Mikhail Chigorin,the founder of the Russian 'School of Chess'

Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin 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 middle and latter parts of the 20th century.He became serious about chess uncommonly late in life; his schoolteacher taught him the moves at the age of 16, but he did not take to the game until around 1874, having first finished his studies before commencing a career as a government officer.

He challenged the world champion Steinitz for a match.The match was played at Havana in 1889, but he lost 10½–6½. A second match was played also at Havana in 1892, but he still lost 12½–10½. His overall record against Steinitz was very close (+24-27=8). He also played a much publicised 'telegraph match' against Steinitz in 1890, devised to settle a theoretical argument. Chigorin had the slight advantage of choosing the openings in advance from a list supplied by Steinitz and duly won both games.

Here is one of my favorite games and shows us how Chigorin (as black) is punishing his opponent at Italian game with 14 moves..