A plea to help GM Konstantin Landa's family

Konstantin Landa is a well-known figure in the chess community. For some he is an amazingly strong chess player (career high rating of 2678). For some he was a fantastic trainer and for many he was a brilliant author. He was a man who dedicated his life to chess and achieved so much in just 50 years of age. Konstantin was detected with Glioblastoma (an aggressive type of cancer that can occur in the brain or spinal cord) and he fought the illness for two years. He was operated in November 2020 and after that he couldn't move and was in bed most of the time. His health suffered a lot and on 12th of October 2022 he passed away.

A short biography by FIDE:

Born in Omsk, he stood out as a very promising talent in his early years, which earned him the opportunity to be trained by Evgeny Sveshnikov and also attend several training camps at the Botvinnik chess school. In one of these camps, he defeated the World Champion Garry Kasparov at the age of 13. He was the junior vice-champion of the USSR in 1989, and he won the Russian junior championship in 1992 after the collapse of the USSR.

He became a GM in 1995. However, having graduated from the University, he took a job in the IT department of a bank, and for several years he juggled his day job with occasional participation in chess tournaments, where he showed his class. After moving to Germany in 1999, he went back to chess as a full-time professional, and in 2007 he reached his peak rating of 2678. Landa became a FIDE Senior Trainer in 2011, and for years he was one of Germany’s leading trainers. He was a long-term coach of Arkadij Naiditsch, but he also coached other top players such as Alexandra Kosteniuk, Evgeny Alekseev, and Daniele Vocaturo. More recently, he worked with Alexandra Goryachkina, and he was his second during the Women’s Candidates tournament in Kazan, which she won in brilliant style, and the Women’s World Championship match against Ju Wenjun (along with Najer and Rublevsky). He was also a coach for the Iranian national team and the Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan Women’s teams.

Konstantin Landa co-authored the book “The Complete Manual of Positional Chess” (2017), which presented a complete set of instructions and tips for trainers and self-improvers. In 2012, he made a comprehensive proposal for anti-cheating measures to the FIDE Trainers Commission, based mainly on his vast experience at team competitions. His proposal was widely supported by the chess community and adopted by FIDE. His strong stance towards fair play, combined with his IT background, made Landa a perfect candidate to be a member of the ACP and FIDE fair-play commissions, where he continued to provide invaluable input.

Messages from the chess community

We wrote to several chess players to share their personal stories with Konstantin. This is what they had to say:

GM Vishy Anand

"I knew Landa, but we were not particularly close. I played him once in Mulheim, before I went to Berlin. He was a nice, pleasant person and always greeted me with a smile and we would wave to each other. But it never went beyond that."

IM Vishal Sareen

"I cannot really remember when I first met Kostya. Some people leave a lasting impression on you and then we forget as to when did it start etc. Kostya was one such guy. Simple to the core, golden heart, professional when it mattered and one of the most hardworking coaches I have ever worked with. Having said that, the one thing that really touched me was that he never quite made any massive claims. In today's world almost every coach is out to make a living flaunting their students' achievements. Kostya even trained a world champion but never made any huge claims about it. This speaks volumes for someone who gave his heart out to his pupil.

I was lucky to have worked with him during some camps for Indian teams thanks to my brother Bharat Singh Chauhan and team AICF that saw me worthy to work alongside such a great soul and trainer. Life as a trainer can be tough. He was working in UAE when one fine day he called me and said he has been diagnosed with brain tumor and that he was going back to his family - wife and daughter - who lived in Germany. Born in Russia he probably did not enjoy the privileges of a local German when it came to healthcare and that was worrisome as this can be brutally expensive in Europe. There were some messages we exchanged and once I was even lucky to speak to him while he was under treatment.

It feels sad to find out that I won't get to see him again. However as a friend when his wife confided to me that things were bad I just had this urge to appeal to our friends in the chess fraternity to help his family. Kostya was family. He will remain family and even though he is not around today he will live in the hearts of many people who knew him closely. I will miss you my friend. I would like to take this opportunity to request everyone to raise a fund that can help coaches in need. His contribution to Indian Chess was immense. And I appeal to our chess family for a generous help. May his soul rest in peace!"

Father of GM Pranav Anand

"An excellent friend, Konstantin Landa had visited our home and worked with Pranav Anand in 2016 for 10 days. His love for chess and spice was visible from day 1. He loved cooked vegetarian food at home and we still ended up searching for spiciest food in Bangalore. Even the famous Nagarjuna Hotel in Bangalore which served the hottest guntur Chilli was flabbergasted when he said that the spice was not enough. We had wonderful conversations about chess, his family back in Munich (at that time). The next time Pranav met Landa face to face was in Sharjah when Pranav and his grandmom were going to Abu Dhabi Masters. They got down in Dubai and stayed at Landa's home for a 3 day camp (I think in 2018) when Landa was coaching the UAE team. Pranav loved the opportunity to meet and work with him and both of them would keep discussing chess till late in the night. A down to earth gentleman, extremely soft spoken and caring person, he even gave his bedroom to Pranav and his grandmom to stay during the camp with him. After Pranav became an IM we tried to reach Landa but we were told that he was not keeping well. His passing away came as a shock for us recently. We will miss him and we hope his family and friends have the strength to bear his loss."

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk

It’s a very sad occasion indeed to write about a person who just passed away, especially if you knew this person personally. I knew that Konstantin had been battling against cancer in the last few years and unfortunately the disease won this battle. I worked with Konstantin quite a long time ago - in 2007-2009, we had some training sessions and he helped me preparing for the World Championship in 2008 that I won. Later on he was a frequent guest in our house in Paris since my husband Pavel Tregubov was his good friend and teammate in the German Bundesliga. Three of us also established a chess academy in Paris and Konstantin gave some lectures for kids over there once in a while. I share some photos and videos from these lessons here:

GM B. Adhiban

"I wrote an article for New in chess on my victory at the Reykjavik Open (renamed as Fischer memorial that year) and I noticed that Landa won a nice miniature game against Hamitevici that event. I requested the NIC editor to contact him for analysis of that game and he readily agreed to do that. I was happy that he analyzed his game for my article!"

GM Harsha Bharathakoti

"It was very sad news to the chess world, I only met him once in a chess camp that took place in Delhi 2018 but it was a memorable one. He was very cheerful and supportive. It was a great experience working with him. I cannot believe this happened. My deepest condolences to his family."

GM Karthik Venkatraman

"I am saddened by his demise. There's a story which I would like to share: I attended a Juniors training camp of his in Delhi and on one of the days we were all having lunch together. Mr. Konstantin Landa was eating a plain Chili and he was telling us it's not possible for us to eat. Obviously, I was stupid enough to try the challenge. 15 to 20 seconds after eating the chili, I had to run to the bathroom. And then, Harsha tried it and he also faced the same fate as me. Only GM Iniyan passed the chili test as far as I remember."

Support Konstantin Landa's family:

Since the day Konstantin Landa passed away, we have been in touch with his wife. She wrote to us, " I work and it is enough for me and my daughter, but it is not enough to pay for his funeral. We spent lot of money for treatment of Konstantin because we had to pay for additional treatment and used each possibility for his cure. Now his funeral cost is something that I am unable to handle. I cannot pay it but I must do it. He must be buried." Konstantin Landa's funeral was held on the 24th of October 2022. His wife has a couple of weeks before she can make the payment. The total amount is €5,800 (Rs.4,75,000). Konstantin has supported the chess world in many different ways. It would be wonderful if we could support his family in their moment of distress. (Note: A total of 2448 Euros was raised and this fundraiser has now been closed).

Update:

After the article was published several kind chess players came forward to contribute. Here is the list of players as provided to us by his wife. We thank each one of them for their kind contribution.

Vishy and Aruna Anand: 1000 Euros

Rustam Kasimdzhanov: 200 Euros

Gurpreet Saund: 100.82 Euros

Sachin Samant: 95.3 Euros

Keneth Regan: 96.02 Euros

Raj Bhardwaj: 47.65 Euros

Anna Sharevich: 500 Euros

Gagan Malhotra: 119.66 Euros

Vasudeavan: 288.89 Euros

Total: 2448.34 Euros