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Abram BaratsFrench sculptor and chess player
Date of Birth: 14.09.1895
Country:  France |
Content:
Biography of Abram Baratz
Abram Baratz was a French sculptor and chess player. He was born in Bessarabia in 1895 and lived in Paris until the end of his life. Baratz studied sculpture at the Paris School of Fine Arts in the 1920s while also participating in chess tournaments in France, Great Britain, and Romania.
Chess Career
Baratz achieved his first significant success in 1924 when he placed second in a tournament in Paris, losing to Eugenio Znosko-Borovsky. In the following year, he shared first place with Vitaly Halberstadt at the first Paris Championship. He also won the third (1927) and fourth (1928) Paris Championships. Baratz's other notable achievements include third place at the Paris Championship in 1925 and sharing 2nd-4th places in 1929.
In 1926, he won the tournament in Hyères, Provence, defeating David Janowsky. He also finished fourth in the same tournament in 1927. Baratz shared first and second place with Georges Koltanowski at the Christmas tournament in Hastings in 1927-1928 and placed 6th in 1930-1931. In 1930, he tied for first place with Vexler at the international tournament in Bucharest.
Baratz represented Romania in international chess Olympiads in Hamburg (1930) and Prague (1931). He achieved other notable results, including fifth place at the 1926 tournament in Scarborough, 2nd-3rd place (with Rosselli de Turko) in Nice in 1932, and 3rd-4th place (with Andor Lilienthal) in Paris in 1933. He also placed 3rd in 1938 and 4th in 1939 in Paris.
Relationship with Alexander Alekhine
Baratz was friends with Alexander Alekhine and wrote a memoir about him titled "Testament d'Alekhine" in 1972. In 1956, he created a gravestone monument for Alekhine at the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. The monument consisted of a granite base with a horizontally placed chessboard, a granite stele with an inscription, and a marble bas-relief of the grandmaster. The monument was partially destroyed by strong winds in December 1999 but was partially restored in 2003, without the stolen bas-relief. A new bronze bas-relief, following Baratz's original design, was commissioned to sculptor Dmitry Kaminiker.
