Echesspedia

Archaeological excavations witness that the game of chess was already known in the 11th century.
After the 1917 revolution, like in the other Soviet Republics, chess movement became structured. In 1922 the 1st Minsk Championship was organized with the victory of Anton Kaspersky, who in 1923 became the head of the Bielorussian chess section. The first chess column appeared in the newspaper Zvezda in 1923. The most popular tournament of that time was the Belarusian Youth Tournament which attracted more than 600 young people at Minsk in 1927. Lectures and simultaneous exhibitions by Efim Bogoljubov in 1925, Salo Flohr, Rumin, Andre Lilienthal in 1935 and 1936 and Emanuel Lasker 1936 increased the popularity of the game greatly in that region. Between 1920 and 1930 the strongest players at that time were Belavenetz, Gavriil Veresov, Anton Kaspersky and Rosenthal. After 1950 other chess talents came to challenge world top players among them the Candidate Isaak Boleslavsky, Alexei Suetin, Viktor Kupreichik, Boris Gelfand, Alexei Fedorov and Aleksei Alexandrov.

Affiliated to FIDE since 1992. The first Championship was organized in 1924 and won by Solomon Rozental. The recordmen of victories are Albert Kapengut and Vladimir Saigin with 7 titles.

In 2011 Belarus was ranked 20th among the countries (2574) with 14 IGMs, 24 IMs and a total of 88 titled players.

The national champions were:

1924 Rozental, 1925 Rozental, 1926 Vigodchikov, 1928 Silich, 1932 Roumin, 1933 Manevich, 1934 Silich, 1936 Varesov, 1937 Silich, 1938 Manevich, 1939 Varesov, 1941 Varesov, 1947 Saigin, 1948 Holmov, 1949 Saigin, 1950 Saigin, 1951 Saigin, 1952 Saigin, 1953 Saigin, 1954 Saigin, 1955 Suetin, 1956 Varesov, Suetin, 1958 Varesov, 1959 Sueton, 1960 Suetin, 1961 Sueton, 1962 Kapengut, 1963 Varesov, 1964 Boleslavsky, 1965 Diediechko, 1966 Roizman, 1967 Kapengut, 1968 Kapengut, 1969 Kapengut, 1970 Jeliandinov, 1971 Diediechko, 1972 Kupreichik, 1973 Diediechko, 1974 Motsalov, 1975 Vereneichik, 1976 Kapengut, 1977 Kapengut, 1978 Kapengut, 1979 Diediechenko, 1980 Diediechko, 1981 Malisov, 1982 Korzulov, 1983 Basin, 1984 Gelfand, 1985 Gelfand, 1986 Daytov, 1987 Smirin, 1988 Diediechko, 1989 Aleksandrov, 1990 Aleksandrov, 1991 Mochalov, 1992 Diediechenko, 1993 Fedorov, 1994 Shulman, 1995 Fedorov, 1996 Aleksandrov, 1997 Kochetkov, 1998 Diediechenko, 1999 Diediechenko, 2000 Kovalev, 2001 Azerov, 2002 Azerov, 2003 Kupreichik, 2004 Maljush, 2005 Fedorov, 2006 Dydyshko, 2007 Aleksandrov, 2008 Fedorov, 2009, 2010 Podolchenko, 2011 Zhygalko A.

The top three of the 2010 Belarus championship: Sergey Zhigalko, Evgeny Podolchenko and Alexey Fedorov