HoF #40: Mikhail Chigorin (Father of the Russian School of Chess)
[A note for my regular readers: The intro has not changed (except for a new image). Feel free to jump to the Table of Contents or even to the Biography.]
[A note for my new readers: I believe it is useful to read the full introduction your first time. Cheers!]
This blog is a celebration that leverages an outstanding concept of GMs Nielsen and Gustafsson (both of whom are also popular chessable.com authors) but offers my unique take. The two GMs produced videos and multiple lessons regarding their top 50 chess players of all time. Although I provide a link to their work below, my focus is different, though I freely accept their rankings.
How does my work differ? Well, first off, I'm not a titled player. Second, I wrote brief biographies for each player and offer limited discussion and pictures of some of their works (if they wrote). Third, if they were eminently quotable, I'll throw in a few of those! I may have found occasion to add quotes from other famous (or even unknown) chess names regarding the Hall of Famer. Fourth, I'll toss in the occasional caricature😏.
Fifth, and most difficult, I will include at least two games analyzed by the individual, if such games exist. After all, the greatest of the great should be able to explain what they were thinking during a game, shouldn't they? (Spoiler alert: perhaps, except when there is no evidence that they ever had analyses published. Also, many of them analyzed games but only by offering some alternative lines, with only symbolic explanations.)
Plus, I attempt to provide links to other relevant materials regarding these grandmasters of the game.
We've reached #40!
40: Mikhail Chigorin | Chess Lessons
Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (also Tchigorin; Russian: Михаи́л Ива́нович Чиго́рин) was born on Halloween in 1850 according to the Julian calendar. But we use the Gregorian calendar nowadays, so his tenure on this planet measured from 12 November 1850 – 25 January 1908. ChessMetrics estimates his peak rating at 2797 in August 1895 and ranks him second in the world in 17 different months between October 1889 and September 1897, and placed him in the Top Ten globally until July 1905.
A Russian master he twice played World CC matches against Steinitz. Chigorin might well have wrested the title from Steinitz, but in a totally winning position in game 23 Chigorin blundered a blind swine mate in two. His best tournament performance may have been placing second at the famed 1895 Hastings tournament. He won his game against Pillsbury, the eventual tournament champion, and placed ahead of Lasker, Steinitz and Tarrasch.
Lest we forget, there is the Chigorin Defense (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6). GM Morozevich did a lot to revive the fortunes of this defense, even writing a book about it.
You can also find any number of videos about how to play the Chigorin Defense. I'd recommend sticking to reputable sources.
Hey, he had other things on his mind. Earning a living playing chess is not a particularly lucrative career in general, but he spent most of his time on that. That doesn't leave much time for writing books. He did write numerous columns, but all in Russian, and I couldn't find any online, or I would have pushed them through a translator to give an example.
Chigorin is deemed the father of the Russian school of chess by many because of his talent and his efforts to teach other Russians via his numerous articles on the topic. Botvinnik is accorded the title of father of the Soviet school of chess, a school inspired in part by Chigorin's earlier efforts.
That didn't keep other people from writing about Chigorin!
As I indicated, even if I'd found any articles written about Chigorin, I'd have needed a translation, which can always be a dubious proposition at best. I only found one quote of his in the chess echo-sphere.
Not infrequently … the theoretical is a synonym of the stereotyped. For the 'theoretical' in chess is nothing more than that which can be found in the textbooks and to which players try to conform because they cannot think up anything better or equal, anything original. Chess Quotes - Theory
Here is what others had to say about Chigorin.
Chigorin's talent is enormous, and possibly he is a real genius. At times the depth of his ideas can be inaccessible to mere mortals. - Alexander Alekhine.
Once he fixated on an idea, his theoretical point became more important to him than winning, and this lack of competitive pragmatism prevented him from making it to the top. - Garry Kasparov
Had Chigorin been able to rein in his fantasy on just a few occasions, the world might have had its first Russian champion decades before Alekhine. - Garry Kasparov
In Russia the first player to devote all his life to the game, the man who initiated the habit of adopting a profound approach to chess, was Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin, and we can only speak of the existence of a Russian chess school from this time onward. - Mikhail Botvinnik
Chigorin, a genius of practical play, considers his privilege at every convenient opportunity to challenge the principles of contemporary chess theory. - Wilhelm Steinitz
In difficult positions Chigorin gets very excited, and at times seems quite fierce, sitting at the board, with his black hair brushed back, splendid bright eyes, and flushed face look as if he could see right through the table. When calm, however, he is decidedly handsome, and calculated to beget confidence. - Tournament Book of Hastings 1895
The grandiosity of Chigorin's ideas is enchanting: his every move breathes with creative force and an irresistable will to win. - Rudolph Spielmann
(Chigorin) was a bundle of nervous energy and he constantly swung his crossed foot back and forth. Speaking only in his native Russian, he was handicapped in getting along with the other masters. - Frank Marshall
Tchigorin had a very aggressive style, and was thus a great attacking player. He was always willing to experiment and as a result was often beaten by weaker players. - Bobby Fischer, Chess Life & Review, October 1972 Fischer’s Views on Chess Masters by Edward Winter
Tchigorin was the first great Russian chess player, and still is one of the greatest Russians of all time. - Bobby Fischer, , Chess Life & Review, October 1972 Fischer’s Views on Chess Masters by Edward Winter
Given these are fifty of the greatest players of all time, how were they as annotators? Well, for those who wrote books we could truly explore that question in depth. But to keep the playing field even, I had been including only games taken from a DB. Why that limitation? Well, I didn't want to burden myself with transcribing comments from a book into a pgn file. Or increase my debt burden by buying books of those who did not yet offer free access to books released to the public domain. Besides, far easier and faster to look for annotated games in an online database. Eventually, I changed my position on that for the reasons given in Hall of Fame #41: Jan Timman (The Best of the West!).
Fortunately, I did manage to find several games with annotations by Chigorin. However, the notes are quite limited. Would I have used a book had it been available? You betcha.
Game 1: Chigorin & Schiffers - Alapin and Petrovsky, St Petersburg CC Consultation, 12.12.1879
A brief intro to set the stage. A consultation game that started with a Petroff's Defense. Although White's eighth move is rarely played, it is perfectly competent. Chigorin correctly points out that Black's 12th move is at best inaccurate as it allows White to make what appears to be an exchange sacrifice but instead leads to the win of material. White could certainly credit their superior calculating skills, as Black overlooked an intermezzo on move fifteen that changes the calculus on the board.
Overall, a well-played game and fine analysis. I added a few comments for accuracy or comprehension, prefaced with "Kevin".
Game 2: Shabelsky, Mikhail - NN, Kharkov CC, 12.12.1877
A brief intro to set the stage. White played a King's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4), the perfect opening for the Romantic era of attacking chess! White plays a technically inaccurate line involving a knight sacrifice on f7 on move six, but material is not the point! Nope, this is an early example of shock and awe, striking the opponent with unexpected blows that may be inaccurate but certainly pose maximal difficulties in finding the correct responses. There's no pussyfooting around in this game, it's hammer and claw, all the way. I added some comments (prefaced with "Kevin") to point out where some salient moves were not analyzed or analyzed incorrectly. Me and Stockfish 17.1 are a most excellent pairing for analysis.
By modern (i.e., computer) standards, the analysis was a bit rough! But Chigorin clearly understood where the critical points were.
Care for a journey down memory lane? Just pick your path! The whole purpose of this section is to address some obvious questions that might pop into your head. How come Kevin didn't talk about this? Or that? Not to mention the other thing! Well, just call me lazy! Or you could appreciate the fact I'm limiting the word count that is imposed on you😏.
Nonetheless, in the series I'll be using this little section to provide links to more fulsome discussions that revolve around some well-known and lesser-known facets of the featured chess giant. That will range from videos to links to other chess.com blogs, usually by Top Bloggers. Enjoy or skip, it's your call, as always.
We have a number of blogs:
- From @kamalakanta you can see a number of posts. I've listed four: Chigorin- A Creative Genius 'Till the End!, Marshall's Attack is Actually Chigorin's Idea!, Chess Romanticism Part II (Chigorin) and Judit Polgar and Chigorin Teach Us Chess
- From GM @2bf41-0 Chess Romanticism Part II (Chigorin)
- Mikhail Chigorin by Edward Winter one of the great websites that actually tries to correct history to match the actual facts.
FM Sam Copeland has a couple good videos, and accompanying blogs, to offer. I provided two below.
If you'd rather read Sam's blog, it's found at Evans Gambit Brilliancy In World Championship - Best of the pre-1900s - Chigorin vs Steinitz, 1892.
Again, if you prefer to avoid videos, here's a link to Sam's blog. Chigorin's King Leads The Attack - Best of the 1900s - Chigorin vs. Mortimer, 1900.
That's it for the eleventh installment of my own take on chess.com's 50 greatest players of all time. Hope you enjoyed the blog. The good GMs below have a full selection of videos and puzzles dedicated to each of the fifty.
Thanks for taking the time to read at least parts of this. 😉 Cheers!
Sources for this information included chess.com, wikipedia.com, ChessBase, FIDE, individuals' websites, YouTube.com, news articles, books, and other sources. Plus, my faulty memories. I mixed, matched, cut, and pasted so much that separation is implausible, and I apologize for misattributions. Particularly with quotes which are found in a thousand repositories, not to mention book covers, t-shirts, and the rantings of chess coaches of whom I've had more than a few thanks to Chess University and @AttilaTurzo (my primary instructor and co-author of three books, for different chess strengths, we are writing on how to analyze during a game and after.)
If you enjoy reading "greatest of" lists then you might also enjoy chess.com's Every Chess 'Player Of The Decade' (From Morphy To Magnus).
HoF #50: Nimzowitsch–"The Stormy Petrel"
HoF #49: Karjakin–"The Minister of Defense" (the most popular post in the series based on the number of views.) 🤔
HoF #48: Portisch–"The Hungarian Botvinnik"
HoF #47: Polugaevsky–"The Great Poluga"
HoF #46: Kamsky–"London's King"
HoF #44: Leko–"The Cement Meister"
HoF #43: Winawer (The French King)
HoF #42: Najdorf–"Happy-Go-Lucky"
HoF #41: Jan Timman (The Best of the West!)
HoF #40: Mikhail Chigorin (Father of the Russian School of Chess)
