Miguel Najdorf
By Bill Wall
Miguel (Mieczyslaw or Mojsze or Mendel) Najdorf (pronounced NIGH-dorf) was born on April 15, 1910 near Warsaw, Poland into a Jewish family.?
Najdorf began playing chess at the age of 12.? His first chess teacher was Dawid Przepiorka (1880-1940), then by Savielly Tartakower (1887-1956).
In 1929, he defeated Glucksberg in a famous chess game.? Tartakower called it ?The Polish Immortal.??? Najdorf sacrificed seven pieces before mating the enemy king.
In 1934, he won the Warsaw chess championship.
In 1936, he tied for 1st place with Lajos Steiner in the Hungarian Championship.
Najdorf represented Poalnd in the 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1939 Chess Olympiads.
At the outbreak of World War II, he found himself in Buenos Aires in the 8th Chess Olympiad and decided to stay in Argentina.? His entire family (wife, child, father, mother, and four brothers) died in the Holocaust during World War II.
In October 1943, he played 40 opponents blindfolded in Rosario, Argentina.? He then played 222 players simultaneously, over-the-board, winning 202 games, drawing 12 and losing 8.?
In 1944, he became an Argentine citizen.
In January 1947, he played 45 opponents blindfolded in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a new world record.? He won 39, drew 4, and lost 2 after 23 hours.? Najdorf later gave the reason for his blindfold exhibitions during World War II.? He said, ?I did this not as a stunt.? I hoped that this exhibition would be reported throughout Germany, Poland and Russia, and that some of my family might read about it and get in touch with me.?? But no family member was able to get in touch with him.? In 2011, FIDE Master Marc Lang broke Najdorf?s record with 46 blindfold games.
Najdorf became an insurance businessman in Argentina and became a millionaire.? He was a representative of several finance companies.? His insurance company had over 100 employees.? He was also involved in the import/export business.
After World War II, Najdorf played 11 times for Argentina in the Chess Olympiads, from 1950 to 1976.? In 1950 and 1952, he won the gold medal for the highest individual score on top board in the Chess Olympiads.
In 1950, he was one of the original group of 27 players to whom FIDE first awarded the official Grandmaster title.
In 1991, Najdorf played in his last Argentine chess championship at the age of 81.
In June 1997, Najdorf traveled to Spain to watch a chess tournament.? Before leaving Buenos Aires, he said ?Help me get on the plane. ?I want to die watching c chess tournament.?? He did just that.
He died on July 4, 1997 in Malaga University Hospital in Malaga, Spain.? He was 87.? He was survived by his third wife, Rita, and a daughter, Mirta.? He is buried at the Cementerio de la Tablada in Buenos Aires.
Najdorf is perhaps best known for the opening variation that carries his name, the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian Defense (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6).
During his playing career, Najdorf won 52 international chess tournaments.? He won the Argentine championship 8 times.? He won the championship of three countries: Poland, Hungary, and Argentina.
Najdorf played friendly chess games against notables such as Fidel Castro, Winston Churchill, Che Guevara, Nikita Krushshev, the Shah of Iran, and Juan Peron.? I met with him during the 1990 world chess championship match between Kasparov and Karpov in New York.? He was a nice, friendly fellow who loved to analyze.
Najdorf was the second oldest top-100 chess player in FIDE history.? He was in the top 100 in 1984 at the age of 74 (Korchnoi was in the top 100 in 2007 at the age of 75).
Najdorf could carry on a fast conversation in Spanish, English, Russian, German, and Polish all at the same time.
Najdorf - Piazzi, Argentina 1951
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c5 3.cxd5 Qxd5 4.Nf3 cxd4 5.Nc3 Qd8 6.Qxd4 Qxd4 7.Nxd4 e5 8.Ndb5 Kd8 9.Be3 Nc6 10.O-O-O+ Bd7 11.g3 Nf6 12.Bh3 Be7 13.Rxd7+ Nxd7 14.Rd1 Ncb8 15.Nd5 g6 16.Nbc7 Bd6 17.Nxa8 b6 18.Bg5+? 1-0
This game won the Brilliancy Prize in the Zurich Candidates
Tournament, 1953.
Taimanov, Mark E -- Najdorf, Miguel
Candidats
Tournament, Zurich
1953
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Be2 e5 7.O-O Nc6 8.d5 Ne7
9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Be3 f5 11.f3 f4 12.Bf2 g5 13.Nd3 Nf6 14.c5 Ng6 15.Rc1 Rf7
16.Rc2 Bf8 17.cxd6 cxd6 18.Qd2 g4 19.Rfc1 g3 20.hxg3 fxg3 21.Bxg3 Nh5
22.Bh2 Be7 23.Nb1 Bd7 24.Qe1 Bg5 25.Nd2 Be3+ 26.Kh1 Qg5 27.Bf1 Raf8
28.Rd1 b5 29.a4 a6 30.axb5 axb5 31.Rc7 Rg7 32.Nb3 Nh4 33.Rc2 Bh3 34.Qe2
Nxg2 35.Bxg2 Bxg2+ 36.Qxg2 Qh4 37.Qxg7+ Kxg7 38.Rg2+ Kh8 39.Ne1 Nf4
40.Rg3 Bf2 41.Rg4 Qh3 42.Nd2 h5 43.Rg5 0-1