Canadian Chess Biographies
Researched, compiled, written and copyright 2000-10 by David Cohen. Last updated: 2010.07.07.
Main web site & contact: Canadian Chess.
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Index - Y
(1925-2000)
Photo: 1951 Canadian Championship, Vancouver.
- City councillor, chairman finance committee, Winnipeg, Manitoba
- City councillor, mayor of West Kildonan, Manitoba
- Lawyer
- 2000 Canadian Chess Hall of Fame
- Holds record for longest time from first to last appearance in the Canadian Championship: 49 years (1937-86)
- Holds record for most consecutive decades appearing in a Canadian Championship: 6 (1930s-1980s)
- 1979 Canadian Open Champion
- 1977 International Arbiter
- 1972 Officer of the Order of Canada; cited as "Canadian Chess champion and Grandmaster"
- 1964 First Grandmaster who grew up and learned to play chess in the British Commonwealth
- 1964 International Grandmaster
- 1956-59 Editor, Canadian Chess Chat
- 1954-81 Chess columnist Winnipeg Free Press
- Top rated Canadian at Year-end 13 times (1954, 1956-7, 1961-6, 1968, 1970-2)
- Author of Chess the Hard Way, 1953; How to Win End-games, 1957; 100 Years of Chess in Canada, 1967
- 1953 First place, Hastings, England
- 1953 British Champion, setting new record for highest score
- 1953 Law degree, Oxford University
- Represented Canada at World Championship Interzonal (1948, 1962)
- 1947 Second place, U.S. Open Championship
- 1947 First place, Reykjavik, Iceland
- Two times won Canadian Championship with perfect score of 11/11 (1943, 1959)
- 1942 U.S. Open Champion
- 1942 First place, Ventnor City, USA
- 1941 Canadian Champion at age 16
- Record eight times Canadian Champion (1941, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1953, 1959, 1963, 1965)
- 1939 Highest percentage score on Board 2 at Olympiad (+12 =3 -1)
- Represented Canada at Olympiads (1939, 1954, 1958, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1980)
- 1937 Manitoba Champion
- 1936 Canadian Major Open Champion
- 1936 Canadian Senior Boys Champion
- Learned to play chess at age 8
- 1925 Arrived in Canada (born Brody, Poland)
Defeated future World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik, which he later described as "the greatest sense of achievement in life":
D. Abraham Yanofsky - Mikhail Botvinnik
Groningen, Netherlands, Round 15, 1946
Drew future World Champion Robert Fischer:
Robert Fischer - D. Abraham Yanofsky
Nethanya, Israel, Round 12, 1968
D. Abraham Yanofsky's most famous game, and the most famous game played
by a Canadian:
D. Abraham Yanofsky (Canada) - A. I. Dulanto (Peru)
Olympiad, Board 1, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Preliminary Round 7, 1939.08.30
Sources: family of Frank Anderson (photo);
The Games of D.A. Yanofsky by David J. Ross, 1985; En Passant 59, 1983.03-04;
Governor General of Canada.
Research note: The first Grandmaster in the British Commonwealth was Jacques Mieses, who became a British citizen late in life, then received the title in 1950.
- U.S. Inter-collegiate Champion 1946
(1918-99)
- Canadian Champion 1945
- Canadian Correspondence Champion (1939, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1945)
- CCCA Champion 1938
Contributor: Knut Neven
Photo: 2004 Canadian Championship, Toronto. Copyright 2004 by the photographer David Cohen.
- FIDE Master 2003
- Represented Canada at Olympiad 2000
- Board 1, University of Minnesota, Pan-American Intercollegiate Team
Champions 1992
Contributor (biography): Jack Yoos.
Photo: copyright 2008 by William Yuan.
- 2010 Selected Canada's Olympiad Women's Team
- 2009 Top rated female Canadian at Year-end
- 2009 Awarded Woman International Master title
- 2008 Top rated female Canadian at Year-end
- 2008 Represented Canada at Women's Olympiad
- 2008 Awarded Woman FIDE Master title
- 2008 Woman International Master Norm, 12th North American FIDE Invitational, Chicago, USA
- 2008 2nd place, Pan-American Women's Championship; Woman International Master Norm
- 2007 Toronto Junior Champion
- 2007 Ontario High School Champion (while in Grade 7)
- 2007 Toronto High School Champion (while in Grade 7)
- 2003 Represented Canada at World Girls Under-10 Championship, 10th place
- 2003 Canadian Girls Under-10 Champion
Contributor (photo): William Yuan.