Yuri Lvovich Averbakh (born February 8, 1922) is a Russian chess player and author.
His first major success was first place in the Moscow Championship of 1949, ahead of players such as Andor Lilienthal, Yakov Estrin and Vladimir Simagin. He became a International Grandmaster in 1952. In 1953 he won the USSR Chess Championship ahead of players including Mark Taimanov, Viktor Korchnoi, Tigran Petrosian, Efim Geller and Salo Flohr. In the 1956 Championship he came equal first with Taimanov and Boris Spassky in the main event, finishing second after the playoff. His other major tournament victories included Vienna 1961 and Moscow 1962. He qualified for the 1953 Candidates Tournament (the last stage to determine the challenger to the World Chess Champion), finishing joint tenth of the fifteen participants.
In 1956 Averbakh became an International Judge of Chess Compositions and in 1969 an International Arbiter. Averbakh was also an important chess journalist and author. He edited the Soviet chess periodicals Shakhmaty v SSSR and Shakhmaty biuletin, and from 1956 to 1962 volumes of his major work on the endgame, Shakhmatnye okonchaniya, appeared (revised in 1980-84 and translated as Comprehensive Chess Endings, five volumes).
Averbakh is the eponym of several opening variations, perhaps most notably the Averbakh System in the King´s Indian Defence: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 O-O 6.Bg5 (in algebraic notation).
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