USSR Chess Championship

• Six titles: Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Tal
• Four titles: Tigran Petrosian, Viktor Korchnoi, Alexander Beliavsky
• Three titles: Paul Keres, Leonid Stein, Anatoly Karpov

List of winners

Edition	Date	Place	Winner	Score	Notes
1	4–24 Oct 1920	Moscow	Alexander Alekhine	12/15 (+9−0=6)	Known as the All-Russian Chess Olympiad at the time, this tournament was later recognized as the first USSR championship.
2	8–24 Jul 1923	Petrograd	Peter Romanovsky	10/12 (+9−1=2)
3	23 Aug–15 Sep 1924	Moscow	Efim Bogoljubov	15/17 (+13−0=4)
4	11 Aug–6 Sep 1925	Leningrad	Efim Bogoljubov	14/19 (+11−2=6)
5	26 Sep–25 Oct 1927	Moscow	Peter Romanovsky	14½/20 (+10−1=9) 14½/20 (+12−3=5)	All of Bogatyrchuk's tournament results were erased from Soviet records after he emigrated to Canada and was declared a nonperson.
6	2–20 Sep 1929	Odessa	Boris Verlinsky	5½/8 (+4−1=3), 4/5 (+4−1=0), and 3½/4 (+3−0=1)	The tournament was conducted in three stages.
7	10 Oct–11 Nov 1931	Moscow	Mikhail Botvinnik	13½/17 (+12−2=3)
8	16 Aug–9 Sep 1933	Leningrad	Mikhail Botvinnik	14/19 (+11−2=6)
9	7 Dec 1934–2 Jan 1935	Leningrad	Grigory Levenfish Ilya Rabinovich	12/19 (+8−3=8) 12/19 (+9−4=6)
10	12 Apr–14 May 1937	Tbilisi	Grigory Levenfish	12½/19 (+9−3=7)
11	15 Apr–16 May 1939	Leningrad	Mikhail Botvinnik	12½/17 (+8−0=9)
12	5 Sep–3 Oct 1940	Moscow	Andor Lilienthal Igor Bondarevsky	13½/19 (+8−0=11) 13½/19 (+10−2=7)	Mikhail Botvinnik won the Absolute Championship, 23 Mar–29 Apr 1941, Leningrad/Moscow, 13½/20 (+9−2=9)
13	21 May–17 Jun 1944	Moscow	Mikhail Botvinnik	12½/16 (+11−2=3)
14	1 Jun–3 Jul 1945	Moscow	Mikhail Botvinnik	15/17 (+13−0=4)
15	2 Feb–8 Mar 1947	Leningrad	Paul Keres	14/19 (+10−1=8)
16	10 Nov–13 Dec 1948	Moscow	David Bronstein Alexander Kotov	12/18 (+7−1=10) 12/18 (+10−4=4)
17	16 Oct–20 Nov 1949	Moscow	Vasily Smyslov David Bronstein	13/19 (+9−2=8) 13/19 (+8−1=10)
18	10 Nov–12 Dec 1950	Moscow	Paul Keres	11½/17 (+8−2=7)
19	11 Nov–14 Dec 1951	Moscow	Paul Keres	12/17 (+9−2=6)
20	29 Nov–29 Dec 1952	Moscow	Mikhail Botvinnik	13½/19 (+9−1=9)	Botvinnik defeated Mark Taimanov in a playoff +2−1=3.[1]
21	7 Jan–7 Feb 1954	Kiev	Yuri Averbakh	14½/19 (+10−0=9)
22	11 Feb–15 Mar 1955	Moscow	Efim Geller	12/19 (+10−5=4)	Geller defeated Vasily Smyslov in a playoff +1=6.[2]
23	10 Jan–15 Feb 1956	Leningrad	Mark Taimanov	11½/17 (+8−2=7)	Taimanov defeated Boris Spassky and Yuri Averbakh in a playoff.
24	20 Jan–22 Feb 1957	Moscow	Mikhail Tal	14/21 (+9−2=10)
25	12 Jan–14 Feb 1958	Riga	Mikhail Tal	12½/18 (+10−3=5)
26	9 Jan–11 Feb 1959	Tbilisi	Tigran Petrosian	13½/19 (+8−0=11)
27	26 Jan–26 Feb 1960	Leningrad	Viktor Korchnoi	14/19 (+12−3=4)
28	11 Jan–11 Feb 1961	Moscow	Tigran Petrosian	13½/19 (+9−1=9)
29	16 Nov–12 Dec 1961	Baku	Boris Spassky	14½/20 (+10−1=9)
30	21 Nov–20 Dec 1962	Yerevan	Viktor Korchnoi	14/19 (+10−1=8)
31	23 Nov–27 Dec 1963	Leningrad	Leonid Stein	12/19 (+6−1=12)	Stein defeated Boris Spassky and Ratmir Kholmov in a playoff.
32	25 Dec 1964–27 Jan 1965	Kiev	Viktor Korchnoi	15/19 (+11−0=8)
33	21 Nov–24 Dec 1965	Tallinn	Leonid Stein	14/19 (+10−1=8)
34	28 Dec 1966 – 2 Feb 1967	Tbilisi	Leonid Stein	13/20 (+8−2=10)
35	7–26 Dec 1967	Kharkiv	Lev Polugaevsky Mikhail Tal	10/13 10/13	The tournament was a 126-player Swiss.
36	30 Dec 1968–1 Feb 1969	Alma-Ata	Lev Polugaevsky Alexander Zaitsev	12½/19 (+7−1=11) 12½/19 (+6=13)	Polugaevsky defeated Zaitsev in a playoff +2−1=3.[3]
37	6 Sep–12 Oct 1969	Moscow	Tigran Petrosian	14/22 (+6−0=16)	Petrosian defeated Polugaevsky in a playoff held in Feb 1970 by +2=3.[4]
38	25 Nov–28 Dec 1970	Riga	Viktor Korchnoi	16/21 (+12−1=8)
39	15 Sep–17 Oct 1971	Leningrad	Vladimir Savon	15/21 (+9−0=12)
40	16 Nov–19 Dec 1972	Baku	Mikhail Tal	15/21 (+9−0=12)
41	1–27 Oct 1973	Moscow	Boris Spassky	11½/17 (+7−1=9)
42	30 Nov–23 Dec 1974	Leningrad	Alexander Beliavsky Mikhail Tal	9½/15 (+6−2=7) 9½/15 (+6−2=7)
43	28 Nov–22 Dec 1975	Yerevan	Tigran Petrosian	10/15 (+6−1=8)
44	26 Nov–24 Dec 1976	Moscow	Anatoly Karpov	12/17 (+8−1=8)
45	28 Nov–22 Dec 1977	Leningrad	Iosif Dorfman	9½/15 (+4−0=11) 9½/15 (+4−0=11)	A playoff, held in 1978, was drawn +1−1=4.[5]
46	1–28 Dec 1978	Tbilisi	Mikhail Tal Vitaly Tseshkovsky	11/17 (+5−0=12) 11/17 (+6−1=10)
47	29 Nov–27 Dec 1979	Minsk	Efim Geller	11½/17 (+6−0=11)
48	25 Dec 1980–21 Jan 1981	Vilnius	Lev Psakhis Alexander Beliavsky	10½/17 (+8−4=5) 10½/17 (+6−2=9)
49	27 Nov–22 Dec 1981	Frunze	Garry Kasparov Lev Psakhis	12½/17 (+10−2=5) 12½/17 (+9−1=7)
50	2–28 Apr 1983	Moscow	Anatoly Karpov	9½/15 (+5−1=9)
51	2–28 Apr 1984	Lviv	Andrei Sokolov	12½/17 (+8−0=9)
52	22 Jan–19 Feb 1985	Riga	Viktor Gavrikov Mikhail Gurevich Alexander Chernin	11/19 (+4−1=14) 11/19 (+6−3=10) 11/19 (+5−2=12)
53	4–28 Feb 1986	Kiev	Vitaly Tseshkovsky	11/17 (+6−1=10)
54	4–29 Mar 1987	Minsk	Alexander Beliavsky	11/17 (+7−2=8)	Beliavsky defeated Valery Salov in a playoff +2=2.[6]
55	25 Jul–19 Aug 1988	Moscow	Anatoly Karpov Garry Kasparov	11½/17 (+6−0=11) 11½/17 (+6−0=11)
56	22 Sep–16 Oct 1989	Odessa	Rafael Vaganian	9/15 (+5−2=8)
57	18 Oct–3 Nov 1990	Leningrad	Alexander Beliavsky Leonid Yudasin Evgeny Bareev Alexey Vyzmanavin	8½/13 (+5−1=7) 8½/13 (+4−0=9) 8½/13 (+6−2=5) 8½/13 (+5−1=7)
58	1–13 Nov 1991	Moscow	Artashes Minasian	8½/11 (+7−1=3)	Minasian won this Swiss-style tournament on tiebreak over Elmar Magerramov.

See also

• Women's Soviet Chess Championship
• Russian Chess Championship

Publications

• Mark Taimanov, Bernard Cafferty, Soviet Championships, London, Everyman Chess, 1998 (
  ISBN 978-1-85744-201-4
  )

Further reading