InfoPersons, originating from Poland
Miguel Najdorf
Original Polish name: Mendel (Mieczysław) NajdorfBorn: April 15, 1910 in Grodzisk Mazowiecki near Warsaw, Poland
Died: July 4, 1997 in Málaga, Spain
Polish-born Argentine chess grandmaster of Jewish origin, famous for his Najdorf Variation.
In his homeland Poland began Miguel Najdorf with 12 years playing chess. The famous grand master Tartakower discovered him and was his first teacher. At the age of 22 succeeded Najdorf to end the contest with world champion Alekhine draw (remise). 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 the Polish team for the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires. After the outbreak of World War II he had to stay in Argentina. As a Jew it was for him impossible 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 belonged to the best of the international chess scene. In the middle of the century, he also regularly was one of the world's top five players. Najdorf is the father of a popular variant in the Sicilian opening game, the eponymous Najdorf variant.
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Polonica stamps:
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Argentina 2011, 12 XI |
