Fedor Bohatirchuk

(1892-1984)

International Master 1954

Canadian Chess Hall of Fame 2003

Radiologist, professor

Correspondence International Master 1967

Top rated Canadian at Year-end 1967

Canadian Correspondence Champion (1963, 1964)

Represented Canada at Olympiad 1954

Arrived in Canada 1948

Tied 1st place USSR Championship 1927

Basis for Boris Pasternak's fictional character Doctor Zhivago

Born Kiev, Ukraine

Won three games and drew at least one game with future World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik:

Fedor Bohatirchuk - Mikhail Botvinnik, URS Ch, 1927 Moscow, Russia

Mikhail Botvinnik - Fedor Bohatirchuk, URS Ch, 1931 Moscow, Russia 

Fedor Bohatirchuk - Mikhail Botvinnik, URS Ch, 1933 Leningrad, Russia 

Fedor Bohatirchuk - Mikhail Botvinnik, Moscow, Russia 1935, Round 15

 Sources: 'Fedor Bohatirchuk: The Forgotten Champion' by Emanuel Sztein, Lenny Cavallaro, Chess Life, 1984.01;  Lawrence Day, Toronto Star, 2002.01.05 (reporting the Doctor Zhivago idea, which Dr. Bohatirchuk said had been told to him); The Oxford Companion to Chess, second edition, by David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld, 1996.

 Contributors: John Donaldson; Andrew McMillan; 

1915, 1982 photos - Dr. Bohatirchuk's daughter, Dr. Tamara Jeletzky (1917-1998) provided to Sergey Voronkov, Yakov Zusmanovich.