Najdorf, Miguel

Miguel Naiddorf ( Mendel Gedalevich Naiddorf ; Miguel Najdorf , Polish; Mieczysław Najdorf ; April 15, 1910 , Grodzisk-Mazowiecki , Warsaw Province - July 6, 1997 , Málaga ) - born in Argentina Argentina;

Miguel Najdorf
Mieczysław najdorf
Najdorf (standing) at the Chess Olympiad in Manila (1992)
Country	Russian empire Poland Argentina
Date of Birth	April 15, 1910 ( 1910-04-15 )
Place of Birth	Grodzisk Mazowiecki , Warsaw Province , Russian Empire
Date of death	July 6, 1997 ( 1997-07-06 ) (87 years)
Place of death	Malaga , Spain
Rank	grand master ( 1950 )

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one									one
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Najdorff variant 1. e4 c5 2. Кf3 d6 3. d4 c: d4 4. К: d4 Кf6 5. Кc3 a6

Chess career in Poland

Born in Warsaw, a graduate of the school. Stashitsa. Initially, he studied with David Pshapyurki , then with Savely Tartakower , Najdorf spoke of him as “his teacher”. At the beginning of his chess career in 1930, Najdorf defeated Glucksberg in a famous game called the Polish Immortal. ^[1] In the same year, he took 6-7th place in the Warsaw Championship ( Paulino Friedman became the winner). In 1931 in this championship, he already took second place, behind Friedman. In 1932, 9-10th place and in 1933 won the tournament ( Quadrangular ). In January 1934, he finished second to Rudolf Spielmann in Warsaw. In 1935, he, along with H. Friedman and P. Friedman , divided 2-4 places behind Tartakower in the 3rd Polish Championship, which was like in Warsaw. After that, Najdorf defeated Tartakower in Torun with a score (+ 2–1 = 2). In 1936, he shared the first place with Layosh Steiner in the Hungarian Championship. In 1937 he took third place in the 4th Polish Championship, held in Jurata . In 1937, he won the tournament in the Slovenian city of Rogaška-Slatina . In 1936, took 10-12 place in the city of Lodz . In 1939 he took the sixth place in the city of Margit (England) and won in Warsaw ^[2] .

He played for Poland in four pre-war chess competitions. In August 1935, he played on the third board in the 6th Chess Olympiad , held in Warsaw (his result was + 9–2 = 6). In August 1936, he played on the second board at the 3rd unofficial Chess Olympiad organized by the German Chess Federation in Munich (result: + 14–2 = 4). In June-July 1937, he played on the second board at the 7th Chess Olympiad in Stockholm (result: + 5–3 = 7). ^[3] .

Life in Argentina

By force of circumstances, Najdorf, a native of Poland , lived most of his life in Argentina . He arrived there in 1939 to participate in the 8th Chess Olympiad , when World War II began . He made the result + 12−2 = 4 and won the gold medal. Najdorf, like his teammates Friedman and Tartakower, belonged to the Jewish nation ^[4] Like many other Olympiad players (both Jews and non-Jews), Najdorf did not dare to return to Europe , where the war of fire broke out, despite the fact that in Poland he remained family and property. Fears of Najdorf were later confirmed - none of his relatives (including her husband, little daughter, mother, four brothers) survived - Najdorf unsuccessfully tried to find them until the end of his days . He decided to stay in Argentina forever.

In September 1939, after the Olympics, Najdorf shared first place with P.Ceres in Buenos Aires (Círculo de Ajedrez); both players scored 8½ points out of 11. In 1941, he finished second (after G.Stalberg ) in the tournament in Mar del Plata with a score of 12½ out of 17. In the same year, he shared first place with Stalberg in a tournament in Buenos Aires two chess players scored 11 out of 14. In 1942, he won the Mar del Plata tournament with a score of 13½ out of 17, ahead of Stalberg. In 1943, he finished second in Mar del Plata behind Stalberg with a score of 10 out of 13. In the same year, he won in Rosario .

As part of the Polish team, he participated in three Olympiads (“Tournaments of Nations”) - in 1935 , 1937 and 1939 . Seven-time champion of Argentina (in 50 - 70-ies ). Winner and winner of a number of international tournaments. Statistics recorded that Najdorf won (alone or with the division of the first prize) a total of 52 tournaments. A participant in the world championship competition — in the candidate contests in Budapest ( 1950 ) and Zurich ( 1953 ), took 5th and 6-7th places, respectively. For many years he showed consistently high results in major international tournaments. Won the representative memorial of Capablanca (Havana, 1962 ), ahead of B. Spassky , V. Smyslov , L. Polugaevsky , S. Gligorich , B. Ivkov . He was a member of the famous “Match of the Century” (Belgrade, 1970 ) for the world team (a draw with Mikhail Tal : + 1-1 = 2).

Najdorf belonged to one of the records for the game blindly. It was installed in 1947 in Sao Paulo , where Najdorf fought 45 players for 24 hours and achieved a phenomenal result: +39, −2, = 4.

Enriched debut theory with the elaboration of one of the most popular variants of the Sicilian defense , now adopted by many of the world's strongest grandmasters. Also developed a variant in the King's Indian Defense . He was a famous chess journalist and led a popular chess column in the Clarín newspaper.

He was not a chess professional in the strict sense of the word - he was successfully engaged in business and was a very wealthy man. Najdorf did not stop playing until the last years of his long life. The friendliness and sociability of Najdorf made him an extremely charming man, a favorite of the public. “Miguel el Grande” (“The Great Miguel”) - this was not only Argentines called him, but also many colleagues. He was a great friend of Fidel Castro , Winston Churchill , Nikita Khrushchev , the Shah of Iran , Juan Peron , Che Guevara .