Rabinovich Ilya Leontyevich (11.05.1891 – 23.04.1942)

Leading Russian player between the two world wars, chess author, a schoolteacher.

In 1914 he traveled to Germany to play in a Hauptturnier at Mannheim. Rabinovich was interred for about three years as the First World War began. Several internees’ chess tournaments were arranged; he won the sixth one in 1916 and tied for first place in the seventh in 1917, in both ahead of Bogoljubow.

After the war won a match against Romanovsky in 1920 and then won or shared the Leningrad championship four times (1920, 1925, 1928, 1940). During 1920-39, he played in nine USSR Championships, scoring 79-58 for 57.7%. In 1940 he won the Leningrad championship. In June 1941 he played in the interrupted semifinal of the USSR Chess Championship in Roston-on-Don I

n 1927, published (4,000 copies) the first original book in the Russian language devoted to the endgame. The second edition of 7,000 copies was published in 1938, and this was translated into Dutch and published in three parts: Toren Eindspelen(1942), Paard en Loper Eindspelen (1948) and Pionneneindspelen 1950. Rabinovich died from malnutrition during the siege on Leningrad in 1942.