Semyon Abramovich Furman was born in Moscow, Russia (formerly USSR). He was a factory worker in Leningrad, who developed his chess skills in his spare time, and was a late bloomer by chess standards, not reaching National Master until adulthood. F...
The 1969 U.S. Championship was also a zonal qualifier, with the top three finishers advancing to the Interzonal. Fischer however, did not play, because of disagreements about the tournament's format and prize fund. Benko, one of the three qualifie...
In January 1963, Bobby again won the U.S Championship, with 8 of 11. In this championship, he lost a game to Edmar Mednis, his first ever loss in U.S. championship history. He started with only 2 points from 4 games, but winning the game in the f...
[part 2] In 1958, Fischer became the youngest grandmaster in history, at 15 years and 6 months. This record held until 1991 when it was broken by Judith Polgar. In 1959, in the Candidates Tournament Bled / Zagreb / Belgrade, he finished fifth to...
[part 1] Fischer attended Erasmus Hall High School at the same time as Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond; Frank Brady talked to someone in the Grade Advisor's Office at Erasmus Hall while Bobby was a student there. This person said, "His I.Q. w...
Robert James (Bobby) Fischer was born at 2:39 pm on March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois (Michael Reese hospital) by the banks of Lake Michigan, his mother Regina Wender Fischer Pustan (born in Switzerland of Jewish parents on March 31, 1913 and rai...
Guillermo Garcia Gonzales was born in Santa Clara on December 9, 1953 and learned chess at the age of six. His triumphs were predicted one day when an unknown woman, overwhelmed by the heat, took water at the Garcia residence in Santa Clara and gr...
In the two years that Alekhine was without the world champion's crown, he finished 2nd place, at Podebrady with 12.5 of 17 half a point behind Salo Flohr. Also in 1936, Alekhine played in Nottingham, where h is game with Capablanca was the first t...
Leaving the USSR After the world championship match, Alekhine returned to Paris and spoke against Bolshevism. Afterwards, Nikolai Krylenko, president of the Soviet Chess Federation, published an official memorandum stating that Alekhine should b...
A Star Emerges Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was born on October 31, 1892 in Moscow, Russia, the third son in a family where children and adults played chess. He learned at the age of seven, and from twelve Alekhine played seriously, especiall...
Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky was born November 20, 1934 in Mogilev in the Soviet Union (now Mahilyow, Belarus). Unlike many of his grandmaster colleagues, his development in chess was slow, and he did not receive the Soviet master title u...
His "First Loss" At the New York 1924 chess tournament after beginning with four draws, Capablanca’s defeat at the hands of Richard Reti in the fifth round was his first loss in serious competition in eight years. Capablanca recovered with...
José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera was born on November 19, 1888 in Havana, Cuba. His father was an army officer who liked to play chess. One day, the young boy noticed his father make an illegal move with his knight, accused him of che...
Moishe Mieczslaw Najdorf was born near Warsaw Poland on April 15, 1910. He was a pupil of Savielly Tartakower. At the age of 20, he became a Polish National Master. He played for Poland in the 1935, 1937, and 1939 Chess Olympiads. At the Buenos Ai...
Early Years Max Euwe was born on the 20th of May 1901 in the town of Watergraafsmeer near Amsterdam. He was the second of six children and learned the game at the age of 4 from his parents. At 15 years old he qualified for the Championship Group...
Early Years Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was born on August 17, 1911 in Kuokkola, near Saint Petersburg, to a Jewish family. His father was a dental technician and his mother, a dentist. He learned to play chess at the age of 12, practicing a lo...
Efim Petrovich Geller was born March 8th, 1925 in Odessa, Ukraine. He learned how to play chess as a young man, and was one of the top 10 players in the world for over 20 years. He earned his doctorate in Physical Education. He won four Ukrainian...
Mikhail Nejemevich Tal was born in Riga, Latvia on November 9, 1936. He was a genuine child prodigy: at three years old he read perfectly, at five he multiplied three digit numbers in his head. His father was a physician and Tal became interested ...
Early Years Vasily Vasiliyevich Smyslov was born on March 24, 1921. He learnt chess at the age of six, and after studying books in his father's library, became really serious about the game at the age of 13, when two world champions, Capablanca a...
Paul Petrovich Keres was born on January 7, 1916, in Narva, Estonia. Keres first learned about chess from his father and older brother Harald. In 1935, Keres became the chess champion of Estonia, defeating Gunnar Friedemann for the title. Keres b...
David lonovich Bronstein was born February 19,1924 in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine, to a Jewish mother and father. Growing up, he learned chess at age six from his grandfather. As a youth in Kiev, he was trained by the renowned International Master Alexa...
Early Years Tigran Petrosian was born to Armenian parents on the 17th of June, 1929 in Tiflis, Georgia, which was then a member of the Soviet Union. As a young boy, Petrosian was an excellent student and enjoyed studying, as did his brother Hmaya...
Emanuel Lasker was born on December 24, 1868 at Berlinchen, son of a Jewish cantor. At the age of eleven he was sent to Berlin to study mathematics, where he lived with his brother Berthold Lasker eight years his senior, who taught him how to play...
Grandmaster in 4 years! Jorgen Bent Larsen was born in Thisted, Denmark, on March 4, 1935. He learned to play chess when he was 6 but did not begin to play seriously until he was 17. By age 19 he became an International Master, and two years late...
Alexander Ilyin-Zhenevsky (or Ilyin-Genevsky) born in St Petersburg on the 28th of November 1894 is considered the founding father of the Soviet Chess School! From the enthusiasm of Ilyin-Zhenevsky, the official attitude to the game was brought. H...
