Ossip Bernstein News Today

Chess is a game that represents war on a board, where pieces are eliminated in a metaphor of combat and death based on their hierarchy. That's why it's ironic that a game played in 1918 literally saved a man's life. His name was Ossip Samoilovich Bernstein, and he had to win to prove his identity, u

In the recent 2023 World Championship Match, Ding Liren won Game 12 against Ian Nepomniachtchi using the Colle System to tie the score at six. The match remained tied after fourteen games, and Ding went on to beat Nepomniachti in the rapid tie-breaks to become the 17th World Champion. With the Colle System utilized in the World Championship Match, it is a fitting moment to remember the life and career Edgard Colle.

Ossip Bernstein had a turbulent life: Born in 1882 in Czarist Russia he was a successful lawyer in Moscow until he had to flee from the Bolsheviks. He emigrated to Paris where he rebuilt his successful law firm but then had to flee again when the Nazis occupied France. After the war, Bernstein returned to Paris. Apart from his career as a lawyer and businessman he was also a successful chess player and at his peak he was one of the world's best players. Eugene Manlapao takes a look at the li...

There are some ideas which the meanest members of the ‘silicon brotherhood’ will flag up immediately but are way beyond our normal human compass. The move that inspired this column is one which is hard to imagine ever being found in a blitz game but might be within the range of a world-class player in a classical game if not in time trouble: Vasyl Ivanchuk, say. | Pictured: José Raúl Capablanca

Recently, the Emanuel Lasker Society and the Excelsior Verlag published the third and final volume of their huge biography of Emanuel Lasker, mathematician, philosopher, writer, and World Champion from 1894 to 1921. Richard Forster, Michael Negele and Raj Tischbierek edited the three volumes. Like its predecessors, the third sheds light on many aspects of Lasker's personality and his wide ranging intellectual interests, and it is a beautiful, carefully designed book well worth reading.

St. Petersburg 1914 is one of the most memorable tournaments in history. What has made it a landmark chess event? Was it because it was the first true super-tournament of the 20th century and chess’ modern age? Was it because it drew together the legendary trio of Emanuel Lasker, Jose Raul Capablanca, and Alexander Alekhine for the first time? Was it because it provided one of the most dramatic and riveting finishes of all time in top-level chess? The reasons are plenty, all of which call for ...

As a chess player, Alexander Alekhine (pictured) was brilliant, but his biography contains a number of dark spots. In particular, his proximity to the Nazis has damaged the reputation of the fourth world champion. The Swiss historian and chess player Dr. Christian Rohrer wanted to find out how and to what extent Alekhine supported the Nazis, and he published his findings in an online article titled <a href="https://elib.uni-stuttgart.de/bitstream/11682/11576/1/2021_Rohrer_Alekhine.pdf&qu...

What Russia Taught The World About Chess Written by Alexey Zakharov In the last hundred or so years, Russia became almost synonymous with chess. The country in its many incarnations—Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and now “just” Russia—produced more grandmasters and world champions than any other, and its players enriched the ancient game immensely.  So, let’s now delve (shallowly, and then, of course, more and more deeply) into what Russia and its predecessor states brought to the wor...

Alireza Firouzja (France) Alireza Firouzja est Français et participera à la Coupe du Monde dÉchecs qui débute le 10 juillet à Krasnaïa Poliana, en Russie, sous ses nouvelles couleurs ! Nous sommes heureux et fiers quun joueur aussi talentueux quAlireza Firouzja représente désormais la France ! Lhistoire dAlireza Firouzja en France a débuté lorsque Bachar Kouatly - alors président de la Fédération Française des Échecs - la invité à participer aux Internationaux de France de part...

€29.90 On 20 February 1911, an outstanding chess tournament began in the Basque city of San Sebastián (Basque: Donostia). Fifteen chess masters were invited, who had earned the right to participate by getting excellent results in earlier tournaments. Among the participants were the best players of the time, namely Siegbert Tarrasch, Frank James Marshall, Carl Schlechter, Geza Maroczy, David Janowski, Amos Burn, Akiba Rubinstein, Aron Nimzowitsch, Rudolph Spielmann, Milan Vid...