“The issue of my return to work at the Institute died a death,” he wrote in his memoir.
In 1955, Mikhail Botvinnik, who was then the world champion, recruited Mr. Averbakh to play practice matches with him. Over the next two years, the two played 25 matches against each other — about the same length of time as a world championship game — with Mr. Botvinnik winning just one or two more matches than Mr. Averbakh, according to Mr. Averbakh.
Their working relationship ended after Mr. Averbakh agreed to play training matches with Mikail Tal for the 1959 Candidates Tournament in Yugoslavia. Mr Botvinnik considered that decision a treason, Mr Averbakh wrote. mr. Tal won the Candidate Tournament and defeated Mr. botvinnik.
In late 1982, Mr. Smyslov, who was 61 at the time, qualified for the Candidate Competitions and asked Mr. Averbakh, whom he had known since childhood, to become his trainer. Mr. Averbakh accepted and Mr. Smyslov won his quarterfinals and semifinals before losing the final to Garry Kasparov, the future world champion.
As his playing career faded in the early 1960s, Mr. Averbakh has a behind-the-scenes role in itself in the Soviet chess establishment. It was a difficult task, with every appointment and bureaucratic decision often subject to political intrigue and doubt. Still, although he claimed to be naive about politics, he managed to thrive for many years in that second career.
In 1962, he became the editor of the two most prestigious Soviet chess magazines, Shakhmatny Bulletin and Shakhmaty v SSSR. He edited them for 37 years, a record for longevity.
Mr. Averbakh was appointed president of the Soviet Chess Federation in 1972, a privileged position in Soviet society. Success in chess that was considered crucial to proving the validity of communism, chess players were considered top athletes and were even sent to train with the Olympic national teams. Mr. Averbakh described the scene in the Central Komsomol School in Veshnyako in 1963:
“It was an unforgettable sight. Basketball players as thin as pencils, squatting weightlifters with bent legs, boxers with huge hands like gorillas and cauliflower ears and flattened noses. Of course there were exceptions, but in general you got the impression that they were pathological, freaky types, which had brought them into the big sport and allowed them to achieve better results than normal people.
He is survived by his daughter (sources differ in identifying her as Jane or Evgenia)† Information about other survivors was not available.