Petroff Alexander Dmitrievich (12.02.1794 – 22.04.1867)

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 rest of his life.

Although best remembered now as a writer and theorist, Petroff also scored some notable successes in play, although chess tournaments were far less frequent in his day. He won matches against Jaenisch, S. Urusov (+2=20, +13=1-7) and Shumov, but he never played with the leading masters of Western Europe and with D.M. Salter, a player from the London Chess Club. As a result, they played over 200 games at odds of pawn and two moves. Salter described him as tall, with a broad forehead and large grey eyes, adding that ‘goodness and sagacity dwelt on his face’.

Besides the nickname ‘the Russian Bourdonnais’, Petroff was also called ‘the Northern Philidor’. In 1824 he published his treatise on chess The Game of Chess Systematised with a Supplement Containing Philidor’s Game and Annotations to the Same (Petroff’s Shakhmatnaya igra).

This handbook, of which 300 copies were printed, consists of five parts, published in two volumes: I, beginner’s advice and definitions; II, law, a few short games, and 289 maxims for players, forms the first volume, in Descriptive Notation. The second volume, in Standard Notation, comprises III, the openings and fictitious games from Philidor’s book; IV, other openings; V, endgames, puzzles and problems. Largely a compilation from earlier writers, Petroff’s book had little influence on the development of the game. Among his other writings is the first Russian manual on the game of draughts and a popular book of reminiscences called Scenes from the Life of Chess Players in Russian (St. Petersburg, 1844).