A Tribute to Mikhail Layevskiy

We like to think of our Marshall Chess Club community as quite extensive, but sometimes, it is also just composed of a small knit community of dedicated individuals who frequently play at the club. One of those chess players was Mikhail/Michael Layevskiy. He recently passed away of cancer and his wake was held on December 8th, 2017.

Mikhail played his first tournament in 1996 as a scholastic player and played throughout high school. Before playing at the Marshall, he frequented the Manhattan Chess Club. He played at the Marshall regularly in 2002. Later, he became a Staten Island instructor for Premier Chess, which is headed by NM Evan Rabin.

A non chess related fun fact: Mikhail also loved to play checkers, which he sometimes played at the Marshall. TD Aaron Jacobson recalls, “I remember once he played GM Zviad Izoria in checkers and the grandmaster said, ‘I play checkers like you play chess!’ Mikhail kept beating Izoria in checkers.”

Mikhail Layevskiy will be greatly missed by the Marshall Chess Club and forever remembered as a regular and friend to the club.