Georgy Ilivitsky

Soviet chess player

Georgy Ilivitsky (30 April 1921 – 28 November 1989)^[1] was a Soviet chess master. He is best known for reaching the 1955 Interzonal Tournament.

Ilivitsky was an engineer and scored a surprise result by coming in 3rd–6th in the 1955 USSR Chess Championship. The championship was extremely strong: the joint winners were Vasily Smyslov (World Champion 1957–58) and Efim Geller; while equal with Ilivitsky were World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik, and future World Champions Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky.^[2] The result qualified Ilivitsky for the 1955 Interzonal Tournament, where he came 10th-equal and narrowly missed qualifying for the Candidates Tournament.

On November 28th, 1989, Ilivitsky (who was suffering from poverty and severe health problems) took his own life.^{[citation needed]}