110 years since the birth of Matvey Rabinovich
Віталь Аніська http://belarus.fmjd.org/
On May 13, the 110th anniversary of the birth of Matvey Rabinovich, the champion of Belarus in Russian draughts in 1947 and 1948, was celebrated.
He was born in Bykhov, there is no information about his childhood and adolescence. It is only known that Matvey Rabinovich started practicing draughts at the age of 19. Probably, at that time he was already living outside the BSSR, since he did not participate in Belarusian tournaments before the war.
For the first time on the pages of the chess and draughts newspaper ” 64 ” his surname appears in October 1936. The First All-Union Tournament of the Central Committee of the Union of Publishing Workers was held in Moscow. Matvey Rabinovich was the youngest participant and had only the second category. Despite this, he showed a good game and shared 2-3 places with the famous master Nikolai Kukuyev, the winner of the first two championships of the USSR. A successful performance in this tournament allowed Rabinovich to get the first category and next year take part in the semi-finals of the All-Union Trade Union Championship, which was held in Magnitogorsk. He didn’t play very well in it, though, and he was far from reaching the final.
In February 1940, Matvey Rabinovich was drafted into the army, in the Zakaukazky Military District. Apparently, the opportunity to practice draughts has been preserved. He even sent to ” 64 ” the end of the batch of team competitions with his analysis.
During the war he served as quartermaster of the sapper battalion and in the newspaper editorial office “Красный кавалерист”.
After demobilization in the summer of 1946, Matvey Rabinovich chose Gomel as his place of residence, where he began working on the radio in the editorial office of the Latest News. He was engaged in a lot of social activities-headed the city chess and draughts section, was part of the republican. He led a draughts club in the Gomel Palace of Pioneers, judged competitions.
In April 1947, the first post-war Belarusian championship in Russian draughts was held in Minsk. Matvey Rabinovich scored a paycheck more than Boris Berlinkov and became the winner.
He became the best in the championship next year, without losing a single game and ahead of the silver medalist by one point. Rabinovich was awarded a diploma, a silver badge of the BSSR champion and a cash prize of 1,000 rubles.
In 1948, together with Denis Gordevich, they became the first Belarusian candidates for the Master of sports.
In 1951, Matvey Rabinovich once again rose to the podium of the republic’s championship, this time to the third step. Several times he participated in the semifinals of the USSR Championship. He achieved great success at the All-Union Team Championship of Trade Unions in 1953. Speaking for the DST “Builder” team, Rabinovich became the best on the fourth board.
Matvey passed away prematurely, at the age of 40. He was buried at the Prudkovsky Cemetery in Gomel.
