Vasily Ivanovich Pomogalov (Russia, 27.08.1935 - 18.06.2020)

His whole life is filled with a passionate love for medicine and chess

Vasily Ivanovich Pomogalov was born on August 27, 1935 in the village of Soldatskoye, Ostrogozhsky District, Voronezh Region. Childhood, scorched by the war, the difficult post-war years did not break his irrepressible craving for knowledge, new discoveries. Together with his younger brothers, he independently learned to play chess according to the book by Maizelis and Yudovich "Textbook of a chess game". Even in his early youth, being a student of the Ostrogozhsk medical assistant-obstetric school, he compiled his first task, which in 1953 was published in the Voronezh regional youth newspaper "Young Kommunar". A year later, his second chess problem was published in the Kommunar newspaper.

After graduating with honors from the medical assistant-obstetric school, he was sent to study at the Kharkov Medical Institute, which he also graduated with honors. After completing residency in general surgery in Moscow, he was sent to the Medical Unit No. 106 of the Pervomaisky village of the Chita Region, where he worked selflessly for many years, devoting his knowledge and skills to the treatment of patients. Brilliant clinical thinking allowed Vasily Ivanovich to quickly navigate in urgent situations and make the only right decision; he always prepared thoughtfully and patiently for complex planned operations. As a surgeon, he was respected by doctors and the population of the village, he was in charge of the surgical department, and worked as the head of the medical unit. Vasily Ivanovich, having vast experience in managerial work, shared it wisely.

When in 1973 Pomogalov V.I. became the winner of the personal championship of the village in chess, the head of the cultural and mass department of the Pervomaisky House of Culture V.G. Akodis sent his poem to the wall newspaper of the hospital, in which, in particular, he warmly wrote about Vasily Ivanovich:

He is a grandmaster in surgery,
He is a surgeon in chess,
For his great deeds
We say: "Thank you, friend!".

Until 1970, during the leisure hours of V.I. Pomogalov composed chess problems. Having become more deeply acquainted with the principles of chess composition, he joined in the compilation of chess studies, participated in the chess pentathlon ("Chess in the USSR"). His highest creative achievement is the second prize awarded to the sketch in 1984 at the All-Union Memorial Competition held by the Ukrainian magazine "RANOK". In 2006, Vasily Ivanovich published the brochure "Amateur Chess Compositions", which contains 212 compositions, including etudes with Reti's idea, which made an indelible impression on him in his youth. A study with Reti's idea, published in 1984 in the magazine "Chess in the USSR", was included in the collection "Chess Etudes - Diamonds 1837-1997" (Anatoly Kuznetsov, 1998)

In 2013, Vasily Ivanovich returned to Voronezh, where he also enthusiastically continued to study chess composition.

The days are striving forward inexorably,
People are leaving in a quivering distance,
Leaving floods of blessed memory,
Leaving gratitude and sadness.
And you left to sparkle with lightning,
Sprinkle like rain in the meadows...
We love, remember dear faces,
You are with us in our thoughts and hearts.

The whole life of Vasily Ivanovich is like a bright star that has left an everlasting light in the hearts of many people.

Colleagues, friends

(Material sent by the daughter of Vasily Ivanovich Pomogalov)

Source: www.arves.org

Others: 5 endgame studies composed by him are selected and can be replayed on the Dutch Website arves.org