November Babies: A Chess Zodiac
So, you were born in November? Or maybe a family member or significant other celebrates their birth in the penultimate month of the year? [Btw, my wife hates it when I call her "My significant other." I have tried to remind her that, "There are no insignificant others." Somehow that doesn't solve the problem. What? Am I just supposed to introduce her as "My other"? As an alternative I even tried, "My shorter half." Surprisingly, that didn't work! Go figure.] But hey, let's focus on you and your interests. A number of famous, or at least incredibly capable, chess players, streamers, and/or authors were born in November. And a few days had multiple entries.
What brought this on? Well, one of the members (@Bid) in BlogChamps had a birthday. Given that this is a chess site, it made sense to find out what famous player(s) shared their birthday. And publish a quick bio on the famous individual in one of the club's forums. One day led to another, and then to several months. Finally, I put all of October together, tidied it up, put on some nice wrapping paper and published October Chess Babies. Well, that was a few weeks ago, November has come and gone, so it's time to post the second in this series. And this time I'll even throw in an occasional game or game fragment demonstrating the birthday celebrants' chess skills.
So, here's the big question: What do the biographies of the chess personalities born on a given day say about the chess potential of those born that same day in November?
Like any good zodiac, it often admits to multiple interpretations. What? Did you expect more than pseudo-science? And for now, you'll have to draw your own inferences from the information provided. The lucre, and stunning lack thereof, received to date from these blogs hardly pays for me to walk over to the faucet and fill up my glass of water. Let alone to provide my keen insights into how people are influenced by those with whom they share a random day of birth.
Below you'll find images of photos, stamps, paintings or sketches of various chess luminaries. You can click on a date just below if you're only interested in a specific day. And after looking at the bio of the birthday personality or personalities on a given day you should find a button that returns you here so you can select another day of the month. If you want. Enjoy!
Links to November Birth Dates
Nov 1, Nov 2, Nov 3, 4Nov, Nov 5, Nov 6, Nov 7, Nov 8, Nov 9, Nov 10, Nov 11, Nov 12, Nov 13, Nov 14, Nov 15, Nov 16, Nov 17, Nov 18, Nov 19, Nov 20, Nov 21, Nov 22, Nov 23, Nov 24, Nov 25, Nov 26, Nov 27, Nov 28, Nov 29, Nov 30
Looking for birthdays in other months
February Babies: A Chess Zodiac
Sources for this information included chess.com, wikipedia.com, ChessBase, FIDE, individuals' websites, YouTube.com, and some news articles. As well as my own faulty memories.
November 1 
Eduardo Iturrizaga is a Venezuelan GM born 1 November 1989, and the first Venezuelan to achieve the GM title. He has won the Venezuelan CC four times and has represented his country at eight Olympiads. His peak rating and world ranking both occurred in March 2017 at 2673 FIDE and #73 respectively. He is currently rated 2577.
Isidor Gunsberg, a Hungarian chess player born 1 November 1854, began his chess career as the player inside the chess automaton Mephisto (The Mechanical Turk: The Automaton Chess Player). Unlike Schrodinger’s cat, if Gunsberg wasn’t in the box, then the Turk was dead to the world, or at least to that paying audience. According to Arpad Elo, “Gunsberg's best 5-year average Elo rating was 2560.” He drew a match with Chigorin in 1890 and later that year played Steinitz for the World CC. Ginsberg lost 4W-9D-6L.
November 2 
Ljubomir Ljubojević (Serbian Cyrillic: Љубомир Љубојевић; born November 2, 1950) is a Serbian GM. He won the Yugoslavian CC twice and played for Yugoslavia in twelve Olympiads, playing nine times as the top board. His results from those Olympiads included two team bronze medals, one individual gold, and one individual bronze. His peak rating was 2645 in January 1983, high enough to rank him #3 in the world at the time. Oddly he never managed to qualify for the Candidates tournament.
Sofia Polgar (more correctly, Polgár Zsófia), born 2 November 1974, is a Hungarian and Israeli IM and WGM and artist. The middle sister of three, she is bookended by her GM sisters. And she is married to GM Yona Kosashvili. One cannot help but be curious if her two children play the royal game. Sofia’s peak FIDE rating was 2505 in July 1998. She has been inactive, effectively, since 2003. Her record as a member of the Hungarian Olympiad team includes two team golds, one team silver, three individual golds (!), and one bronze medal. Perhaps Sofia’s greatest performance was the “Sack of Rome” in 1989. In that tournament she scored 8W-1D-0L for a performance rating of 2879, including victories over several strong GMs. At the age of fourteen. You can find her official Chess and Art website at Sofia Polgar.
November 3
Sergei Movsesian (Armenian: Սերգեյ Մուշեղի Մովսիսյան; born 3 November 1978) is a GM who played for the Czech Republic for most of his career, but later switched chess federations to Slovakia and then Armenia. A winner of the Czech CC in 1998, he reached the quarterfinals of the FIDE World CC in 1999. He competed in that event three other times. He is a two-time Slovak CC whose peak rating of 2751 in January 2009 propelled him to #10 in the world. He is currently rated 2616. His wife is a WGM.
Eugenio Torre, born 4 November 1951, is a Filipino GM, a title he earned by winning a silver medal in the 21st Olympiad. He played board one for the Philippines in an astounding seventeen Olympiads. His peak rating was 2580 in January 1983 when he also reached his peak in the world rankings at #20.
Elisaveta Ivanovna Bykova (or Elisabeth Bykova, Russian: Елизаве́та Ива́новна Бы́кова was born 4 November 1913 and passed away on 8 March 1989. An IM and WGM she was twice the Women’s World CC, 1953-1956 and 1958-1962. Also a chess author, she wrote books about Vera Menchik, Soviet women chess players, and the Women’s World CC.
November 5 
Max Illingworth is "former" chess player who now focuses on chess training, chess writing, and professional poker. Born 5 November 1992 he achieved the GM title in 2016 and had a peak rating of 2525 in July 2018 before retiring from active play in 2019. His final rating was 2493. He scored 7 of 10 for Australia in the 2012 Olympiad, securing his IM title and in 2014 won the Australian CC. He is also a FIDE Trainer and a contributor to 50 Moves and the New in Chess Yearbook.
Mustafa Yilmaz, born 5 November 1992, is a Turkish GM. At the age of 17 he became the youngest Turkish CC ever. He has played in at least one Olympiad as part of the national team. His peak rating was 2665 in December 2023 placing him #66 in the world in January 2024. He is rated 2568 entering November 2024. He plays as @Chopper1905 on chess.com but plays somewhat irregularly.
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Robert Hübner was born on November 6, 1948. This German GM, chess writer, and papyrologist won the West German CC at the age of 18. His peak rating was 2640 in July 1981 when he also reached #3 in the world. He had a tragic touch in the Candidates tournaments. In 1971 he lost to match Petrosian after blundering a piece in the 7th game in an equal position. He reached the Finals in 1981 before forfeiting to Korchnoi after ten games while down a single point. In the most ridiculous moment, he lost to Smyslov in 1983 when the spin of a roulette wheel decided the outcome decided the victor after the ten original games and a four game playoff ended up all equal.
November 7 
Chess Hall Of Fame - 50: Aron Nimzowitsch - Chess.com
Aron Nimzowitsch ((Latvian: Ārons Nimcovičs; Russian: Аро́н Иса́евич Нимцо́вич) was born in Riga, Latvia on 7 November 1886, but played and wrote as a Danish grandmaster. One of the great personalities in chess history, his best playing years were in the late 1920s, although he had achieved early success as seen in a tie for first with Alekhine at St. Petersburg 1914. He won the Nordic CC twice. He is best known as one of the leading practitioners of hypermodernism.
As a writer Nimzo earned eternal fame as the author of My System, Chess Praxis, and The Blockade. He also endlessly attacked Siegbert Tarrasch for the latter’s overly orthodox adherence to core strategic principles of chess. Eventually, however, Nimzowitsch himself succumbed to the peril of adhering too closely to one’s principles and could be quite as dogmatic as Tarrasch, forgetting that every situation should be approached on its own merits. Multiple openings and variations are credited to him, the most enduring and famous being the Nimzo-Indian Defense.
Nimzowitsch is the cheeky author of quotes such as:
• The threat is stronger than the execution.
• First restrain, next blockade, lastly destroy.
• How can I lose to such an idiot?
• Even the laziest King flees wildly in the face of a double check!
• The passed Pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient.
• The defensive power of a pinned piece is only imaginary.
November 8 
Nikolay (or Nikolai) Nikolaev Minev was a Bulgarian IM and chess author born 8 November 1931. Minev was born on 8 November 1931, in Rousse, Bulgaria. A four-time Bulgarian CC, he played for Bulgaria in six Olympiads. His writings include contributions to early editions of the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (ECO) and the Encyclopedia of Chess Endings. He wrote extensively for Yasser Seirawan’s magazine Inside Chess throughout the 80s and 90s, as well as publications for The Chess Library, Thinkers Press, and Russell Enterprises. His forte was player game collections. but he also contributed opening ideas in the French, KID, and Caro-Kann. He also wrote about endgames, such as his 2005 A Practical Guide to Rook End Games.
Yes, I could have cropped the picture to focus on the individual. But as much as anything, Nikolai earned his renown as a chess writer. In other words, he was an author who happened to be an IM. (I should be so lucky. But at least I'm collaborating with an IM on my third chess book.) George Carlin would have appreciated this player as an example of one of his perhaps lesser-known jokes about Colin Powell, a four-star Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who happened to be...well, George was a comedian, so I don't want to ruin the punch line.
November 9 (Special birthday greetings to my best chess friend, Gary Dissette. All the best, bro!)
Hall Of Fame - 15: Mikhail Tal - Chess.com
Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal, aka Misha or The Magician from Riga 9 Nov 1936 was a Soviet and Latvian GM known for brilliancies, even if it took decades for the computers to put a stamp of approval on some of his combinations! Vladislav Zubok said of him, "Every game for him was as inimitable and invaluable as a poem" The eighth World CC had a peak rating of 2705 in 1980, though that was well after his best playing years. ChessMetrics places his peak rating at 2799 in September 1960, #1 globally, and well before FIDE instituted a rating system.
For 44 years, 1974 – 2018, Tal held the longest unbeaten streak in chess history at 95 games. More amazing was his winning 46 of those games, a truly majestic winning percentage of almost 50%.
Misha was also a phenomenal writer. No surprise given his Literature degree and his time teaching in Riga in his early 20s. I particularly relish that his thesis was on two Soviet satirical writers from the 1920s and 1930s, Ilf and Petrov. Satirists are a rare breed and some of that inevitably comes through in various Tal publications, particularly in his autobiography where he brought in Chukovsky’s famous couplet, “Oh, what a difficult job it was. To drag out of the marsh the hippopotamus.”
Two of Tal’s most renowned books were The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal and Tal-Botvinnik 1960. For all chess bloggers out there, one of the reasons Tal’s writings were so renowned was the detailed narrative of his thinking during his games. Well, that and a superb education combined with lots of writing practice.
Here's a link to an excellent blog by @jessicamel that offers more details on Tal's life Mikhail Tal - The Magician From Riga.
Daniel (Danya) Naroditsky is an American GM, author, and commentator born 9 November 1995. In 2007 he won the World Youth CC U-12 and won the US Junior CC in 2011. He plays on chess.com as @DanielNaroditsky. On his 29th birthday he won his 24th Bullet Brawl title. Danya's peak bullet rating on chess.com was 3553. Danya’s peak FIDE rating was 2647 in May 2017 though that has declined slightly to 2619. Naroditsky has published several books, Mastering Positional Chess and Mastering Complex Endgames. At one time he wrote a truly superior blog on chess.com but the last one I could find was from 2020 The Chess Investigator: Analyze Your Mistakes. He has been the GM-in-residence at the Charlotte Chess Center since 2020. Danya actively creates content on YouTube and Twitch.
Jozsef Pinter is a Hungarian GM and chess writer. Born 9 November 1953, he is a two-time winner of the Hungarian CC. His peak rating was 2595 in July 1998 and he still holds down a rating of 2528 as of November 2024. His books include 1000 Minor Piece Endings, 1000 Rook Endings, 1000 Pawn Endings, 300 Puzzles, and Secrets of Chess Tactics. Among his games one that stands out is his brilliant victory over Portisch in the 1984 Hungarian CC, presented below with minimal notes.
November 10 
Kevin Spraggett, born November 10, 1954, is a Canadian GM. An eight-time Canadian Open winner, and seven-time Canadian Closed CC, he has represented Canada eight times at the Olympiad, earning a silver medal on board two in 2000. Kevin (I love that name, no surprise!) is the only Canadian to have qualified for the Candidates tournaments, doing so in both 1985 and 1988. His peak rating was 2651 in November 1998, but to find his peak ranking we have to go back to 1985 when he was #27 in the world. Btw, Wikipedia lists his peak rating incorrectly. The writer of the Wikipedia entry probably relied on FIDE’s current tabulations which start after the turn of this century. Spraggett had an online blog presence at Spraggett on Chess but I found nothing newer than 2016.
November 11 
Maia Lomineishvili, born 11 November 1977, is a Georgian IM. She has won the Georgian Women’s CC five times and competed in several Women’s World CC competitions. Her peak rating was 2447 in April 2009. Her standard rating stood at 2342 in February 2017, but she appears to have played no FIDE-rated classical games since then. She competes occasionally on chess.com as @maia1177, but the most recent game I found for her was April Fools Day this year. Or am I just making that up?!
Anna Rudolf, born 12 November 1987, is a Hungarian IM and WGM, chess.com commentator, and YouTuber. A three-time Hungarian Women’s CC she earned her three IM norms and then crossed the 2400 threshold long enough to earn the title. Because of the way the FIDE rating system works, her highest official recorded rating is 2393, reached in 2010. She has not played a FIDE-rated game since November 2017 and her rating currently stands at 2325. She played on the Hungarian Women’s team in four Olympiads. She is clearly one of the chess social media’s more dynamic and entertaining commentators. And was an official commentator for the 2018 World CC with her childhood idol, Judit Polgar. In August 2024 she sat down with WFM Anna Cramling in one of the recently popular polygraph conversations where famous players are asked any-and-all questions. You can find her on chess.com as @Anna_Chess and you can also challenge her bot on the site. She still plays irregularly on the site. The last games I found for her on chess.com were played on June 16, 2024. Anna maintains her own website Anna Rudolf and has published Anna's Anatomy of The Attack: Same-Side Castling on chessable.com.
Maria Florencia Fernandez is an Argentine WIM born 12 November 1991. Her peak FIDE rating was 2264 in March 2016 but had slumped slightly to 2160 as of September 2024. In 2022 she won her fifth Argentine national title as the Women’s CC, thirteen years after she won that title for the first time in 2009. She is a d4 player as White. But with the Black pieces she plays more aggressive lines, choosing the Sicilian against 1.e4 and the KID against 1.d4, and mixes things up with the Pirc. Maria plays as @effefe on chess.com and streams regularly at efeflor - Twitch with over 8,300 followers. You can also find numerous YouTube videos covering some of her most important games.
Leonid Zakharovych Stein (Ukrainian: Леонід Захарович Штейн; November 12, 1934 – July 4, 1973) was a Soviet GM from Ukraine who won the USSR CC three times and the Ukrainian CC twice. In the 1960s he was deemed among the top ten players in the world. His peak rating was 2620 in July 1972, a year before his untimely, early death. Unfortunately for his World CC opportunities, on several occasions he was denied entry to the Candidates tournaments because he placed behind three other Sovier players in the Interzonals and there was a rule in place limiting each country to three Candidates. Stein died tragically young of a heart attack, aged only 38. To best gauge his playing strength consider that he had even scores against Vasily Smyslov, Tigran Petrosian, and Mikhail Botvinnik and positive scores against Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky, and Paul Keres. A smorgasbord of Who’s Who in the chess universe. Stein died tragically young, aged 38, of a heart attack.
Borislav Ivkov (12 November 1933 – 14 February 2022) was a Serbian GM who competed in the Candidates cycle in 1965, losing to Larsen in the first round. He also played in four other Interzonal tournaments. Interzonal tournaments were the precursor to the Candidates, back in the day. A three-time Yugoslav CC, he was the first World Junior CC. A member of the Yugoslave Olympiad team continuously from 1956 – 1980, he won a total of ten team medals and five individual medals. The individual medals included two golds, two silvers, and one bronze. His peak rating was 2560 in January 1971, good enough to rank him #28 in the world. Below is a sharp tactical game where he destroyed the young Karpov in 1970.
Add comments to Ivkov-Karpov game and place here.
Jón Loftur Árnason 13 November 1960 is an Icelandic GM who was the World U17 CC in 1977. He won the Icelandic CC three times and in 1977 he won the World U-17 CC, placing ahead of Garry Kasparov and others. He represented Iceland’s team in nine Olympiads. His peak rating was 2555 in July 1987 and currently sits at 2405 in November 2024. He has been less active in chess since 1995 to concentrate on business and finance.
November 14 
David Howell, born November 14, 1990, is an English GM. His peak FIDE rating was 2712 in August 2015 when he reached #36 in the world. David is still rated 2673, placing him #55 in the world. He won an individual gold medal on board 3 at the 2022 Olympiad, achieving the event’s highest performance rating. This three-time British CC is one of the best chess commentators with a wry sense of humor and the keen insights one expects from a GM. You can follow him on X @DavidHowellGM. On chess.com he goes by @howitzer14.
Israel Albert Horowitz (often known as I. A. Horowitz or Al Horowitz) (November 15, 1907 – January 18, 1973) was an American IM, three-time U.S. Open CC, and lost a match to Sammy Reshevsky for the U.S. CC in 1941. He was a member of the U.S. team in four Olympiads, winning team golds in three of them. ChessMetrics estimates his highest rating at 2680 in January 1943, placing him at #10 globally.
Against the Danish Gambit he developed a as-yet unrefuted defense that kept both white pawns and defied White to do their worst!
Most who remember I.A. Horowitz at all, recall him as a writer. No surprise there given the amount of ink devoted to his efforts! He wrote three chess columns a week for the NY Times for a decade. Additionally, he was the owner and editor of Chess Review from 1933 until bought out by the U.S. Federation in 1969 when it was merged with Chess Life to form what I always knew as CL&R (so much easier to type out!).
The author of at least nineteen books, the one I most fondly recall was Chess Traps, Pitfalls, and Swindles, co-authored with Fred Reinfeld. That book often made me laugh out loud, long before lol became a meme. Most of his books were beginner friendly and The Golden Treasury of Chess was a pleasant way to introduce non-players to the sometimes idiosyncratic world of chess. Horowitz’s Chess Openings: Theory and Practice, a veritable encyclopedia of openings, was regularly seen around tournament halls at weekend Swiss tournaments in the early 1970s. I memorized more columns of the Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, and other openings than I could possibly do now. My copy was a bit more torn up than the image above.
I.A. Horowitz was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 1989.
Vincent Keymer, born 15 November 2004, is a German GM. His peak FIDE rating was 2743 in January 2024 placing him at #12 in the world, with a slight dip to 2733 and #21 in November 2024. It’s no surprise that in January 2024 he was #1 in the FIDE world ratings for juniors. However, he has since been overtaken by Gukesh Dommaraju, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and R Praggnanandhaa. Vincent was the runner-up in the 2022 World Rapid CC and given his accomplishments to date it is unclear just how far he will go but certainly the sky seems to be the limit. There is an official website for him at Vincent Keymer. He plays regularly on chess.com where he can be found as @VincentKeymer. Given the musical background of his parents it should be no surprise that Vincent plays the piano.
November 16 
Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky (Russian: Алекса́ндр Фёдорович Ильи́н-Жене́вский) was born in Saint Petersburg on November 16, 1894. He was a Soviet chess master and one of the founders of the Soviet school of chess, as well as a chess organizer, including the first Soviet Championship. A three-time Leningrad CC, he won a tournament game against Capablanca in 1925, an accomplishment very few could claim to have achieved! During the Stalin era he was deemed unreliable because of various lifetime associates, and persecuted accordingly. It was reported that he died in a German air raid during the evacuation of Leningrad, though some choose to believe he was “disappeared” during one of Stalin’s purges.
November 17 
Michael (Mickey) Adams, born 17 November 1971, is an English GM and 8-time British CC. His peak FIDE rating is 2761 in September 2013. Curiously, his peak ranking of #4 in the world was achieved almost thirteen years earlier, in October 2000. He is still rated 2662 in mid-November 2024. He played Rustam Kasimdzhanov in 2004 for the title of FIDE World CC, losing by the narrow margin of 4½ - 3 ½ in the rapid tiebreaker. The intent at the time was for the winner of the FIDE title to hold a reunification bout with Garry Kasparov, the PCA champion and highest-rated player in the world. Mickey did win a world CC in 2023 in his first World Senior CC for the Over-50 category. And he earned a silver medal on board one in the 2014 Olympiad. On chess.com you can follow him @GMMickeyAdams. He plays there irregularly. The most recent game I found for him on chess.com was June 2024. On X you can follow him @MickeyAdamsGM. His official website can be found at Michael Adams. Mickey also won the English Chess Federation’s Book of the Year 2022 for his book Think Like a Super-GM, written in collaboration with Phillip Hurtado.
November 18 
Adrian Bohdanovych Mikhalchishin (also Mihalcisin, Mihalčišin or Mykhalchyshyn, Ukrainian: Адріян Богданович Михальчишин) was born November 18, 1954. He is a Ukrainian GM and graduated with a degree in physics from Lviv University. He is also a FIDE Senior Trainer and served as thte FIDE Trainers Commission Chairman in 2009. His peak rating was 2552 in July 1999 and his current rating is 2426. The author of 21 chess books, he co-authored four books with Alexander Beliavsky: Winning Endgame Technique, Fianchetto Grunfeld, Winning Endgame Strategy, and Modern Endgame Practice. He also produced a number of ChessBase discs such as: The King in the Center, Decision Making in Chess, Pattern Recognition and Typical Plans, and Pawn Structures you Should Know. Those are just a sample of his efforts.
#7 chess.com Hall of Fame: José Raúl Capablanca
José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban master, the third World CC, and notable chess author. He defeated Lasker in 1921 to claim the title, then lost it in 1927 to Alekhine despite entering the match as a heavy favorite. Capablanca placed first in many world-class tournaments including San Sebastián 1911, St. Petersburg 1914, London 1922, and New York 1927. ChessMetrics estimates his highest rating at 2877 in May 1921 and placed him at #1 globally for 85 different months.
Botvinnik considered Capa’s Chess Fundamentals to be the best chess book ever. Unlike authors such as Alekhine who presented detailed analysis, Capablanca focused on what he deemed the critical moments in the game. His book A Primer of Chess provides an introduction to the game for beginners and one of the most insightful accountings of the Capablanca – Lasker World CC match relied on the new world champion’s analyses of every game.
Like Fischer, Capablanca felt chess had reached or was approaching a limit after which all GM games would end in draws. His proposal was a 10x8 board that added two pieces per side, a chancellor and an archbishop. The chancellor combines the moves of rook and knight while the archbishop combines the moves of bishop and knight. Interestingly, the archbishop can checkmate a king in the cornet by itself. Picture the black king on a8 and the white archbishop on c6. Similar variants had been proposed in prior centuries and Capablanca’s experimentation stimulated other alternatives such as Grand Chess and Embassy Chess.
MORE! If you'd like to read a comprehensive review of Capablanca's life and playing style, I highly recommend @2000Knight's The Life of José Capablanca published 20 February 2025.
Isaac Kashdan (November 19, 1905 – February 20, 1985) was an American GM, International Arbiter, and chess writer. Twice the US Open CC, he never managed to capture the US Closed CC. That included the steal of the decade in 1942 when a game Reshevsky had forfeited on time was recorded by the TD as a victory instead of a loss, resulting in Reshevsky adding another crown. Kashdan had amazing success as a member of five US Olympiad teams, compiling a total of nine medals! That tally included four team medals (three gold and one silver) plus an individual medal in every Olympiad—two golds, one silver, and two bronze. And in four of those events he was playing first board!! Only Tal, Karpov, and Petrosian had a better winning percentage among players who competed in at least four Olympiads. Alekhine even touted Kashdan as one of players most likely to succeed him. But the Great Depression forced Kashdan to forego dreams of chess glory…instead he sold insurance (oof). Chess Review magazine was co-founded by Kashdan in 1933, later purchased by the USCF. And he edited the LA Times chess column for 27 years.
At the link below you will find a Sam Copeland blog from 2021 showing Kashdan checkmating his opponent with two knights! How Kashdan Checkmated With Only Two Knights - Best Of The 1940s - Siff vs. Kashdan, 1948 - Chess.com
Varuzhan Akobian (Armenian: Վարուժան Հակոբյան), born 19 November 1983, is an Armenian-born American GM. A three-time winner of the World Open he qualified for the World Cup in both 2007 and 2009. Interestingly, Akobian was featured in “I’m a Genius” an episode of MTV’s True Life documentary series. He tied for first in the 2014 US CC, but lost to Gata Kamsky on tiebreaks. Akobian’s peak FIDE rating was 2673 in June 2017 when he reached #76 in the world. He currently maintains a robust 2564 rating and is an assistant coach for the renowned Saint Louis University chess team. You can find Varuzhan on YouTube at Lectures with GM Varuzhan Akobian - YouTube and he maintains an official website for himself GM Varuzhan Akobian. On chess.com he is found as @GMAkobianSTL. He plays relatively regularly.
James Mason, born 19 November 1849, was a British-American chess player, journalist, and author. In a brief 2020 British Chess News biographical sketch they noted, “Fond of drink, Mason is alleged to have lost many games when in a ‘hilarious condition’.” Winner of the Fourth American Chess Congress, he also defeated Henry Bird 13-6 in a match. According to Chessmetrics, at his peak in October 1876 Mason's play was equivalent to a Chessmetrics rating of 2715, and he was ranked number 2 in the world, behind only Wilhelm Steinitz.” Mason wrote several chess books. Among them were The Principles of Chess, Chess Openings, The Art of Chess, and Principles of Chess in Theory and Practice. I have to say, those titles would be considered uninspiring and hardly original in our jaded era where new opening books seem to be published daily😉.
November 20 
Chess Hall Of Fame - 47: Lev Polugaevsky - Chess.com
Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky (Russian: Лев Абрамович Полугаевский, IPA: [pəlʊɡɐˈjefskʲɪj]; 20 November 1934 – 30 August 1995) was a Soviet GM and strong contender for the title of World CC. Lev won or tied for the USSR CC three times and his peak rating was 2645 In July 1972 at which time he was ranked #3 in the world. It sucks to be #3 when there’s a Bobby Fischer on center stage, a young Karpov in the wings, and a soon-to-be Kasparov already playing. And former World CCs such as Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, and Spassky still strode the landscape. Polugaevsky did compete in four Candidates Tournaments, but the closes he came saw him losing in the 1977 and 1980 semifinals to the forever-young Victor Korchnoi. He played on seven Soviet Olympiad teams, with the team earning six golds and one silver. His book Grandmaster Preparation is considered a classic as he meticulously described his thinking while investigating and meticulously writing about the Polugaevsky Variation of the Najdorf Sicilian. Finally, I love his statement that, “Ninety per cent of all chess books you can open at page one and then immediately close again forever.” It inspires me to be one of the ten percenters…or better!
Trivia question: How deeply do GMs prepare for World CC matches? Well, here's one example. In the game below Lev had analyzed the position up to move 25 while assisting Spassky in preparation for the 1969 match against Petrosian. Lev got the chance to use that information to win an important game against the former World CC Tal.
Time to move on to Polugaevsky's career as a chess author!
His book Grandmaster Preparation is considered a classic as he meticulously described his thinking while investigating the Najdorf Sicilian. There are two accompanying books, Grandmaster Performance and Grandmaster Achievement. I love his statement that, “Ninety per cent of all chess books you can open at page one and then immediately close again forever.” It inspires me to be one of the ten percenters…or better!
Some of Polugaevsky’s most famous quotes were:
Analysis, if it is really carried out with a complete concentration of his powers, forms and completes a chess player.
Analysis is a glittering opportunity for training: it is just here that capacity for work, perseverence and stamina are cultivated, and these qualities are, in truth, as necessary to a chess player as a marathon runner.
My most difficult opponent is myself. When I am playing I often involuntarily make a world champion out of a candidate master.
First and foremost it is essential to understand the essence, the overall idea of any fashionable variation, and only then include it in one's repertoire. Otherwise the tactical trees will conceal from the player the strategic picture of the wood, in which his orientation will most likely be lost.
A sensation, hidden in the depths of my emotional memory, was suddenly revived: what if... What if for me The Variation is not dead? If The Variation is alive?!
In those years, it was easier to win the Soviet Championship than a game against 'Iron Tigran'.
November 21
Evgeny Ilgizovich Bareev (Russian: Евгений Ильгизович Бареев; born 21 November 1966) is a Russian-Canadian GM, trainer, and writer. The U-16 World CC in 1982, his peak rating was 2739 in October 2003. His peak ranking was seen a dozen years earlier when he reached #4 in the world in July 1991. A participant in four gold-medal winning, Russian Olympiad teams, he later played for the Canadian Olympiad team after changing Federations. Evgeny, along with Ilya Levitov, won the 2008 English Chess Federation’s Book of the Year Award for From London to Elista: The Inside Story of the World Chess Championship Matches that Vladimir Kramnik Won Against Garry Kasparov, Peter Leko, and Veselin Topalov. Evegeny had very detailed insights into these matches as he had served as a second to Kramnik. His other publications include The Chess Attacker's Handbook and Say No to Chess Principles!. He can be found on chess.com as @pompey831, though the most recent games I found were in July 2024. And GM Serper wrote an article about Evgeny Bareev, including the Personal Mona Lisa of GM Evgeny Bareev. There are two introductory games. Bareev's favorite starts with the third diagram in that post, and is offered as a series of puzzles. If you’re of such a mind, you can investigate his online chess school at Bareev chess school. The site is not secure, so I will not recommend a visit.
Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr (November 21, 1908 – July 18, 1983) was a Czech GM who won his nation’s CC twice. At the 1930 Olympiad he earned the silver medal on board one and in 1933 he earned a bronze on board one. In a curious turn of events, the team flip-flopped those medals, earning a bronze in 1930 and a silver in 1933. In 1935 Flohr was at peak strength and earned a gold on board one, going undefeated with a score of 9W-8D-OL. He repeated his gold-medal winning ways in 1937. In 1937, FIDE nominated Flohr as the official candidate to play Alekhine for the World CC. However, he could not raise the necessary stake money, and thus ended his opportunity to compete one-vs-one for the crown, as he finished last at the 1938 AVRO Tournament. But Salo Flohr was at great personal and familial risk with war looming. There are “Flohr” variations in the Caro-Kann, Ruy Lopez, English, and Grunfeld, amongst other openings. Chessmetrics states that he was the #2 player in the world in 1935. But that was the same year Max Euwe defeated Alekhine for the World CC.
Ernst Franz Grünfeld (November 21, 1893 – April 3, 1962) was an Austrian GM and chess writer. With a reputation as an opening expert in the 1920s, he deployed his most prominent contribution to opening theory, the Grunfeld Defence, against Friedrich Sämisch in the Bad Pistyan tournament in April 1922. Grunfeld played for Austria in four Olympiads, always on board one. In 1927 he scored 9-½ out of 12. The Chessmetrics website estimates his peak rating at 2715 in 1924. Grunfeld published extensively in European chess magazines.
November 22 
Andrey Vovk (Ukrainian: Андрій Вовк) (born November 22, 1991) is a Ukrainian GM. His peak rating was 2654 in April 2015 when he was ranked #97 in the world. He does not appear to have played a FIDE-rated classical game since April 2020 and his rating currently rests at 2597. He can be found on chess.com @VovAn1991. And on his home page he provides an email for anyone seeking online coaching: andriyvovk1991@gmail.com. He has been coaching for ten years, a normal course of affairs for those who don’t quite make it to the 2700 club and need to supplement their chess income with students. His older brother Yuri is also a GM, with a peak ELO of 2632.
November 23 
Ivan Ivanišević (Serbian Cyrillic: Иван Иванишевић; born 23 November 1977) is a Serbian GM with a peak FIDE rating of 2665 in January 2016 and a peak world ranking of 2665 in July 2008. Still rated a superb 2544 in November 2024, he has won the Serbian CC six times. He has participated in seven Olympiads, three for FDR Yugoslavia and four times for Serbia. Ivan has participated in the World Cup twice but has yet to make it past the second round. On chess.com you can find him @1977Ivan with games played as recently as 5 November 2024. He is primarily a 1.d4 player as White. As Black he prefers the Sicilian against 1.e4 but is not at all averse to a double king’s pawn opening. Against 1.d4 he often rolls out the KID as a weapon, but it is his secondary choice to a double queen’s pawn opening.
Karsten Müller, born 23 November 1970, is a German GM and chess author…with a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Hamburg. His peak rating was 2536 in December 2024. He retired from active chess in January 2016 with a rating of 2532. He has had a column “Endgame Corner” at ChessCafe.com since 2001 and is a regular contributor to ChessBase Magazine. Considered one of the world’s leading endgame experts, he has had at least nine books published, often in collaboration with other authors. The list of his books includes Secrets of Pawn Endings, Fundamental Chess Endings, How to Play Chess Endings, The Magic of Chess Tactics, The ChessCafe Puzzle Book (#1, 2, and 3), Bobby Fischer (The Career and Complete Games of the American World Chess Champion, and Gelfand-Anand 2012: Match for the World Chess Championship. For the would-be chess programmers out there, Dr. Müller has the following website Karsten Müller - Chessprogramming wiki that discusses tablebases, Fermat, depth to stalemate endgame tables, and much more.
November 24 
Kacper Piorun (born 24 November 1991) is a Polish GM and an International Solving Grandmaster. Notably, he is a six-time World CC in chess problem solving. He also won seven team golds in the World Team Chess Solving CC. Kacper won the Polish U-16 CC in 2007 and in 2010 finished third in the World Youth CC. He has also won the Polish CC twice. This double GM has a peak rating of 2685 in July 2016, placing him at #52 in the world. His current ELO rating is 2580, having slipped below the 2600 mark in October 2024. You can find him at @kpio91 on chess.com where he plays in occasional Titled Tuesday events.
Stewart Gavin Haslinger (born 25 November 1981 in Ainsdale, Merseyside) is an English GM who happens to have a Mathematics PhD from the University of Liverpool. His peak rating was 2559 In January 2010. His last FIDE-rated game was in January 2017 and his rating had slipped slightly to 2515. He is listed as retired on chess.com.
November 26
Hall Of Fame - 30: Samuel Reshevsky - Chess.com
Samuel Herman Reshevsky (born Szmul Rzeszewski; November 26, 1911 – April 4, 1992) who at age eight was touring and giving simultaneous exhibitions. In 1920 his family relocated to the USA to live off his earnings. The archives contain an amusing picture of him playing chess with Douglas Fairbanks while Charlie Chaplin watched during filming of the silent film The Three Musketeers. Reshevsky later became a leading GM with eight US CC titles, tied with Fischer. Never a professional chess player he supported his family with his accounting degree. Nevertheless, he regularly contended for the World CC from the 1930s to the 1960s, tying for third in the 1948 World CC tournament and tying for second in the 1953 Candidates. In that event multiple Soviet players have since confirmed that they were under orders to collude and prevent Reshevesky from winning.
Reshevesky competed for the American team in eight Olympiads, six of those times as board one, helping the team to win a gold in 1937 and a bronze in 1974. He also won an individual bronze medal for his performance on board one in 1950. His peak ELO rating was 2565 in July 1972 when he was past his prime. That was still sufficient to rank him as #25 in the world. A notable feature of his play is that his openings were mediocre at best, a shortcoming noted by Larry Evans in Fischer’s book My 60 Memorable Games.
Ivan Cheparinov (Bulgarian: Иван Чепаринов; born November 26, 1986) is a GM with a peak rating of 2718 in August 2018, though you have to go over a decade earlier to find his peak ranking of #19 in the world in January 2008. His rating recently dropped a handful of points and he now resides at ELO 2632 on November 2024 ELO ratings. A four-time Bulgarian CC, he served as second to former FIDE World CC Topalov until 2007. But by January 2008 he had crossed the 2700 barrier. Cheparinov has been part of the Killer Chess Training team since 2020. He developed two courses for their site: What I learned with Topalov and Pawn Sacrifice in the Middlegame. There was an infamous “handshake incident” involving Cheparinov and Nigel Short in the 2008 Corus tournament. Cheparinov refused to shake hands and was forfeited by the arbiter. The tournament appeals committee overturned the forfeit and the game was played the next done, with Short winning in fine style. You can @GMCheparinov on chess.com but I saw no games more recent than June 2023.
Baadur Jobava (Georgian: ბაადურ ჯობავა; born 26 November 1983) is a Georgian GM and three-time Georgian CC. He has also won two individual gold medals at Olympiads supporting the Georgian team. Jobava’s peak FIDE rating was 2734 in September 2012, when he also reached #19 in the world. He has always struck me as an iconoclastic player, one who thrives on nonconformist approaches to chess; a characteristic Nakamura considered to be very self-limiting. Which seemed to phase Jobava not a lick! We look at one of his nonconformist games below. Though, admittedly, the circumstances of Jobava playing a much lower-rated player in a Titled Tuesday matchup certainly drove some of the opening and early middle game decisions. Curiously, Jobava has a 2W-3D-2L against the GOAT, Magnus, and a 4W-1D-0L record against Leinier Dominguez, another 2700+ elite player who is no pushover. Lately, he is most renowned for his extensive use and popularization of what is now known as the Jobava London System; even though it was first played in 1882 by James Mason (who happens to have been born November 19th). Like the other top players mentioned on this birthday, Jobava found himself enmeshed in controversy at one point. He managed to get himself banned from chess.com prize events for all of 2023 for a comment regarding Chinese players. He used to be found as @LexySexy. But I no longer find him on the site. Finally, his younger brother Beglar is an IM.
November 27 
Vlastimil Jansa, November 27, 1942, is a Czech GM. A three-time winner of the Czechoslovak CC, he took a silver medal in the 2006 World Senior CC, finishing second to Viktor Korchnoi, and garnered gold in the 2018 World Senior CC (65+ category) on tiebreaks over Yuri Balashov. Vlastimil also shared a team silver medal at the 1982 Olympiad. His peak ELO rating of 2540 was achieved in July 1975. A long-time coach, he counts David Navara among his students. He wrote How To Play The Pirc; A New System For Black with IM Josef Pribyl, a system characterized by an early …c6 to allow the black pieces potential play on the queenside, depending on the white strategy. Other books Vlastimil authored include Dynamics of Chess Strategy and The Best Move, the latter being co-written with Vlastimil Hort. You can find a collection of his games at The Best Chess Games of Vlastimil Jansa - Chess.com.
Tamar Khmiadashvili (Georgian: თამარ ხმიადაშვილი; 27 November 1944 – 2019) was a Georgian WGM and FIDE Arbiter. A three-time winner of the Georgian Women’s CC, she won the Women’s Senior CC five times, the last time in the 65+ age category. Her peak rating was 2249 in January 2001.
November 28 
Romain Édouard, 28 November 1990, is a French GM. He was at one point a member of the elite 2700 club, clocking in at 2702 in June 2014 at which time he reached #14 in the world. He achieved a four-way tie for first in the 2012 French CC and a three-way tie for first in 2018. Romain has played for the French team in three Olympiads. His play has slipped a bit since then as he currently resides at 2545. He has written a two-volume book The Chess Manual of Avoidable Mistakes. A relatively quick video of what he considers his best game ever can be found at My Best Game: GM Romain Edouard - Chess.com. He plays infrequently on the site and can be found as @Mugzyyy. He has also produced a 3-disc set titled The Edouard Method. He can be found on X @romain_edouard.
Kiril Dimitrov Georgiev (Bulgarian: Кирил Димитров Георгиев; born 28 November 1965) is a Bulgarian and Macedonian GM, and seven-time Bulgarian CC. In 1983 he won the World Junior CC with a phenomenal score of 11½ - 1½. He just missed out on super-GM status, peaking at 2695 ELO in July 2001. His rating has declined with the passage of time, but he is still a very strong 2553-rated player. His peak world rank was #9 in January 1003. In 2009 he set a new world record for the most simultaneous games played, 360, with a score of 284W-70D-6L, an 88% score. He is the author of Squeezing the Gambits: The Benko, Budapest, Albin, and Blumenfeld. He can be found on chess.com @Kiril1965 but his most recent game was over two years ago.
Evgeny Vladimirovich Alekseev (Евгений Владимирович Алексеев; born 28 November 1985) is a Russian GM who won the Russian CC in 2006 and then tied for first in 2012 but lost in the playoffs to determine a sole winner. A member of the elite 2700+ club, he was at 2725 in September 2009 but his rating has slipped significantly, coming in at 2533 in November 2024. He reached #24 in the world in October 2007. He can occasionally be found playing on chess.com as @evgchess5.
Thomas Rayner Dawson (28 November 1889 – 16 December 1951) was an English chess problemist and he is acknowledged as "the father of Fairy Chess." He introduced popular fairy chess pieces such as the Grasshopper and Nightrider and was the founder and editor of both The Problemist and The Fairy Chess Review. “His chess problem compositions include 5,320 fairies, 885 directmates, 97 selfmates, and 138 endings.” I played the puzzle through in my head and found it surprisingly straightforward. Then again, that often happens when I'm given the solution up front! 🤣
November 29 
Lev Borisovich Psakhis (Hebrew: לב בוריסוביץ' פסחיס; Russian: Лев Борисович Псахис) was born November 29, 1958. He is an Israeli GM, trainer and author. A two-time Soviet Union CC, sharing the title with Beliavsky in 1980 and with Kasparov in 1981, Psakhis was also an Israeli CC, earning the title outright in 1997 and sharing the title in 1999. Clearly a great trainer, he has seconded or trained Susan and Judit Polgar, Daniel Naroditsky, and Emil Sutovsky. In 2003/4 B.T. Batsford released Psakhis’ four-volume set on the French Defence.
November 30
Simon Williams, aka “the GingerGM”, was born November 30, 1979. He is an English chess GM, author, television personality, and entrepreneur. Simon earned his final GM norm at Hastings International Chess Congress 2005/2006 and the prerequisite 2500+ rating two years later at Hastings 2007/2008. His peak ELO was 2550 in November 2009 and he still retains a 2442 rating but plays less frequently. He is a well-known chess commentator, streamer, and the co-founder of the “GingerGM” chess media publishing company, producing print, ebooks, and DVDs. Some of his books include Play The Classical Dutch, How To Crush Your Chess Opponents, Attacking Chess: The French: A Dynamic Repertoire for Black; The Jobava London System; and The Harry Attack: Fighting Kingside Fianchettos after 1.d4. You can find him on chess.com @Ginger_GM as well as on YouTube. Simon was recently enmeshed in a controversy involving Revenue and Customs and required to pay a substantial penalty.
Laurent Fressinet, 31 November 1981, is a French GM and one-time French CC. Laurent was Magnus’ second for all of Carlsen’s World CC matches. A coincidence that they share the same birthday? Or a starting point for a friendship. Laurent was super-GM in June 2015 with a peak ELO rating of 2720. That has declined, but only to 2605. His peak world ranking was #27 in September 2010. Fressinet can be found on chess.com @Zlatan56 where he plays relatively infrequently. The most recent games found were on 25 September 2024.
Hall Of Fame - 2: Magnus Carlsen - Chess.com
Magnus Carlsen, the GOAT, although born in the year of the Horse according to the Chinese Zodiac. Besides, Magnus says Garry K is the GOAT. Anyway, Magnus was born on the last day of November 1990 (30 days hath September, April, June, and November). He is a five-time classical World CC, the reigning seven-time blitz World CC, and the reigning World Cup CC. He has been the #1 player in the world for over thirteen years, trailing only Garry K in that category, and achieved history's highest peak rating of 2882 in May 2014. It’s hard to believe that peak occurred over ten years ago. And 2900 seems further out of reach today as his rating has “plummeted” to 2831. He earned the GM title at age 13 and holds the longest undefeated streak in classical chess at 125 games. That toppled the old record once held by the current World CC, Ding Liren, and before that by another former World CC, Mikhail Tal. On an interesting side note, in 2013 Time magazine named Magnus one of the 100 most influential people in the world. There’s more, but these are supposed to be brief bios of players. Social Media: Magnus on YouTube; Magnus on X; @MagnusCarlsen on chess.com with a scary Santa pfp; and I am sure there are more connections if you care to search.
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Let's Wrap it Up!
I hope you enjoyed this blog. It continued to scratch my interest in historical and contemporary chess figures. To the extent time and my lack of diligence allowed, there are links to personal websites, chess.com usernames, and individual home pages. There are even references to some of their feeds on X or YouTube. Along this journey, I also found some interesting games. Given all the material, I was only able to include a smattering of games, book images, and YouTube clips. I hope you find some of interest.
If there were any errors, please advise me and I'll correct those. And if there is some other information you would like included in every future chess player bio, I'll do what I can to oblige. Please note that at this point I do not intend to list up front the players who had a birthday in a given month. That would reduce the surprise factor, akin to your parents giving you a list of gifts you can expect well in advance of some special event. Plus, they could just be messing with your head. Not that I've ever done that to my kids.
If you did enjoy this post, please let me know as there is a bit of labor involved in putting this together and "me" as an audience of one would be either a testimony to rampant narcissism or perhaps to a masochistic bent. If there is no enthusiasm for this type of blog, I'll retire it before putting in the time on a list of December titled players who might share a birthday with you or someone you know. After all, anybody can look up Magnus' birthday. Or just scroll up this page a bit. And don't forget to visit his second in the image and text above that.
