Miguel Najdorf

Miguel Najdorf ( born April 15, 1910 in Warszawa, General Warsaw, Russian Empire as Mieczysław (or Mendelian ) Najdorf, † July 5, 1997 in Malaga, Spain ) was a Polish chess grandmaster of Jewish origin, also in 1944 the Argentine nationality accepted.

Life

In his native Poland Miguel Najdorf came with 12 years of chess. Dr. Tartakower discovered him and was his first teacher. The world famous Grandmaster inspired the students for the original ideas of hypermodern chess. Even with 22 years succeeded Najdorf to keep the contest with world champion Alekhine draw.

Miguel Najdorf played in the unofficial Chess Olympiad in Munich in 1936 for Poland very successful (16 of 20). In 1939 he took part in Poland for the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires and stayed after the outbreak of the Second World War in Argentina. As a Jew was impossible for him to return to Poland. He lost his wife, his child, father, mother and four brothers in the Holocaust in the concentration camps of the Nazis.

Although he never played for the world championship, Najdorf has always been one of the greats in the international chess scene around the middle of the century also regularly among the world's top five players.

During his career he played against all chess world champion Emanuel Lasker and Garry Kasparov, Mikhail Botvinnik and beat after all, Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian and Robert Fischer. In addition, he has participated in numerous national and international tournaments with considerable success. He won the tournaments in Prague in 1946, Venice in 1948, Bled 1950, Amsterdam 1950, Mar del Plata in 1959 and Havana in 1961. He played in 14 Chess Olympiads (from 1950 for Argentina), mostly on the first board of his team.

Najdorf is the father of a popular opening variation in the Sicilian game, named after him Najdorf. His best historical Elo rating was in February 1948 2797th He was over 33 months, the number two in the world.

Due to his international success he obtained in 1950 by FIDE the title of Grand Master.

Also impressive is the performance Najdorfs are in blindfold chess: In his heyday he was blind simultaneous exhibitions against more than 40 opponents.

In the 1950s, Najdorf earned a lot of money in the oil business in Venezuela. Present into old age in the chess scene, Miguel Najdorf died in 1997 after heart surgery.

Game

As a "business card" served Najdorf the following game, which he 1930 ( not, as often stated in the Chess Olympiad in 1935, where he vorführte but ) played in Warsaw. Savielly Tartakower called it the Polish Immortal. Black sacrifices all four minor pieces to checkmate.

Glucksberg - Najdorf

1.d2 -d4 f7 - f5 2.c2 - c4 Ng8 - f6 e7 - e6 3.Sb1 - c3 -f3 d7 -d5 4.Sg1 5.e2 -e3 c7 - c6 6.Lf1 -d3 - d6 Bf8 7.0 0 0-0 8.Sc3 - e2 Sb8 - d7 9.Sf3 - g5 10.Kg1 -h1 Ld6xh2 Nf6 - g4 11.f2 - f4 Qd8 - e8 12.g2 - g3 - h5 13.Kh1 Qe8 - g2 - g1 Lh2 14.Se2xg1 DH5 15.Kg2 h2 -f3 e6 - e5 16.d4xe5 Sd7xe5 17.f4xe5 Sg4xe5 18.Kf3 Ne5 - g6 - f4 19.Kf4 f3 - f5 - f4 - g4 20.e3xf4 Bc8 21.Kf3xg4 Sg6 - e5 h7 - h5 22.f4xe5 matt