Ilyin-Genevsky Alexander Fiodorovich (28.11.1894 – 03.09.1941)

Soviet chess organizer and author who was of IM strength. He was expelled from school at the age of 17 because of his radical ideas then was sent to Geneva to complete his education.

After winning the championship of Geneva in 1914 he added the town’s name to his own. He returned to Russia, fought in the First World War and, suffering from shell-shock, found that he had forgotten how to play chess, and had to re-learn the game.

Ilyin organized the ‘First All-Russia Chess Olympiad’, later called the first USSR Championship in 1920 and played in nine of the first ten USSR Championships until 1937. He was the champion of Leningrad in 1925 (equal with Grigory Levenfish, Ilya Rabinovich, and Peter Romanovsky), 1926 and 1929. He also played in Moscow 1925 and though he was only equal 9th, he did win his game against José Raúl Capablanca. He was the winner of the first Trades Unions championship of the USSR 1927.

The author of pamphlets on the Alekhine – Capablanca Match (1927, Notes of A Soviet Master , Moscow1925, International Working-Class Chess Movement (1931). He edited Shakhmaty for 6 years. Fleeing the siege of Leningrad, he was the only person killed when the barge was bombed.