Alexander Zaitsev was a Russian chess player and Grandmaster who was born in November 1935 and died in October 1971. He completed his higher education at the Polytechnic Institute in Moscow, where he studied engineering. Zaitsev started to learn chess when he was five, and at the age of 23 he became a Grandmaster. In 1965, he won the Russian Federation Chess Championship, and his passion for the game led him to quit a successful career in engineering to pursue chess full-time. In 1966, he won the Moscow Chess Championship.
Zaitsev is famous for the "Zaitsev System" of the Ruy Lopez Chess Opening, commonly used in high-level matches up to the present day. He became a member of the USSR National Team and participated in the 19th Chess Olympiad, held in Siegen, West Germany in 1970, where the team won a gold medal. In the same year, he also successfully won the USSR Chess Championship.
Described as an intelligent and hardworking player, Zaitsev was recognized for his meticulous preparation for games. However, his potentially exceptional career was abruptly halted due to a tragic death from thrombosis following a minor surgery in a Soviet hospital at the age of 36.