Soviet International Master (1961) and International Judge for Composition (1956). Author, analyst, and musician-pianist. Best results: USSR championship 1939, 4th – 5th, championships of Leningrad 1937, 1st – 3rd and 1949, 1st; Leningrad Masters 1933, 3rd – 4th and 1934, 3rd; All-Union tournament of Young Masters 1936, 1st – 2nd; championship of VZSPS 1936, 1st

Hungarian Master who became the Hungarian Champion in 1912 with a score of 7/7. Engineer, problem composer and editor of the chess magazine Szellemi Sport. Best results:  Budapest in 1917,1st; Berlin in 1921, 1st, Vienna 1914, 4th, Budapest 1914, 4th; Charousek Memorial 1918, 3rd-4th. In 1921 he established a new world record in blindfold chess on

Spanish Grandmaster (2004) born in Cuba, he was also living in Colombia between 2002 and 2008 before to emigrate to Spain. Graduated in Physical Culture and sports. He was the editor for few years of the Spanish chess magazine Jaque. Coach. Best results: Albacete 2002, 2nd; Calanova 2002, 1st; Cullera GM 2003, 2nd;  Sauzal Open 2003,

French player, analyst, and composer. International Master for Chess Composition honoris causa (1959) and International Judge for Chess Composition (1957). French Champion in 1926, 1927 and 1929. A participant in the 1927 Olympiad. He was living for many years in Switzerland for health reasons. Cheron is remembered for studies of end-games published in his four

A Hungarian of Grandmaster strength who came to live in England (1851) and played a major role in English chess. During the 1850s, he was in the world top seven or eight and was probably the best opening theorist of his day. He was born in Budapest, into a family of a Budapest merchant, studied

Swiss problemist. He has composed more than 200 problems and many of them were published in the Alan White’s collection Alpine Chess. The first editor of the Schweizerische Schachzeitung.      

Hungarian Grandmaster (1961), one of the world’s best non-Soviet players in the 1970s and 1980s. Portisch has won 9 times the national championship and was awarded 8 times the ‘Nemzet Sportoloja’, Hungary’s highest national sports achievement award. He was a member of twenty Hungarian Olympiad teams where in total he won 11 medals including one team’s

American player born in Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied medicine at the Vienna University then emigrated in 1904 to the USA where he became a citizen in 1910. Best results: 1st Western Open Champion 1909, 3rd at New York behind Marshall and Capablanca,  3rd New York Master 1915, 3rd Rice Memorial 1916 where he was the only competitor

Swiss Grandmaster (2000) living in Paris. Swiss Champion in 1995, 2000, 2002, 2010 and 2014.  The organizer of the Biel chess festival since 2013. Best results: won or shared first at Zug 1997, Neuchatel Open 2001, Lausanne Open 2004, Zurich-Welhnachtsopen 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010, Cap D’Agde Open 2012, Martinique Open 2012 and 2013.

Belgian Grandmaster (1998), coach and chess columnist at La Libre Belgique. Belgian Champion in 1986, Belgian Champion U14 in 1977, U16 in 1978 and U18 in 1982. Best results: won or shared first in Brussels Mat Open 1982, Liege 1983, Soultanbeieff Memorial 1984, Gent Open 1984, Wijk aan Zee II 1987, Fourmies Open 1988 and