Mark Savelievich Liburkin (Russia, 31.08.1910 - 05.03.1953)

Famous chess composer of endgame studies

Chessbase article:

The Life and Times of Mark Liburkin

by Siegfried Hornecker

02/23/2019 – Composer Mark Liburkin is the focus of "Study of the Month" author SIEGFRIED HORNECKER. Little is known of this study composer born in 1910, but his "chameleon echo" is sure to delight and we fill in the biographical gaps as best we can. And, as usual, don't miss the instructive endgame studies!

Born on August 31, 1910, in Russia, in his rather short life — he died from an illness on March 5th 1953 (according to the Schwalbe, the same day as Prokofiev) — he composed more than 110 endgame studies (some sources put the number at over 150), usually with geometrical motifs. The title of this column is hinting at Mark Liburkin’s profession as a finance expert. Sadly the Kofman book about the selected studies of Kaminer and Liburkin does not contain information about the personal life of Liburkin. Brian Stephenson seems to have had other sources translated by the late Paul Valois, detailing Liburkin as an accountant who in his final years worked for businesses based in Moscow.

Sadly, this is all of the personal information I can find about Liburkin. His honorary citizenship (where?) and medal for Socialist work have already been mentioned in the June 2017 column.

As Rafael Kofman writes, Liburkin's interest in endgame studies arose in 1925 after reading an article by Leonid Kubbel. Liburkin usually would not publish his studies immediately but hold them back for months or years to find their final form. Thus the studies published first in Kofman’s book not always adhere to the standards Liburkin set for himself. The reputation of Liburkin led to his appointment as editor of the “Shakhmaty v SSSR” (“Chess in the USSR”) magazine for endgame studies in 1945, ended only by his death.

As the Schwalbe declared in August 2010 on the occasion of Liburkin’s 100th birthday, his chess studies showed clear ideas and economic attitudes.

As no memorial tourney ever was organized for Liburkin in Russia, Yochanan Afek honored him in 2003, the 50th anniversary of his death, with a thematic tourney for endgame studies with “chameleon echo” as the theme, i.e. a pattern that repeats (in another variation usually) on a neighboring file, rank or diagonal. This was a favorite theme of Liburkin, which (as the tourney showed) is difficult to enforce in an endgame study. As Afek kindly informed us via email, there was likely no personal information in that tourney report. He told us that Liburkin is one of his all-time favorite composers. Being the endless enthusiast he is, Afek celebrated Liburkin’s 100th birthday with ARVES and EG by organizing another memorial tourney, this time with the theme of systematic maneuvers, another favorite of Liburkin. Afek also kindly provided us with information given to him by another great endgame enthusiast, Yuri Averbakh to which some background knowledge is provided first.

According to Dorfman in a 2009 interview in the French magazine Europe Échecs, the “category pyramid” was a system used in the Soviet Union to determine a player's strength — fifth category being the lowest for beginners and first category being equal to a modern player of around 2000 Elo. After climbing the pyramid, one could ascend to titles similar to “Candidate Master” and “Master”, equaling around 2200 and 2400 modern Elo. According to Wikipedia, Peter Romanovsky in 1934 was the first player to achieve the “Master” title which was also tied to the honor of “Master of Sport of the USSR”. Less than 100 total “Master” titles, which were awarded to some players in USSR championships, were given out. The playing strength of those players is further confirmed by most of the players with that title also having been eligible for the FIDE titles of “International Master” or “Grandmaster”, at their time much rarer than today. Liburkin, according to Averbakh, was a player of the first category and participated in tournaments at the Central Chess Club in Moscow (which still exists on Gogolevsky Boulevard to this day).

As Kofman writes (and Afek reminded me), after Liburkin’s death, the co-authored book Sovietsky shakhmatny etyud (“The Soviet Chess Study”) was published in 1955 (with Rafael Kofman and Alexander Kazantsev). Like many Russian chess books (including Kofman’s 1981 book on Liburkin and Kaminer), it was printed by the Fizkultura i Sport in Moscow. Many of Liburkin's compositions were later added to the FIDE Album, the anthology for chess compositions, when it was retroactively created for the years 1914-1944 (in three volumes) and 1945-1955.

Source: Chessbase

Wikipedia (it) writes:

"Mark Savelyevich Liburkin (August 31, 1910, Vitebsk – March 5, 1953, Moscow) was a Soviet chess composer.

A financial expert by profession, he was the chief accountant in an important Moscow company. He became interested in studies in 1925 after reading an article by Leonid Kubbel on stable studies. He wrote around 120 studies and won 18 first prizes in international competitions.

Many of his studies are of remarkable elegance, extremely refined form and great originality of ideas. He won the second and third Soviet championships for composition (once ex aequo with Vladimir Korolkov). He was a good table player; Yurij Averbach said he often saw him take part in tournaments at the Central Chess Club in Moscow. After the Second World War he became the editor of the studies section of the magazine Šakhmaty v SSSR.

Over 40 of his studies are listed in Alexander Kazantsev's collection of 650 studies, The Soviet Chess Study (Moscow, 1955)."

He died of a serious illness at the age of just 43.

Others: 3 endgame studies composed by Liburkin are selected on Dutch Website arves.org (Editor is Peter Boll)

Source; Chessbase, Wikipedia