Pyotr Vasilyevich Dubinin (30 June 1909, Warsaw — 1983, Gorky) was a chess player, the first Master of Sport of the USSR in chess from Gorky, an Honored Master of Sport, and an ICCF grandmaster. Three-time champion of the world correspondence chess olympiads in the team standings, participant in USSR championships, and multiple-time champion of the city and region. A war veteran. Founder and long-time head of the chess club of the Gorky Automobile Plant — the strongest in the city. Since the mid-1980s a tournament in his memory has been played in the city. [1][2][3]
Warsaw and Nizhny Novgorod
He was born on 30 June 1909 in Warsaw as the second son in the family of Vasily Grigoryevich Dubinin, a laborer at the Warsaw metallurgical plant who through persistence rose to a foreman's position there. His mother, Maria Leontyevna, was Polish by nationality and was constantly ill; his older brother Ivan was eight years his senior and looked after him with care. [1]
During the First World War the family moved to Nizhny Novgorod. Pyotr lost his father early and as a boy went to work as a docker to support himself and his sick mother. [3]
Chess began at a club that in 1922–1923 was, in his biographer's words, the seed of the city's chess life. After his first visit Dubinin did not miss a single session, wrote down every game played and analyzed it. This gave rise to a diary which, many years later, he would call "My Chess Career" and in which all sixty years of his sporting life would be reflected: each game with diagrams and detailed analysis. His first textbook was a book by Schiffers, bought with his own money. [1]
In 1925 he took third place in the first post-revolutionary championship of Nizhny Novgorod, coming in behind N. Krakovsky and N. Bautin — his own teacher. In 1926, owing to a sharp deterioration in his mother's health, his older brother took her and Pyotr to live with him in Korosten. [1]
The bridge over the Oka and his first championship
In 1930–1931 a bridge over the Oka was under construction in Nizhny Novgorod. In the evenings, when the working day ended, the builders would gather in the club room; chess was among the pastimes there, and the young hammerman Pyotr Dubinin was often seen at the board. "Our champion, our Botvinnik," his comrades said of him. [1]
In September 1930 he became champion of Nizhny Novgorod for the first time, scoring 9.5 points out of 12. [1]
In 1934, in Ivanovo, Dubinin won the semifinal of the RSFSR championship — 7.5 points out of 9 — finishing ahead of Kotov and Alatortsev. In the final of the RSFSR championship in Moscow he took second place behind Belavenets, without losing a single game, and earned the right to play in the final of the 9th USSR Championship, held in Leningrad in December 1934. [1]
Master
On 20 May 1938 the semifinal of the USSR championship began in Kyiv, in which the Gorky player competed, in his biographer's words, with great enthusiasm. A local poet printed a quatrain in the newspaper: "Dubinin celebrates his victory, / The fighter's success has its cause: / Knowing how to squeeze his foes in a vise, / He methodically squeezes out the points!" The win earned him the title of Master. [1]
In the 11th USSR Championship Dubinin shared eighth through tenth place with V. Ragozin and G. Levenfish. In an interview with the newspaper "Avtogigant" — the predecessor of the plant's "Avtozavodets" — he expressed dissatisfaction with himself: "A long absence of practice in strong tournaments told on the outcome of a number of games." In the last prewar 12th national championship he rose a step higher; his game with Botvinnik in 1940 ended in a draw. [1]
The war
Dubinin was called up in October 1941 and trained near Moscow in the ranks of the 26th Special Cadet Rifle Brigade. He went into his first battle during the days of the counteroffensive near Moscow: in two weeks of fighting the brigade, together with other units, drove the enemy back near Maloyaroslavets. "In December there were severe frosts," he recalled, "the temperature held at around minus 40 degrees." In those battles he suffered frostbite. [1]
In the fighting near Königsberg Dubinin was severely shell-shocked. After his recovery he remained in the army until July 1946 and was demobilized from the post of deputy battalion commander for political affairs. He was awarded orders and medals, including the Order of the Red Star. [1][3]
Returning to Gorky, he set about catching up at once: already in July 1946 he played matches against his strongest fellow townsmen A. Gilman and S. Zefirov and beat them both. [1]
Correspondence play
Dubinin made his first attempts at correspondence chess back in 1926–1929. In the first USSR correspondence championship, which began in January 1941, by mid-year he was among the group of leaders, with 6 points after 9 games — the tournament was not completed because of the war and was never even given a number. [1]
Correspondence chess turned out to be his element. V. Ragozin, the first Soviet world correspondence chess champion, explained its appeal this way: a less rigid time control reduces the element of chance and heightens the artistic side, while the possibility of free analysis using literature spares partners from crude mistakes. Dubinin won three gold medals in the team standings of world correspondence olympiads; he did not play in the 7th Olympiad, since he was competing in the final of the 1971–1972 European correspondence championship, where he took second place. [1]
In 1977 Dubinin stopped playing over the board and switched entirely to correspondence chess. In early 1983, owing to a worsening illness, he was no longer able to play for the national team. [1]
Gorky chess
Dubinin stood at the origins of the city's chess life: he was the founder, leader, and coach of the strongest chess club in the city, at the Gorky Automobile Plant, and an active member of the presidium of the chess federations of the RSFSR and the USSR. [1]
His public work extended far beyond chess. Among the citations he showed his biographer were ones like these: "P. V. Dubinin is awarded — the senior judge of the relay race for the prize of the newspaper 'Avtozavodets'" (1959) and a certificate from the regional Society for the Dissemination of Political and Scientific Knowledge for educational work (1963). [1]
He collected a chess library — with many books bearing their authors' autographs — and pasted together albums of newspaper chess columns. One of the books came to him from the widow of the Leningrad master Ilya Rabinovich, who died during the siege. [1]
The book and his memory
In the last months of his life Dubinin often met with the Gorky chess journalist L. A. Bychkov, who was preparing a book for his approaching 75th birthday, and put his diaries at his disposal. The games for the book were selected entirely on Dubinin's own instructions. He did not live to see the anniversary by half a year, having managed to look over the finished manuscript. [1]
The book "Chess Gorky: The Work of the Masters" was published by the Volga-Vyatka Book Publishing House in 1985; the preface expresses gratitude to the leaders of the "Torpedo" sports club of the Gorky Automobile Plant for organizing the publication. [1]
Since the mid-1980s a memorial tournament in his memory has been played in the city. [2]
What remains to be clarified
The exact date of death is not given in the available sources — it is known only that Dubinin died in 1983 in his seventy-fifth year, half a year before his 75th birthday, that is, in the first half of the year. Also not established are the year he was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sport and the full list of his wartime decorations. [1]
Sources
- djvu.online — Bychkov L. A. — Chess Gorky: The Work of the Masters. — Gorky: Volga-Vyatka Book Publishing House, 1985. — 72 p. (archive)
- ruchess.ru — Russian Chess Federation — The 27th Pyotr Dubinin Memorial was held in Nizhny Novgorod, 9 January 2020
- nn.aif.ru — AiF Nizhny Novgorod — People of Steel Will: Remembering Gorky's veteran athletes (archive)