The Man Who Played A Game For His Life
Life resembles a dance with Death.
It was in the early 1900s that Russia started to blossom as a strong contender on the chess stage worldwide. During this period, there were political twists and turns, regime changes, the Great War and shifts in ideology. At the same time in chess, succeeding the age of Morphy and Steinitz, rose a new generation of greats. Ossip Bernstein was one such name. However, much like his sharp and unpredictable playing style on the board, his life story was rocked by the volatile nature of the rough political environment. This is the story of how chess enabled a man to cheat death numerous times.
Early Life and Chess Career
Ossip Bernstein in May of 1914 ©Wiener Schachzeitung
Ossip Samoilovich Bernstein was born to a wealthy family of Jewish heritage on the 20th of September, 1882 in the small Ukrainian town of Zhytomyr. Although Bernstein wasn't serious about chess until his late adolescent years, he quickly made a name for himself while studying law in Germany. The young man of nineteen almost earned the title of Master in his first tournament, finishing second in the Hanover Hauptturnier in 1901. A year later, he did obtain the title, and from then on, his rise to the top was incredible. He was among the prize winners at the next two master tournaments, namely Coburg 1904 and Barmen 1905, and he tied for first with Carl Schlechter in Stockholm 1906.
The peak of his career was reached in 1907 when he shared first place with Akiba Rubinstein in the strong Ostend Tournament where 29 of the finest masters around the world competed. Among the players left behind by Bernstein were Spielmann, Tartakower, Teichmann, Nimzowitsch, etc.; all of whom turned out to be more recognisable than the rapidly rising Ukrainian. In their individual encounters, he was also able to hustle wins against Nimzowitsch and Tartakower, who were both later regarded as logical challengers for the World Champion title.
In the same year, Bernstein obtained his doctoral degree at the University of Heidelberg. He returned to Russia, where he married and began his career as a lawyer. Most of his clients were big industrialists and bankers, leaving him little time to play chess. Throughout the next six years, his tournament appearances became occasional, with him only participating in four tournaments. He placed fifth in the Chigorin Memorial of 1909, first in the Moscow City Championship of 1911, joint eighth in San Sebastian 1911 and second in the Vilnius All-Russian Masters Tournament of 1912. In the prestigious Saint Petersburg 1914, he finished in the middle of the pack and failed to qualify for the finals, but he delivered reigning World Champion Emmanuel Lasker his only loss of the tournament.
Results of the Saint Petersburg 1914 Tournament ©ChessBase
The Game of Life, Literally
Due to incompetent leadership and the lack of a cohesive society, the dissolution of the Russian Empire had been imminent for decades leading up to this point, but the defeat of Russia in World War I and the Russian Civil War were ultimately the decisive factors pulling the empire apart. The old House of Romanov was replaced by the Bolsheviks after the successful October 1917 Revolution. As soon as the Bolsheviks seized power, they instituted social, political and economic reforms based on Marxist-Leninist principles, with the party determined to crush any political resistance from loyalists of the tsar, beginning the era of the "Red Terror."
The October Revolution of 1917
With banks regarded as "evil institutions" that had tended to capitalism, Bernstein was perceived as the essence of the problem the new state was attempting to exterminate. He, his wife and his two small children had to flee Moscow but the Cheka captured them in Odessa, Ukraine. What happened next must have been one of the most distressing experiences for a chess player. In a tribute to Bernstein in the April 1963 edition of Chess Review, Edward Lasker recalls:
In Odessa, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tcheka, in those days practically tantamount to being condemned to death. This arrest took place during the "red terror," when the mere fact that a man was a member of the well-to-do bourgeoisie stamped him as a criminal. Bernstein's crime was his role as legal adviser to hankers, industrialists and trusts. There was, of course, no court trial. One of those sadistic minor officials, who always show up in the wake of revolutions when executions are the order of the day, had a firing squad line up Bernstein and a number of other prisoners against a wall to be shot. Then, fortunately, a superior officer appeared who asked to see the list of the prisoner's names. Discovering on it the name, Ossip Bernstein, he asked him whether he was the famous chess master. Not satisfied with Bernstein's affirmative reply, he made him play a game with him; and, when Bernstein won in short order, he had him and the others in the group led back to prison and later released.
Between the Wars
As if the new lease on life was not enough of a miracle, in 1919, the British government sent several ships to Odessa to rescue some people who were especially in danger of being killed. The Bernsteins were allowed to board one of these ships without knowing where it would take them, as neither Bulgaria nor Turkey were willing to accept these fugitives. In the end, they landed in Serbia, all seriously ill as a result of the conditions under which the trip took place.
They were again saved by a fortunate accident in Serbia. They met an official in Belgrade who knew Bernstein and helped them secure travel passes. By a series of long, complicated detours that took them to Vienna and then Oslo where Bernstein was able to collect a fee owed to him by a wealthy client, the four of them finally arrived in Paris in 1920, with just enough money to last one month.
Paris became a thriving city again after WWI and the Spanish flu
In Paris, Bernstein met with some industrialists and bankers who had also fled from Russia. They asked him to travel immediately to New York to resolve a few important financial problems for them. He required a visa to enter the US and there was a waiting list of several weeks for such. However, Bernstein had to make the trip immediately, or it would have been no use to his friends. His chess status once again helped him to get the visa in time to accomplish what he had to do.
Bernstein once more built up a successful career as a financial consultant to restore the wealth that he had lost. In 1932, he received an invitation to participate in Bern, the strongest tournament of the year. Despite the eighteen-year chess drought, the temptation of having another go at it was too strong for him. He placed joint fourth with Efim Bogoljubow, a result which motivated him to play a short match with the reigning World Champion Alexander Alekhine. The match was tied at 2-2, but only after Alekhine forced a difficult draw in the last game. In Zurich 1934, the once brilliant young prodigy evidently lost his magic. Nevertheless, he finished the tournament in joint sixth place with Nimzowitsch.
On the Run One More Time
In his Chess Review magazine section, Lasker recollects:
Ossip said to me: " You know, Berlin has again developed marvelously; and, every once in a while, I wonder whether life there would not appeal to us." His wife differed. "No," she said, "I want to remain in Paris. Here, if for one reason or another you feel depressed, you put on your hat and go out in the street, and you are happy again. In what other city in the world can you do that?" This was in 1930 or 1931. How lucky that they did not return to Germany. In 1933, Hitler and his hordes, whose monstrous brutality made the Russian revolutionists seem by comparison merely angry saints, began their dirty work.
Fate, however, would keep Bernstein restless. In 1940, France surrendered to Germany in World War II, with the Nazis rounding up Jews for their concentration camps in Poland. Bernstein and his family had to flee once more, this time to Spain, where Bernstein had a handful of good friends. Reaching the Pyrenees, they had to walk mountain roads at night and hide in caves during the day, for the Germans were always on the lookout. Once they arrived in Spain, they were arrested by Spanish frontier guards and put into separate prisons, but thanks to the help of his influential friends, he was granted freedom in Spain and could stay there until the end of the war.
Post-War Life and Legacy
After the war, the Bernsteins returned to Paris to find their home plundered by German officers. They also reunited with their son, who had spent the previous five years in a German concentration camp. The son, by the way, was President Eisenhower's interpreter since he knew almost every European language. The Russian general Molotov once said that the son Bernstein was the only United Nations interpreter he could trust.
Chess came calling for Ossip Bernstein again in 1946 when he participated in London, finishing second behind Herman Steiner. In Groningen that same year, he could only finish fifteenth in a strong field containing past World Champion Max Euwe and future World Champions Mikhail Botvinnik and Vasily Smyslov.
At the ripe age of 72, he found such tournaments too strenuous and frequently got into time trouble, which wasted winning positions into drawn ones or losses. After Groningen 1946, Bernstein decided to stay away from further tournament play, but the lure of Montevideo 1954 was too great, finally allowing him to see South America. It was there, against the stylish Miguel Najdorf, that Bernstein played what is arguably his most brilliant game. He ended his career fittingly: finishing second and winning the brilliancy prize.
The last years of his life were spent in Saint Arroman, a quiet commune in the French Pyrenees, to escape the bustling Paris, which had been too demanding for him. Bernstein passed away at age 80 on the 30th of November, 1962. His experience during the romantic, classical, hypermodernism and Soviet eras as well as having fate chase him throughout his life moulded a reputation as an unpredictable player on the board. He was, as Milan Vidmar described:
the last of the galaxy of stars that had illumined the golden age of chess.
Thanks for reading.
