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Chigorin 
 
Mikhail Chigorin
Number of games in database: 807
Years covered: 1874 to 1907
Overall record: +410 -251 =145 (59.9%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
      Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
      1 exhibition game, odds game, etc. is excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS
With the White pieces:
 French Defense (85) 
    C00 C01 C11 C14 C10
 French (65) 
    C00 C11 C10 C12
 King's Gambit Declined (55) 
    C30 C31
 Evans Gambit (53) 
    C52 C51
 King's Gambit Accepted (38) 
    C33 C34 C38 C37 C39
 Ruy Lopez (28) 
    C65 C77 C80 C67 C68
With the Black pieces:
 Ruy Lopez (84) 
    C77 C84 C65 C66 C67
 Queen's Pawn Game (47) 
    D02 D00 D05 D04 A46
 Chigorin Defense (29) 
    D07
 King's Gambit Accepted (26) 
    C39 C37 C33 C38
 Queen's Gambit Declined (21) 
    D31 D30 D37
 Ruy Lopez, Closed (19) 
    C84 C88 C99 C92 C90
Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   Chigorin vs H Caro, 1898 1-0
   Chigorin vs Schlechter, 1905 1/2-1/2
   Lasker vs Chigorin, 1895 0-1
   Chigorin vs Steinitz, 1892 1-0
   Chigorin vs J Mortimer, 1900 1-0
   Chigorin vs Znosko-Borovsky, 1903 1-0
   Schiffers vs Chigorin, 1897 1/2-1/2
   Pillsbury vs Chigorin, 1896 0-1
   Chigorin vs Davydow, 1874 1-0
   Chigorin vs Janowski, 1900 1-0

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: [what is this?]
   Steinitz-Chigorin World Championship Match (1889)
   Steinitz-Chigorin World Championship Rematch (1892)

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   Santasiere's "My Love Affair With Tchigorin" by Resignation Trap
   New York 1889 by suenteus po 147
   Vienna 1898 by suenteus po 147
   London 1883 by suenteus po 147
   London 1899 by suenteus po 147
   Chigorin - Tarrasch (match) by Akavall
   Paris 1900 by suenteus po 147
   2- 2n by classicalwin2

GAMES ANNOTATED BY CHIGORIN: [what is this?]
   Janowski vs A Goetz, 1891
   Tartakower vs Vidmar, 1907

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MIKHAIL CHIGORIN
(born Nov-12-1850, died Jan-25-1908) Russia

[what is this?]
Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (also spelled Tchigorin, Tjigorin) was born November 12, 1850, in Gatchina, Russia, and was the first ever Russian grandmaster. He influenced the subsequent Soviet School of Chess, which dominated the world in the latter half of the 20th century.

He played two World Championship matches against Wilhelm Steinitz, he lost once in 1889 10.5-6.5, and again in 1892 12.5-10.5.

Chigorin has many openings named after him, most notably the Ruy Lopez Chigorin (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Na5) and Chigorin's defense (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6).


 page 1 of 33; games 1-25 of 809  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves Year Event/LocaleOpening
1. Chigorin vs Davydow 1-027 1874 PetersburgC37 King's Gambit Accepted
2. V Knorre vs Chigorin 0-114 1874 St PetersburgC50 Giuoco Piano
3. Chigorin vs Alapin 1-029 1875 St PetersburgB45 Sicilian, Taimanov
4. Chigorin vs Shumov  1-025 1875 St Petersburg cgC34 King's Gambit Accepted
5. NN vs Chigorin 0-127 1875 St PetersburgC37 King's Gambit Accepted
6. Winawer vs Chigorin 1-028 1875 St. Petersburg (Russia)C52 Evans Gambit
7. Chigorin vs A Ascharin 1-029 1875 PetersburgB45 Sicilian, Taimanov
8. Chigorin vs I Miasnikov  1-016 1876 CasualC37 King's Gambit Accepted
9. Chigorin vs K Miasnikov 1-020 1876 corresp.C80 Ruy Lopez, Open
10. Chigorin vs Shumov 1-026 1876 St. PetersburgC21 Center Game
11. Alapin vs Chigorin 0-121 1877 PetersburgC33 King's Gambit Accepted
12. Chigorin vs A Ascharin  1-025 1877 PetersburgB46 Sicilian, Taimanov Variation
13. Chigorin vs A Khardin  1-037 1877 St PetersburgC33 King's Gambit Accepted
14. Chigorin vs Beskrowny 1-040 1877 PetersburgC59 Two Knights
15. E Schmidt vs Chigorin  0-136 1877 PetersburgC67 Ruy Lopez
16. Chigorin vs Schiffers  1-021 1878 St Petersburg m2B45 Sicilian, Taimanov
17. Schiffers vs Chigorin  1-048 1878 St Petersburg m2C38 King's Gambit Accepted
18. Chigorin vs Schiffers  1-041 1878 St Petersburg m2C30 King's Gambit Declined
19. Chigorin vs Schiffers  1-025 1878 Petersburg (Match)C48 Four Knights
20. Schiffers vs Chigorin  ½-½52 1878 St Petersburg m2A80 Dutch
21. Chigorin vs Schiffers  0-135 1878 St Petersburg m1C77 Ruy Lopez
22. Schiffers vs Chigorin  1-032 1878 St Petersburg m2C37 King's Gambit Accepted
23. Chigorin vs Harkov  1-039 1878 corrC37 King's Gambit Accepted
24. Schiffers vs Chigorin 0-137 1878 Petersburg (Match)C25 Vienna
25. Schiffers vs Chigorin  0-125 1878 St Petersburg m1C51 Evans Gambit
 page 1 of 33; games 1-25 of 809  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Chigorin wins | Chigorin loses  
 

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 8 OF 8 ·  Later Kibitzing >
Sep-01-08   myschkin: . . .
Chigorin became serious about chess uncommonly late in life; his schoolteacher taught him the moves at the age of 16, but he did not take to the game until around 1874, having first finished his studies before commencing a career as a government officer. His first international tournament was Berlin 1881, where he became 3rd=.
Sep-11-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  nimh: Chigorin is couple of levels above Modern 2100-rated players: http://www.zone.ee/chessanalysis/su...

It's surprising for me that the forefather of russian chess exhibited such a good level of play, practically equal to Morphy. And what a pathetic level of accuracy by 2100-rated players... but it might be just a bad luck though

Oct-23-08   Ladolcevita: Is this a portrait?No photos in colour??
I think this portait somehow touches me......
Nov-12-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  brankat: A 158 years since M.Chigorin's birth!

And yet, so many of his games, and ideas, feel as fresh and new, as if they were played only recently.

Two greatest players of the period, Chigorin and Steinitz were contemporaries, although the latter was 14 years older. They played 2 matches for the Champion's title, in 1889 and 1892. Steinitz prevailed both times.

They were very much different in how they saw the game, in approach, and style. Here is Fred Reinfeld's comment:

"These two geniuses had an unrivaled insight into the nature of chess. Whereas the popularizers think of chess as being amenable to order, logic, exactitude, calculation, foresight and other comparable qualities, Steinitz and Tchigorin agreed on one thing: that chess can be, and often is, as irrational as life itself.

It is full of disorder, imperfection, blunders, inexactitudes, fortuitous happenings, and unforeseen consequences.

But whereas Steinitz strove with all his might to impose order on the irrational, Tchigorin went to the other extreme. Let us surrender to the irrational, he said in effect.

Steinitz tried to banish the unforeseen. Tchigorin took delight in it.

Steinitz sought order, system, logic, balance, broad basic postulates; Tchigorin wanted surprise, change, novelty, glitter, the lightning stroke from a clear sky."

It may be of interest to some to note that Bobby Fischer held Chigorin in very high regard, and during the preparations for his match with Spassky in 1972, he spent just as much time studying the games of M.Chigorin as he did the work of Spassky.

Fischer considered himself a disciple of W.Steinitz, and Spassky a disciple of M.Chigorin.

R.I.P. Master Mikhail!

Nov-12-08   FHBradley: I think Yuri Shulman somewhere said that he reached the level of an IM studying the games of Alekhine and Tchigorin. Happy birthday Gospodin Mikhail!
Nov-12-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  talisman: <brankat> i did not know that about fischer. thanks. happy birtday big guy.
Nov-22-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Karpova: I just finished a game collection on the Game Collection: Lodz triple-round match tournament 1906 but I'm not quite sure about Chigorin's games against Salwe (the ones against Flamberg were submitted to chessgames.com and they don't seem to have met in another tournament but maybe someone else knows more about this also): As you know, Chigorin played a match against Salwe preceding that tournament. Most of the Salwe-Chigorin games are missing from the database. I tried http://db.mychess.com/ where more games between them are to be found but it's also not so clear where they are from. So, who knows which games between Chigorin and Salwe are from their match and which are from that tournament?

I chose these three games:
Chigorin vs Salwe, 1906
Salwe vs Chigorin, 1906
Chigorin vs Salwe, 1906

Nov-22-08   sneaky pete: <Karpova> The 3 games you chose are also given, in that order, as played in the tournament by Khalifman and Soloviov (1999 edition of their Chess Stars collection). They have only 9 games of the preceding match, so most likely the other 6 games were not preserved.
Nov-22-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Karpova: <sneaky pete> Thank you very much!
Dec-02-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Karpova: C.N. 5875 links to a (rather unknown) picture of Chigorin (pointed out by Olimpiu G. Urcan (Singapore)): http://gallica2.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

Source: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...

Dec-02-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  brankat: <Karpova> A very nice photograph! Thank You.

It is interesting to note the caption at the top of the picture:

<N. [i. e. M.] Tchigorin, champion du monde d'�checs : [photographie de presse] / [Agence Rol> "...chess Champion of the World...".

By Chigorin's looks I'd say the photo was taken sometime during the 1880s, probably prior to W.Steinitz's 1886 victory over Zuckertort.

Dec-02-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  whiskeyrebel: What a magnificent beard.
Dec-02-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Open Defence: did he have green eyes ?
Dec-02-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  brankat: <Open Defence> All of Chigorin's photo's are in black/white. What makes You think (wish?) he had green eyes? :-)

Actually, the colour was BLUE!

<whiskeyrebel> Yes, the beard looks real cool, but mostly thanks to the light/shade effect inherent in the old black & white photos :-)

Feb-24-09   WhiteRook48: R.I.P. Master Chigorin.
May-08-09   myschkin: . . .

Memories of Chigorin (by Sarah Beth): http://blog.chess.com/batgirl/memor...

May-23-09   GrahamClayton: The high percentage of correspondence v OTB games in Chigorin's database reflects the lack of OTB play in Russia in the latter half of the 19th century. There were no national tournaments organised until 1899, so matches were the only form of serious OTB play available.
Nov-07-09   Tripler: "The Chigorin style of our opponents is the guarantee of our victory!" So Petrosian is supposed to have said before team matches - I don't know if it's an authentic quotation, but he probably never said it while Stalin was alive - given that Chigorin was the "official" national chess hero in contrast to the "Western" Steinitz (who was born in Prague!) Cf. The Soviet School of Chess by Kotov and Yudovich.
Nov-12-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  ketchuplover: Happy Birthday Mr. Chigorin :)
Nov-12-09   FHBradley: Happy Birthday, Gospodin Mikhail!
Nov-12-09   WhiteRook48: he played Mendeleev once
Nov-12-09   SamAtoms1980: <WhiteRook48: he played Mendeleev once>

And Mendeleev won. I'll be sure to upload the game if ever I should come across it.

Nov-12-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  fred lennox: Chigorin's playing is robust, clear and transparent. Rubinstein praised his games for creating a sound position before attacking.
Nov-12-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  fred lennox: Against Steinitz chigorin's record is 26 loses, 25 wins and 8 ties. A colorful rivalry. Steinitz showed himself superior in match play. there 1st match 10-1-6 in steinitz favor as the second 10-5-8. Steinitz showed better stamina in nerves and concentration.
Nov-16-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  vonKrolock: A consultation match between Mikhail Chigorin and Peter Alexandrovich Saburov versus Emmanuel Schiffers and A M Levin was held in Saint Petersburg, November 1895 (Therefore, around one month before the Hastings Congress, which Chigorin and Schiffers would attend.) The scores, researched by Mr. V. Yurchenko, communicated to Mr. E. Winter, and gently published for the first time online - details http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/ number 6373 <"A forgotten consultation match">
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