Velimir Kalandadze

Velimir Kalandadze (; May 10, 1935 – October 27, 2017) was a Georgian physicist and chess composer. He held the titles of Master of Chess Composition and International Master of Chess Composition (1984). In over-the-board chess he achieved the rank of Candidate Master of Sports of the USSR.

Kalandadze was a laureate of numerous international composition competitions. He won first prizes in the Lelo competition (1961, jointly with Vazha Neidze), the Olympic Composition Competition (1976, jointly with David Gurgenidze), Shakhmaty v SSSR (1979), and 64—Shakhmatnoye Obozreniye (1984), among others. As a composer of endgame studies, he specialized in rook endings.

Biography From the 1950s, Kalandadze published chess problems in the newspaper Lelo, initially in collaboration with his father, Ioseb Kalandadze, and later independently. He graduated from the Faculty of Physics at Tbilisi State University and worked for several years in scientific institutions. Alongside composition, he was active in chess journalism and for many years edited chess columns in the newspapers Molodyozh Gruzii and Sakartvelos Respublika.

Chess composition

This endgame study was named the best study of 1990.

This study received first prize at the Nona Gaprindashvili Jubilee competition (2008) and was later named study of the year at the 2009 World Congress of Chess Composition.