The story we tell today will likely be remembered for a long, long time, and will become one of chess’ so‑called mysteries. I am referring to Maxim Sorokin’s tragic death which took place July 1 while he was returning from the Candidates Matches.

Sorokin was driving from Elista to Volgagrad, where he was supposed to catch a plane he never boarded. His car, together with several others, was involved in a pile‑up on a bumpy, old and dangerous road in Kalmylkia. The whole event would have been clear‑cut if Sorokin had died in the accident, but he didn’t. Sorokin was taken to a hospital alive and conscious. The doctors who attended him declared that Sorokin suffered from injuries that were not life‑threatening, and his recovery was taken for granted.

Everything changed one week afterward, when the tragic news of Sorokin’s passing came from the hospital. Questions as to how it could happen or the exact cause of death remain unanswered, leaving Sorokin’s strange death a mystery.

Let’s look at the life of Sorokin. Many of you may not know him. Sorokin was a Russian Grandmaster born in 1968. In the early ‘80s, he was a student of the prestigious chess school of Grandmaster Panchenko. Afterwards he graduated to Grandmaster and began his professional career.

Even though Sorokin was one of the most talented players of his generation and reached an ELO of 2,599 in 1995, he always focused more on teaching. That is the reason he never made it to the top as an individual player. In the ‘90s, he lived in Argentina and India for several years. When Sorokin returned, he became the trainer of the Russian female national team, with whom he accumulated a number of prestigious titles, most notably at the Chess Olympiad. From that time, Sorokin labored as a professional chess coach. When he died, he was head of Elista Grandmaster School and personal trainer of one of the players who played the Candidates Matches, Sergei Rublevsky.

Today we present one of Sorokin’s best games. It was played in 1991, in the 3rd round of the 58th USSR Championship. His rival was Alexei Shirov, one of the strongest players of the world to this day. The game is just one example of what Sorokin was able to create while sitting in front of a chessboard.