Hall of Famer Anatoly Lein Dies (1931-2018)

US Chess Hall of Famer, Grandmaster and US Open Champion Anatoly Lein died on March 1, 2018, in Cleveland, Ohio one week after the death of his wife of 40 years, Barbara Lein. Lein, who was born in 1931 in Soviet Leningrad, emigrated to the United States in 1976 and was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame in 2004. Lein's stepson, William Jacobson, told US Chess,

Anatoly was a chess purist and great enthusiast of the game. I recall when I, a lifelong patzer, had decided to join Anatoly at an open tournament after a 30 year hiatus, he came to my home regularly and taught me some relatively trap free openings so that I could make it past move 10. During the tournament, I believe that he was more interested in the progress of my games than his own. Anatoly also loved to read and when we finally had to move him into a nursing home, he was less perturbed by the loss of personal freedom then the fact that he would be unable to take with him, the library of great literature that he had accumulated over his lifetime which occupied about 2/3 of the apartment. One of life’s great characters. He will be missed.