Biography of Leonid Shamkovich

Leonid Shamkovich (June 1, 1923 – April 22, 2005) was a chess Grandmaster. He was born in Rostov-on-Don in Russia. He became a Grandmaster in 1965 and won several tournaments, with his best victory coming at Sochi 1967, where he was equal first with Nikolai Krogius, Vladimir Simagin, Boris Spassky and Alexander Zaitsev. Other notable results included equal third at Moscow 1962 (behind Yuri Averbakh and Evgeny Vasiukov) and third at Mariánské Lázně 1965 (behind Paul Keres and Vlastimil Hort).

Shamkovich left the Soviet Union in 1975, moving first to Israel, then Canada, and finally the United States, where he settled. He continued to play through the 1990s, and wrote several chess books.