Chess Personalities

A strong English player who came in third in Birmingham in 1858 and in London (BCA) in 1862. Vicar. In a matches, he beat Amos Burn in 1888 (+5-3=0), drew with Baron Kolisch in 1860 (+4-4=0), he lost to Paul Morphy in 1858 being given odds of pawn and the move (-5=2), to Samuel Boden

Dutch leading player at the beginning of the twentieth century. Dutch champion in 1909. Medical doctor. Best results: won or shared first at Haarlem 1901 and finished second at Amsterdam 1899. He played 29 matches from 1893 to 1928. Won against all Dutch players except Euwe to whom he lost twice. He lost to all

Dutch master who died at 23 years old due to double pneumonia. Best results: second at Scarborough 1930, finished fourth at Nice and Brünn 1931. In matches,  he drew with Landau in 1928 (+1-1=3), won against Landau in 1931 (+5-3=1), lost to Euwe in 1931 (-3=3) and to Landau again in 1931 (+1-5=1). A participant in

Greek International Arbiter (1993). Chairman of FIDE Arbiter Council since 1998. General Secretary of the Greek Chess Federation since 2003. President of the Attika Chess Union (Greece). Mr. Nikolopoulos is widely known all around the chess community as the Chief Arbiter of many chess tournaments, including FIDE World Championship Matches, FIDE Women’s World Chess Championship

Danish world class player born in Riga. Actually wanting to study mathematics, learned chess as an 8-year-old and discovered his talent, when he came in among the winners in Ostend in 1907, Hamburg in 1910 and San Sebastian in 1912 in spite of outstanding participants. After the war, Nimzowitsch lived first in Sweden, then until

German National Master (1865) born in Poland. Chess author and journalist. Editor (together with Adolf Andersen) of Neue Berliner Schachzeitung 1864-67. Best results: Paris 1867, 4th; Dundee 1867, 1st; Baden-Baden 1870, 3rd-4th; Altona 1872, 2nd. In 1867 won a match from Szymon Winawer (+3-0=0), from Manuel Golmayo (+3-0=0), from Samuel Rosenthal in 1869 (+12-2=8) and

A leading English player of the 1870s. A barrister’s clerk. He met strong opposition in only one tournament, London 1876 when he took third place after Joseph Blackburne and Herman Zukertort. In match play, he lost to Herman Zukertort in 1875 and drew with James Mason in 1879. Potter edited the City of London Chess Magazine

Swiss player, also a doctor of medicine. He studied at Geneva, Munich, and Heidelberg, obtaining his medical doctorate at Zurich in 1909. He specialized in dermatology and venereology at Bern, becoming Ausserordentlicher Professor in 1917 and director of the university dermatological clinic, his work concerning immunity research in dermatology and syphilology. Best Swiss chess player

Soviet chess and draughts player, the only Master of Sports in Chess 1950 and Draughts 1949, International Master 1954. He was the coach of the Soviet team during the period of 1948-74 but was not allowed to travel abroad until his 40’s. Five times he was the winner of the Kazan championships and of the

American player born in England. Businessman. First British Champion (1904). Moved to Portland, Maine and then in 1893-94 to Brooklyn which became a more permanent home.  As a boy, joined the Brooklyn Heights Social Chess Club. His active chess career was quite short and can be identified as being merely a decade starting in 1895.