On 24 Oct 2004 18:23:08 GMT, (Miriling) wrote:

It is unlikely that his original name was
"something like Verukov" since his father was Greek. Chances are that his real
name was Rossolimopoulos or some Hellenic name like that.

George Mirijanian

Madame Rossolimo, who outlived him and continued to operate
Rossiolimos Chess studio after he died, told me his Russian name. He
was a chess master at an early age and won some major tournaments
under his Russian name. It might be possible to find these. She had
written a biography of him and an autobiography of herself which she
read to me from time to time. She was looking for a publisher but it
needed to be translated into English. She was from Vladavostok. Her
biography seemed interesting. I wonder if it just got thrown out after
she died, or if it still exists somewhere.

Sam Sloan

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:58:44 GMT, (Sam Sloan)
wrote:

On 24 Oct 2004 18:23:08 GMT, (Miriling) wrote:

It is unlikely that his original name was
"something like Verukov" since his father was Greek. Chances are that his real
name was Rossolimopoulos or some Hellenic name like that.

George Mirijanian

Madame Rossolimo, who outlived him and continued to operate
Rossiolimos Chess studio after he died, told me his Russian name. He
was a chess master at an early age and won some major tournaments
under his Russian name. It might be possible to find these. She had
written a biography of him and an autobiography of herself which she
read to me from time to time. She was looking for a publisher but it
needed to be translated into English. She was from Vladavostok. Her
biography seemed interesting. I wonder if it just got thrown out after
she died, or if it still exists somewhere.

Sam Sloan

I just looked up Madame Vera Rossolimo. She died on 9 June 1995. Her
Social Security Number was 080-28-6812

You can look it up at
http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

Sam Sloan

Subject: Chessdon goes Zero for Zero for Ten!

On 24 October 2004 (Sam Sloan)
Date: 10/24/04 3:14 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id:

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:58:44 GMT, (Sam Sloan)
wrote:


Madame Rossolimo, who outlived him and continued to operate
Rossiolimos Chess studio after he died, told me his Russian name. He
was a chess master at an early age and won some major tournaments
under his Russian name. It might be possible to find these. She had
written a biography of him and an autobiography of herself which she
read to me from time to time. She was looking for a publisher but it
needed to be translated into English. She was from Vladavostok. Her
biography seemed interesting. I wonder if it just got thrown out after
she died, or if it still exists somewhere.

Sam Sloan

I just looked up Madame Vera Rossolimo. She died on 9 June 1995. Her
Social Security Number was 080-28-6812

You can look it up at
http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

Sam Sloan



Madame Rossolimo, who died on 9 June 1995, had a maiden name of Boudakovitch.
She and Nicholas had one son, Alexander, who lives in Massachusetts. Dr.
Alexander N. Rossolimo, who is 65 years old, is president of Strategy
Associates International. He is an expert on nuclear terrorism.
By the way, Nicholas Rossolimo's father was Spiridon Rossolimo and his mother
was Xenia N. Skugarevsky. His paternal grandfather was Nicholas Rossolimo.
I think if one were to contact Dr. Alexander Rossolimo, c/o Strategy Associates
International in Massachusetts, one might find out for sure if his father's
real last name something other than Rossolimo. All signs still point to
Rossolimo being his real last name.

George Mirijanian

(Sam Sloan) writes:

On 24 Oct 2004 15:26:53 GMT, OTHERE (Fifiela) wrote:

The only grandmasters there were Rossolimo and
later Spassky, both transplanted Russians.

Rossolimo was Russian?

A web search shows that Rossolimo is not an unheard of
Russian name.

With the name, I would assume Italian.

Yes. Rossolimo was from Kiev. Rossolimo was not his original name. His
original name was something like Verukov.

The Oxford Companion says that Rossolimo's father was
Greek, mother Ukrainian.

He changed it to Rossolimo
in order to become a citizen of France.

That wouldn't have been necessary.

William Hyde
EOS Department
Duke University

I am Nicholas Rossolimo's grandson. The last name is not Italian at all. It is indeed Greek in Origin (probably "Rossolimos," the "s" dropped a long time back). Rossolimo was my grandfather's original name in Kiev (remember Ukraine was part of the USSR at the time). The Russian name some people here heard -- "Verukov" -- is close to his mother's maiden name; perhaps he used that while playing in the USSR; afterall, a Russian sounding name would go over better in a Communist country where they did not like Western sounding names (Rossolimo sounds Italian).

My late mother, Mme Vera A. Rossolimo, showed me her autobiography (which included much information about my father) in 1975, shortly after my father's death. She had typed it in Russian, and wanted to have it published. My mother had a fascinating life and background. Shortly afterwards, it was borrowed by someone who promised to have it translated into English and published. He was a visitor to my father's "Rossolimo Chess Studio" in Greenwich Village. However the autobiography was never returned. I hope that it still exists somewhere, and WOULD APPRECIATE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT IT, including any recollection of its contents from anyone who might have heard it from my mother.

My father's name at his birth in 1910 was (in Russian) Nikolai Spiridonovich Rossolimo (the middle patronymic is from his father Spiridon N. Rossolimo.) When he moved to Paris with his mother in 1929, his name became Nicolas Rossolimo in French. He won the chess championship of Paris numerous times under that name, and became chess champion of France in 1948. When he emigrated to the United States in 1953, he became known to American chess players as Nicholas Rossolimo.

__________________
Alexander N. Rossolimo

My father's name at birth in 1910 was (in Russian) Nikolai Spiridonovich Rossolimo. The middle patronymic comes from his father Spiridon N. Rossolimo. Born in Kiev in 1910, my father moved to Moscow in the early 1920s with his mother, where she was accused of being a “polyglot” and thrown into a Soviet jail for a year. A highly-educated woman, she spoke four languages – Russian, English, German and French – nearly perfectly. She had been a war correspondent in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, writing for Russian and English newspapers. Following her release from prison, she worked for a major Soviet book publisher in Moscow. During that period, my father had a number of chess studies published under his name Nikolai Rossolimo, and told me he became junior chess champion of Moscow. My father and his mother emigrated to France in 1929. Interestingly, my father had an excellent ear for languages. Although he arrived in Paris at age 19 not knowing any French, he learned to speak the language almost like a native. It was only when I was about ten that I began noticing a very slight accent in his French. Many people thought he was a French-speaking Belgian. However, much later, after living in the U.S. for 10 years, his French took on a noticeable Russian accent, perhaps from lack of practice in the language.

__________________
Alexander N. Rossolimo

My father, Nicholas Rossolimo, was born in Kiev (now capital of Ukraine) in 1910 of a Russian mother (nee Xenia Nikolaevna Skugarevskaya) and a father born in Russia of Greek ancestry (Spiridon Nikolaevich Rossolimo.) My grandfather’s grandfather was a Greek ship captain, who got shipwrecked in the Black Sea and swam ashore near Odessa in the early 1800s, where he settled. Although two generations removed, my grandfather Spiridon spoke perfect Greek. He even taught me several sentences in the language, such as (in phonetic transliteration) “O papus ine Elin psychis che cardias,” which means: “My grandfather is a Greek in his soul and heart.” My father did not change his surname upon becoming a French citizen in 1947. He became Chess Champion of France in 1948 under the name Nicolas Rossolimo. Interestingly, his partly-Greek heritage most probably saved his life and that of his family. Somehow, his father Spiridon retained Greek citizenship, even though his family had lived in Russia for three generations. He was abroad and became separated from my grandmother during the Russian Revolution. (They eventually became reunited in New York some 30 years later!) In 1929 my grandmother decided to leave the Soviet Union with her two sons. By then, under Stalin’s yoke, this was virtually impossible for a Russian/Soviet citizen. Fortunately, because her absent husband – although born in Russia – had Greek citizenship, she was able to obtain a Greek passport and emigrate to France. In 1947, she rejoined her husband in New York. My father Nicholas with his family joined them in 1953, after a five-year wait for a visa to America. It is interesting to note that there is a Rossolimo Street (“Ulitsa Rossolimo”) in Moscow. It is named after my father’s uncle, Grigorii Rossolimo, a world-famous neurologist and psychiatrist who died in 1928. A professor at Moscow University, he studied medicine with Anton Chekhov, and they became good friends all their lives. Among his numerous contributions to medicine, he invented the first psychological profile (the “Rossolimo psychogram”) and discovered what became known as the “Rossolimo reflex” in neurology.

__________________
Alexander N. Rossolimo

The origin of the Rossolimo / Rossolimos / Ροσολίμοs / Россолимо Family
Historically this name is found in two countries, namely Greece (Ροσολίμοs) and Russia (Россолимо). It is believed that all persons carrying this name originate from the same bloodline, (although this has been disputed). The name can be traced back to the island of Cephalonia as far back as 13th Century, where this clan owned and controlled vast tracks of land. This clan are the descendants of Baron Hughes de Sully, most likely a branch of the Blois-Champagne family.

The Rossolimo family crest is recorded in the museum library Cephalonia, Greece

Translation of "Livre D'or Noblesse Ionienne, 1926 by Eugene Rizo-Rangabe"
In an interesting study, published in the yearbook of the study society of Byzantine Athens, Georges Tipaldo-Alfonsato, the sage president of the Heraldic section of the historic and ethnological society of Greece, gives his opinion that the Rossolimo of Cephalonia are descendents of Hughes de Sully, baron and “officer general” from Normandy, in the service of Charles d’Anjou, King of Naples in the 13th century.
The book of the Conquista of Constantinople and of “the Moree?” written in the 14th century, says that, because of his red hair, Hughes de Sully was generally called “the red of Sully”. The Greek text calls him “Ros Solimo”, from where the Greeks seem to have named his descendants Rossolimo (Ροσολίμοs).
This Hughes commanded the Napolitan army, which King Charles sent to help the Despot of the “Nicephore” Empire against the Byzantine Emperor Michel Paleologne. In 1279 the Red Sully was commander in Chief of Albany and of Corfu. In 1281 he was taken prisoner by the Byzantinniens, close to the town of Berat in Albania, and imprisoned in Constantinople where he died. Hughes of Sully had a son, Johannes, whom we find established in Naples at the beginning of the 14th century.

In 1634 a certain Nicolo Rossolimo was Governor of the island of Ithaca, a post that has always been entrusted to a Cephalonian.
In the second half of the 18th century, Giovanni, son of Demetrio Rossolimo, of Coriana in Cephalonia, was Archimandrite and Predicator of the “Patriarcat Oecumenic” of Constantinople (Cicelli p.571)
The Rossolimos where written down in the Golden book of the Cephalonican Nobles in 1593.
Unfortunately, the Genealogical family tree of the family, very complete and going back to the year of its inscription in the Golden book, seems to have been destroyed during the last insurrection of the Bolshevists in Russia.

In the new Golden book or “Elenico” the Nobles of Cephalonia, made in 1799 by order of the Prytane Co. Corofan, 16 different families of Rossolimo are mentioned.

(Dr.) constantin rossolimos