Defendarov and Attakinsky!

Semyon Alapin, Chigorin's rival, was born on the 19th of November 1856 in Vilnius, Lithuania, later moving to St Petersburg. He was one of the strongest players in Russia in the late 19th century.

He played chess throughout many years although with modest results: 1st place with Mikhail Chigorin at the St. Petersburg tourney of 1878-79, shared 1st place in the Berlin championship of 1893, 6th at Berlin 1897, 10th in the Vienna 1898 Jubilee tournament, 5th at Monte Carlo 1901 and 1st in the Munich championship of 1911.

In match play he drew a match with Carl Schlechter (+1, =4, -1) in 1899 and won a training match against Siegbert Tarrasch in 1902/3 (+4 -3 =2).

Semyon Alapin was an outstanding openings analyst, creating opening systems in almost all major openings, immortalized by the Sicilian variation, which now bears his name! He was a linguist involved in grain commodities, who used to embellish his writings with the fictitious characters 'Defendarov' and 'Attakinsky'!

He lived his later years in Heidelberg, Germany and died there on the 15th of July, 1923.

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