Vladimir Savon

Vladimir Savon

Vladimir Andreyevich Savon (September 26, 1940, Chernihiv – June 1, 2005, Kharkiv) was a Ukrainian chess player.

He learned how to play late, at the age of 13.

Savon competed in the Soviet championship eleven times, from 1961 (at age 21) to the last championship in 1991. Undoubtedly his best result there, or elsewhere, was his first place in the 1971 championship with an undefeated 15/21. Savon, though then only an International Master, finished well ahead of former world champions Mikhail Tal and Vasily Smyslov (both scoring 13.5), future world champion Anatoly Karpov (13), and a host of other strong grandmasters, including Leonid Stein (12); David Bronstein and Lev Polugaevsky (both 11.5); Mark Taimanov (11); and Efim Geller (9.5). Taimanov and Bernard Cafferty, in their book on the Soviet championships, call Savon's win "the least plausible result for decades". One amusing explanation to surface centred around the distraction caused by Fischer's Candidates matches. It was claimed that Fischer's 6–0 wins against Larsen and Taimanov had hypnotised the best Soviet players, who were now following Petrosian's similar demise in the Candidates match that was to finish only days after this tournament. Whatever the explanation, Savon never again achieved such dominating form. His next-best result in the Soviet championship came the following year, when he tied for 3rd–5th and qualified for the Interzonal.

He did, however, achieve other good results in international competition; at Debrecen in 1970 (1st= with Bilek), at Sukhumi 1972 (2nd after Tal), at Vilnius 1975 (1st=), at Portorož 1977 (2nd= with Hort, after Larsen) and at Kiev 1978 (2nd=).

FIDE awarded Savon the International Master title in 1967, and the International Grandmaster title in 1973. In the latter year, he finished eighth out of 18 at the Petropolis Interzonal. He shared the title of Ukrainian Champion with Gennady Kuzmin in 1969.