Chess Personalities

French chess player born in Poland. One of the strongest in the country in the second half of the nineteenth century. Chess theorist and teacher. Editor of the chess column of the magazine Le Monde Illustré 1885-1902. In 1863, he left Poland for France and became one of the best players in Paris. He won

A French chess master born in the Russian Empire. Engineer. One of the leading French players. Six times winner of the French Championship (1932, 1936, 1946, 1947, 1951 and 1952) and Paris Champion in 1938. A participant in four Olympiads between 1935 and 1972 (1935, 1954, 1958, 1972).

Strong Israeli player and coach who participated in the 1970 Olympiad and four Student Olympiads (1966-1971). Winner of the World Student Blitz championship in 1968 and three times Israeli Blitz champion. Honorary FIDE Vice President 2006-2010, FIDE Vice President 2010-2018. Author of Positional Chess Handbook which was translated in five languages. Former coach of Yakov Murey,

Russian born, but Viennese by adoption, a player who played many fine games with strong players, e.g., the brilliancy prize game against Salwe at Ostende 1906 or a quick victory in 21 moves against Reti in Vienna 1913. Alpinist and lover of nature, his body was found frozen in the Alps after an ultimate climb.

Slovenian Grandmaster (1953) and International Arbiter (1973). Yugoslav Champion in 1935 (joint), 1936 and 1937 and 1953. Best results in international tournaments: Budapest 1934, 2nd; (+7=7-1), a half point behind Lilienthal; Novi Sad 1936, 1st; Lodz 1938, 1st (+8=7), ahead of Tartakower, Petrov, Stahlberg, and Eliskases; Bad Haezburg 1938, 1st; Marianske Lazne 1948, equal first.

One of the great chess theoreticians and a player ranking among the world’s best half-dozen in the 1860s and 1870s. Born in Nassengrund, Germany, to a chess-playing family, he learned the game young but showed no special enthusiasm for it at the time. In 1854, he joined his brother Ernst’s tobacco business in Iowa, USA.

Polish strong Master and chess composer. Chief editor of the chess magazine Svyat Shakhovy during the period of 1926-33. Vice-President of the Polish Chess Union since 1926. FIDE Honorary member. Polish Champion in 1926. Active in tournament play from 1904-31, he obtained his best result at Munich in 1926 when he won the first prize

Leading player in Russia at the beginning of the period when chess was first seriously studied in that country. Best player in St. Petersburg before he was 20. In 1840, at the invitation of Field Marshal Prince Paskevich of Poland, Petroff went to Warsaw as Under-Secretary of State where he married and lived for the

Philidor was born in Dreux near Versailles, France. He started playing chess when he was 10 and was then trained by Sire de Legall another strong French player of that time. In 1744 Philidor played two chess games blindfolded simultaneously in public in Paris. He said he had learned how to do this when he

American chess player and chess theorist. One of the strongest chess players from the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth centuries. A professional chess player, he edited chess columns in American newspapers. He began to play chess at the age of 16. He moved to Boston to study commerce and spent