Ilia Smirin — chess gm with roots in the Russian Empire
Ilia Smirin is an Israeli chess grandmaster born in Vitebsk (Belarus, then USSR) who emigrated to Israel and became one of the country's strongest players. A brilliant attacking player, he has won the Israeli Chess Championship multiple times and competed at the highest levels of international chess.
Tracing the roots — Vitebsk (Belarus)
Born in Vitebsk in 1968 — the city of Chagall and a centre of Belarusian Jewish culture — Smirin trained in the Soviet chess system before emigrating to Israel. He represents the extraordinary transfer of Soviet chess expertise to Israel through the mass Jewish emigration of the 1990s, which made Israel one of the world's top chess nations.
3-time Israeli Champion.
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Vitebsk (Belarus). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.