Vitaly Sevastianov
Vitaly Sevastianov was born on July 8, 1935. From 1959 to 1967
he helped design several Russian spacecraft, including the Vostok
(1st manned spacecraft). He was in the control room for the
first manned flight of Gagarin in Vostok 1. He later became the
training director of the cosmonauts. He was selected
as a cosmonaut in 1967 and trained for a Soviet lunar mission
in 1968, which was cancelled in 1974. Several disasters, including explosions
on the Russian space launch pads in early 1969, had set the Russians far
behind in their race to the moon. Sevastianov could have been one of the
first cosmonauts to make it to the moon and back. Sevastianov was the
backup flight engineer for Soyuz 6, 7, and 8.
He was the flight engineer on Soyuz 9, which was launched on June 1, 1970.
He stayed in space for a record 18 days, along with Andrian Nikolayev
(married to cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space) who flew
on Vostok 3 in 1962. On June 9, 1970 the two cosmonauts had a day off and
used that time to play chess with the ground crew. This occurred on
orbit 141. The game ended in a draw on orbit 144.
Soyuz 9 Cosmonauts (Sevastianov and Nikolayev) - Ground
Controllers (General Kamanian and Cosmonaut Gorbatko)
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 e5 4.Bxc4 exd4 5.exd4 Nc6 6.Be3 Bd6 7.Nc3 Nf6
8.Nf3 O-O 9.O-O Bg4 10.h3 Bf5 11.Nh4 Qd7 12.Qf3 Ne7 13.g4 Bg6
14.Rae1 Kh8 15.Bg5 Neg8 16.Ng2 Rae8 17.Be3 Bb4 18.a3 Bxc3
19.bxc3 Be4 20.Qg3 c6 21.f3 Bd5 22.Bd3 b5 23.Qh4 g6 24.Nf4 Bc4
25.Bxc4 bxc4 26.Bd2 Rxe1 27.Rxe1 Nd5 28.g5 Qd6 29.Nxd5 cxd5
30.Bf4 (30.Qf4) Qd8 (30...Qxa3) 31.Be5+ f6 32.gxf6 Nxf6
33.Bxf6+ Rxf6 34.Re8+ Qxe8 35.Qxf6+ Kg8 draw
After the flight, Sevastianov became the first TV commentator
in the USSR who had flown in space. He led the cosmonaut training group
for the Salyut program from 1970 to 1975. In 1975
Sevastianov flew on Soyuz 18 (with Pyotr Klimuk) and stayed in space for another
record 63 days. In 1980 he wrote a book called "Into Space."
He was one of the designers of the Mir spacecraft,
which first flew in 1986. He retired from the cosmonaut corps in 1993.
He became a member and President of the Duma, or Russian
Parliament, representing the Communist Party. He later
became President of the Soviet Chess Federation (1977-1986). In February,
1985 Soviet Chess President Sevastianov wrote a letter to FIDE President
Campomanes, demanding a three month suspension of the
Karpov-Kasparov world championship match, citing concerns
about the health of the players. The match was
terminated after the 48th game.
In 1985 he became an International Arbiter for the
World Chess Federation (FIDE) and in 1986 he was awarded
honorary member for life of the World Chess Federation.
He is currently the Russian President of the Global
Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE).
He led the effort to save the Mir space station (People's
Charity Foundation), but was unable to raise enough
money ($100 million) or support to
keep Mir in space and save the Fritz6 chess progam that was on
board and turned on, ready for a game of chess. Mir finally
fell to earth on March 23, 2001.
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