1954, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, and 1966). over the course of two afternoons. Dr. Minev's best international results were: My thanks to Nikolay for being so gener- third at Varna in 1960, second at Warsaw in ous with his time, and to Elena also, both for 1961, tie for first at Sombor in 1966, and the two pictures of her and Nikolay and for second at Albena in 1975. insuring that we always had plenty of He contributed to early editions of the En- mouth-watering pastries on hand, and strong cyclopaedia of Chess Openings and the En- Bulgarian coffee. cyclopaedia of Chess Endings. Dr. Minev Derrick: Nikolay, there has been a lot of and his wife immigrated to the United States confusion about this point, so perhaps you in the mid-1980s. will clear it up for us once and for all. Where He lived in Seattle and he was associated and when were you born? with Seattle Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan Nikolay: I was born in Bulgaria in the city and his magazine ‘Inside Chess’ in the of Russe, which is on the Danube across the 1980s and 1990s. Romanian border, and I was born on No- Here is a very personal interview, which vember 8, 1931. There was a lot of confu- can be also found in https://derricksblog. sion about this because fifty years ago, FIDE wordpress.com/2011/04/25/my-interview- published in their notes for one Olympiad wit. This was published on April 25th, 2011. that I was born in January, and from that time in many publications it was written that An Interview with Dr. Nikolay Minev Minev was born on the 8th of January, 1931. I met Nikolay Minev at a chess tourna- It’s not true, and now the correct date is ment in Seattle in August, 1983. I was a shown on the internet. spectator at that tournament, and in one Derrick: All right, I’m happy to publish round I found myself engaged in very pleas- the correct date here also. Tell me, how were ant conversation with Nikolay’s wife Elena, you introduced to chess? who was there with her husband. Nikolay: Very interesting! I was with my Sometime later, I began taking chess les- mom and my sister at the circus. One of our sons from Nikolay, but before long, our time old friends was with my mom because my together became less formal and more father had died many years before, and when friendly, and he refused to accept any further we returned home, he said to my mom, payment from me. ‘Why haven’t you put this young man in the I was often first with the score of the most chess club in Russe?’. recent World Championship game, and as This was very interesting to me, but at the the two of us played through innumerable time we didn’t react very much. At this time games together, I never ceased to marvel at I started to play soccer for the junior team. how quickly Nikolay understood things that One day the soccer match was played in became clear to me only after his patient raining weather. When I returned home I explanation. didn’t tell my mother that I had been playing Dr. Nikolay Minev ® Efstratios Grivas 2017 2 soccer, because my father had died from ately after the Second World War. There soccer. I began to be ill - three days with a was no information coming, not even from very high temperature. Russia at this time. The doctor came and said, ‘Okay, this guy After that began to come Russian books, probably was somewhere in very cold etc., but when I learned chess, there was no weather, and this is why he is sick’. My other information except for this book. It mother said, ‘Where were you?’ and I con- was incredible! After that, we changed this fessed that I had been playing soccer. She book for one other book: Five Hundred said, ‘Now, you will stop playing soccer, Games by Tartakower, and we also swal- and start playing chess’, and she bought me lowed everything inside. a chess board. That was the start. This is, by the way, a very good book. You Derrick: Who was, or were, your most will learn everything about every opening. I important teachers? still have this, in English. Nikolay: When I was sixteen or seventeen Derrick: Of which of your chess accom- years old, a master from Russia came to plishments are you the most proud? Russe, a Bulgarian master named Kamen Nikolay: I think my best individual result Piskov. This guy won the Bulgarian cham- was in the tournament in Novi Sad, 1972. I pionship in 1947. I don’t know why, but he finished in third through fifth place, but it started to play with me every evening when was a very strong tournament. There were I met him at the chess club. many other tournaments in which I placed He beat me sometimes 12, 20 games, well, but I had very little opportunity to play sometimes 15 games, sometimes 10 games. internationally because of my work. This went on for two or three months. After Until 1973, I worked as a doctor, and it that I started to take some games from him. was possible to go to major tournaments We played together in the 1947 champion- only twice a year. This was why I partici- ship; he won first place, I won last place. pated mostly in team competition. My best Derrick: Was there a particular event that team result was in the World Student Team made you decide to become a chess master? Championship, Reykjavik 1957, where I Nikolay: The particular event was when I finished in first place on second board ahead placed last in the Bulgarian championship of of Spassky. 1947. I am a competitive person, and I said, Derrick: What has been your greatest dis- ‘No, no, no, I will go ahead!’. appointment in chess? Two years after that, in the autumn of Nikolay: I don’t know. I have no disap- 1949, I went to Sofia to the university to pointments in chess. study medicine, and there I began immedi- Derrick: Do you have a favorite among ately to develop. In 1950 I participated in the your own games? semi-final, qualifying for the final, and took Nikolay: My favorite from my own games first through third place in the champion- was my game with Lothar Zinn from the ship. 1967 zonal tournament in Halle, Germany. Derrick: Were there any books that you The outcome of this game hung on just one remember as especially important or helpful move for probably twenty moves. to you as a student? The other game was my first victory over a Nikolay: First of all, when I learned chess, grandmaster, which happened against Szabo there were no books around. My friend in the 1954 Olympiad. This was the first Milev borrowed one book from the library, time a Bulgarian had ever defeated a grand- and took it home. It was Three Hundred master. Games by Tarrasch. Derrick: You’ve already mentioned Three After that, I took the book for myself, and Hundred Games by Tarrasch and Tar- I copied by hand half of the book. We saw takover’s Five Hundred Games as having only this book; there was nothing else, not been important to you. Do you have any even magazines. This was in 1946, immedi- other favorite book or books? Dr. Nikolay Minev ® Efstratios Grivas 2017 3 Nikolay: I read many books, and every ested to hear that I had played chess with book I think has something to offer. You are Reshevsky, Lombardy, and Fischer, and our able to learn from every book. Those two visa application was granted immediately. books made a special impression on me be- After that we moved to Seattle; Elena cause they were the first chess books I ever found a temporary job and I started to have read, but I have many other books and in some students. I won first prize in a tourna- every one I have found something interest- ment in Los Angeles and some other local ing. tournaments, and continued my work for Derrick: When and why did you decide to Chess Informant on the Encyclopedia of move to the United States? Chess Endings. Elena soon found a perma- Nikolay: This was a special situation. In nent job in a good laboratory; I began to 1972, I was working as the chief of a toxi- have many more students, and we started to cology laboratory in Sofia.

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