He also lost a close match to Mikhail Chigorin by + 4 − 5 = 1 in 1883.

The New York 1889 tournament was organized to find a challenger for the World Chess Championship, but neither Chigorin ( who had already lost a championship match ) nor Weiss pursued a title match with Steinitz.

He shared first at the third Chigorin Memorial in Sochi, in 1965 with Wolfgang Unzicker on 10½ / 15, then tied for first at Hastings 1965 – 66 with Wolfgang Uhlmann on 7½ / 9.

Chessmetrics ranks Pillsbury number 2 in the world at the time ; Chigorin had played matches for the World Chess Championship in 1889 and 1892, and Marshall and Janowski would go on to do so in 1907 and 1910, respectively.

Chigorin did a lot of analysis on the alternative 9. Qb3 Qf6 10. Bg5 Qg6 11. Bd5 Nge7 12. Bxe7 Kxe7 13. Bxc6 Qxc6 14. Nxe5 Qe6, which avoids the exchange of queens, but reached no clear verdict.

Frank Marshall once commented on the highly agitated state that would possess Chigorin when faced with difficult positions.

Mikhail Chigorin on a 1958 Soviet Union | Soviet postage stamp.

In 1878 they played on even terms, Schiffers losing the first of two matches 7-3, but winning the second 7. 5-6. 5, thus establishing himself as the second strongest player in Russia after Chigorin himself.

Morozevich has also published a book on the Chigorin Defence, in which he gives both a theoretical and a personal view on the opening.

In September, Spassky went 10 / 15 to finish second to Tal in the Chigorin Memorial at Sochi by a point.

In the Mikhail Chigorin Memorial tournament, Moscow 1947, Smyslov tied for 3rd – 4th places, with 10 / 15, as Botvinnik won.

Chigorin's parents died young and Chigorin entered the Gatchinsk Orphans ' Institute at the age of 10.

But Maróczy's defensive style was often more than sufficient to beat the leading attacking players of his day such as Joseph Henry Blackburne (+ 5 − 0 = 3 ), Mikhail Chigorin (+ 6 − 4 = 7 ), Frank Marshall (+ 11 − 6 = 8 ), David Janowski (+ 10 − 5 = 5 ), Efim Bogoljubov (+ 7 − 4 = 4 ) and Frederick Yates (+ 8 − 0 = 1 ).

Schiffers held the title of Russian champion for 10 years before finally being defeated by his student, Mikhail Chigorin, in 1880.

* 1889, New York, ( the sixth American Chess Congress ), scored + 24 − 4 = 10 to tie with Mikhail Chigorin for first prize, ahead of Isidor Gunsberg and Blackburne.

Before World War I broke out his most serious " setbacks " were third place at Hastings 1895 ( where he may have been suffering from the after-effects of typhoid fever ), a tie for second at Cambridge Springs 1904, and a tie for first at the Chigorin Memorial in St Petersburg 1909.

He finished third with 11. 5 / 17 ( 8 wins, 7 draws and just 2 losses ), behind David Janowski ( 13. 5 points ) and Harry Nelson Pillsbury ( 12 points ), but ahead of Mikhail Chigorin and Frank Marshall, among others.

Tournament record: Cincinnati 1888, + 8-0 = 2, first place ; New York 1889, + 15-17 = 8, ninth ( Chigorin and Weiss won ; the first draw in the second round did not count and had to be replayed ); St. Louis 1890, + 11-0 = 1, first ; Chicago 1890, + 13-1 = 0, first ; Lexington 1891, + 5-1 = 0, first ; New York 1893 ( Impromptu ), + 7-4 = 2, third ( Em.

Although he was in the lead after the first half of the tournament ( Pillsbury 6½ points out of 9, Lasker 5½, Steinitz 4½, Chigorin 1½ ), he was affected by severe headaches and scored only 1½ / 9 in the second half, ultimately finishing third ( Lasker 11½ / 18, Steinitz 9½, Pillsbury 8, Chigorin 7 ).

Pillsbury also had an even score against Steinitz (+ 5 − 5 = 3 ), but a slight minus against Chigorin (+ 7 − 8 = 6 ), Tarrasch (+ 5 − 6 = 2 ) and against Joseph Henry Blackburne (+ 3 − 5 = 4 ), while he beat David Janowski (+ 6 − 4 = 2 ) and Géza Maróczy (+ 4 − 3 = 7 ) and had a significant edge over Carl Schlechter (+ 8 − 2 = 9 ).

Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin also ( Tchigorin ; ) ( 12 November 1850 ( 31 October old style ), Gatchina – 25 January 1908, Lublin ) was a leading Russian chess player.

Although Chigorin had a poor record against Lasker in serious play (+ 1-8 = 4 ), he was victorious with the black pieces in their first game of this 1895 tournament, in which he outplayed Lasker in a classic two knights versus two bishops ending.

Janowski was devastating against the older masters such as Wilhelm Steinitz (+ 5 − 2 ), Mikhail Chigorin (+ 17 − 4 = 4 ) and Joseph Henry Blackburne (+ 6 − 2 = 2 ).

Still, Tarrasch remained a powerful player, demolishing Frank Marshall in a match in 1905 (+ 8-1 = 8 ), and winning Ostend 1907 over Schlechter, Janowski, Marshall, Burn, and Chigorin.

He is famous for employing unusual openings, for example the Chigorin Defense ( 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6 ), and more recently the Albin Countergambit ( 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 ); both systems are hardly ever seen at the top level.

* Chigorin Memorial ( blitz ), 2009, St Petersburg, Gold.

* Chigorin Memorial ( classical ), 2009, St Petersburg, shared second place.

* Pentala Harikrishna vs Alexander Morozevich, Hyderabad 2002, Queen's Gambit Declined, Chigorin defence ( D07 ), 1-0

He had level or nearly level lifetime scores against such outstanding players as the second World Champion Emanuel Lasker (+ 2 − 2 = 1 ), Akiba Rubinstein (+ 1 – 1 = 7 ), Aron Nimzowitsch (+ 1 − 2 = 4 ), Mikhail Chigorin (+ 2 − 1 = 0 ) and Salo Flohr (+ 0 − 0 = 3 ).

Nick de Firmian in Modern Chess Openings analyzes instead 4 ... d5 5. d3 dxe4 6. dxe4, when White had a small advantage in Schiffers – Chigorin, St. Petersburg 1897.

At their first meeting in 1873, Schiffers was able to offer Chigorin ( who also from St. Petersburg ) knight odds.

One of the complaints was that Lasker had never played the other two members of the top four, Siegbert Tarrasch and Mikhail Chigorin – although Tarrasch had rejected a challenge from Lasker in 1892, publicly telling him to go and win an international tournament first.

In 1909, a Chigorin Memorial tournament was played in St. Petersburg.

It is now generally regarded as a forerunner of King's Indian setups, but Chigorin also played it with other ideas ( such as b2-b3 ) in mind.

A famous Chigorin game played against Steinitz in 1892 is used as the base for the plot of The Squares of the City, a 1965 science-fiction novel by John Brunner.

They later played two more matches with Chigorin winning both.

The more aggressive Two Knights Defense ; again, this is more in the nature of a counterattack, and some ( e. g. Chigorin ) have proposed it be renamed so.

Chigorin was born near St. Petersburg and moved to the city some time later.

Through his original talent, lively games and prolific teachings, many Russians regard Mikhail Chigorin as the founder of their " School of chess ", later to become known as the Soviet School of Chess.

He was the president of the 1903-1904 Monte Carlo international tournaments and according to the common, though unreliable beliefs, invited the Russian chess master Mikhail Chigorin to play but later paid him 1, 500 francs ( greater than 3rd prize money ) not to play because Chigorin had published analysis of one of the Prince's games, pointing out he had made gross errors.

The Old Indian Defence was introduced by Tarrasch in 1902, but it is more commonly associated with Chigorin who adopted it five years later.