Mikhail Chigorin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mikhail Chigorin (12 November 1850, Gatchina, Russia – 25 January 1908, Lublin, Poland) was a leading Russian chess player. He served as a major source of inspiration for the "Soviet school of chess," which dominated the chess world in the latter part of the 20th century. He played two matches against Wilhelm Steinitz for the World Chess Championship; the first in 1889 he lost 10.5–6.5; the second in 1892 he lost 12.5–10.5. His overall record against Steinitz was respectable: +24-27=8.

He drew a match with Siegbert Tarrasch in Saint Petersburg in 1893 (+9-9=4). He had a narrow lifetime plus score of +14-13=8.

Chigorin started serious chess rather late in life, and his first international tournament was Berlin 1881, where he was 3rd.

He placed second, ahead of reigning world champion Emanuel Lasker and former world champion Steinitz, in the Hastings 1895 chess tournament, in which all the greatest players of the time participated. The winner, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, lost their individual game and had great respect for Chigorin's ability. Chigorin maintained a narrow lifetime plus score against him (+8-7=6).

He was 2nd in Budapest 1896, and beat Rudolf Charousek +3-1 in the playoff. He was skilled at gambits, and won the Vienna King's Gambit Tournament in 1903. He also beat Lasker +2-1=3 in a sponsored Rice Gambit tournament in Brighton, where he took black in every game; neither player took the result as reflecting chess strength as opposed to the weakness of the gambit.

Chigorin has several chess openings named after him, most notably the Chigorin Variation of the Ruy Lopez (in algebraic notation, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 O-O 9.h3 Na5). There is also the Chigorin Defense to the Queen's Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6).

Although Chigorin had a heavily negative record against Lasker (+1-8=4), he beat Lasker with the black pieces in their first game at Hastings in 1895. It resulted in a classic two knights v two bishops ending, where Lasker's bishops were better but he underestimated Chigorin's strategy.[1].

Chigorin had the measure of Richard Teichmann (+8-3=1) but couldn't handle David Janowski (+4-17=4).

According to the Canadian International Master Lawrence Day, Chigorin traveled with the young Fedor Bohatirchuk to Russian events in the 1905-1908 period, helping to train him. Bohatirchuk, after moving to Canada following World War II, trained Day.

[edit] Popular culture

A famous Chigorin's game played against Wilhelm Steinitz in 1892 is used as the base for the plot of The Squares of the City, a 1978 science-fiction novel by John Brunner.