Miguel Najdorf

Miguel Najdorf (born Mojsze Mendel Najdorf) (15 April 1910 – 4 July 1997) was a Polish–Argentinian chess grandmaster.

At the beginning of his chess career, around 1930, Najdorf defeated a player believed to be named "Glücksberg" in a famous game often referred to as "The Polish Immortal".

In 1930, he tied for 6th–7th at the Warsaw Championship, an event won by Paulino Frydman.

In 1931, he took second in Warsaw, behind Frydman.

In 1932, he tied for 9th–10th in Warsaw.

In 1933, he won in Warsaw (Quadrangular).

In January 1934, he finished second to Rudolf Spielmann, in Warsaw.

In summer 1934, he lost a match against Ored Karlin (+1–2=1).

In 1934, he won the Warsaw championship.

In 1935, he tied for 2nd–4th with Frydman and Henryk Friedman, behind Tartakower, in the 3rd Polish Chess Championship, held in Warsaw.

Afterward, Najdorf won a match against Tartakower in Toruń (+2–1=2).

In August 1935, he played third board in the 6th Chess Olympiad in Warsaw (+9–2=6).

In 1936, he tied for first with Lajos Steiner in the Hungarian Championship.

In August 1936, he was second board in 3rd unofficial Chess Olympiad organised by the German Chess Federation in Munich (+14–2=4).

In 1937, he took third at the 4th Championship of Poland in Jurata.

In 1937, he won in Rogaška Slatina (Rohitsch-Sauerbrunn).

In June/July 1937, he played at second board in the 7th Chess Olympiad in Stockholm (+5–3=7).

In 1938, he tied for 10th–12th in Łódź.

Originally from Poland, he was in Argentina when World War II began in 1939, and he stayed and settled there.

In 1939, he took sixth in Margate, and won in Warsaw.

Najdorf represented Poland in four pre-war Chess Olympiads.

In the 1939 Olympiad, Najdorf played second board for Poland and achieved a score of +12−2=4, winning a gold pen and pencil set.

During the 8th Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires in August/September 1939, World War II broke out.

Najdorf was Jewish, as were two of his teammates, Tartakower and Frydman.

He decided to stay and settle in Argentina (as did many others).

In September 1939, after the Olympiad, Najdorf emerged as one of the top players in the chess world.

He tied for first with Paul Keres at Buenos Aires (Círculo de Ajedrez); the two scored 8½/11.

He was a leading world player in the 1940s and 1950s, and is also known for the Najdorf Variation, one of the most popular chess openings.

Najdorf was tutored first by Dawid Przepiórka, then by Savielly Tartakower, the latter of whom he always referred to as "my teacher".

In 1941, he took second, after Gideon Ståhlberg at Mar del Plata, with 12½/17.

Later in 1941, he finished equal first with Stahlberg at Buenos Aires, the two scoring 11/14.

In 1942, he won at Mar del Plata, with 13½/17, ahead of Ståhlberg.

He played a record 40 opponents in 1943, and increased the record to 45 in 1947.

In 1943, he was second at Mar del Plata, behind Stålhberg, scoring 10/13.

He became an Argentinian citizen in 1944.

His wife, daughter, parents and four siblings all were murdered in The Holocaust.

Najdorf later remarried (twice) and had two daughters.

Najdorf set world records for simultaneous blindfold chess.

This record stood until 2011.

He set these records in the hope that the news would be reported in Europe and his family would learn of his whereabouts, but they had perished in concentration camps by the time the information arrived.