M. Najdorf (playing black) have faced his own opening 62 times B90-B99

31 times Najdorf won, 16 times he lost, 15 times he drew.

Now, when M. Najdorf (playing white) and come up against his own opening, 4 times. All of them B93, 3 times against Reshevsky, two wins with one loss. The other time was against Blau, which ended in a draw.

The game Najdorf - Tirsztejn (Tirstein) was published in the book "Selección de Partidas Comentadas de Miguel Najdorf", Najdorf, Inforchess, page 4 (game 29).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9cuut1tvc...

[Event "2nd Polish Team Championship 1934"]
[Site "Katowice, Poland"]
[Date "1934.04.11"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Najdorf, Miguel"]
[Black "Tirsztejn, Shlomo"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A47"]
[PlyCount "39"]
[Source "'Selección de Partidas Comentadas de Miguel Najdorf', Najdorf, Inforchess, page 4"]

True, and I believe that Najdorf himself put it that way. I have his daughter's book, "Najdorf by Najdorf." I think there is some reference to this. I'll look it up later.

<Agferna> Nice! Every time I travel back to Argentina, I go play the blitz tournament at Club Argentino de Ajedrez. I generally play over my normal level there, for some reason. Maybe "el viejo" likes me. And yes, photographs of Najdorf are all over that room's walls, with other chess legends and other famous people.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCC2f4A...

I am on the right, bearded. The photo is from 1993. My friends and I went to see the Najdorf tournament, and he was there, happy and friendly as ever, and was happy to pose with us for the photo. It was a strong round robin, average ELO 2571, won by Kamsky and Shirov:

https://www.365chess.com/tournament...

When no big international invitation chess tournaments were organised in Argentina due to a period of economic depression followed after 1982 (Falklands Islands / Islas Malvinas conflict), the wealthy Najdorf stepped in.

At age of 80, Grandmaster Najdorf launched a new invitation series in 1990: The <Najdorf Tournament>, annually held in Buenos Aires.

Really big names appeared in that series: <Smyslov, Korchnoi, Larsen, Panno, Tal, Ljubojevic, Karpov, Mecking, Seirawan, Salov, Short, Ivanchuk, Anand, Adams, Shirov, Kamsky, Judit Polgar, Radjabov> (in order of birth)

Smyslov was co-winner in 1990 ("Najdorf 80 Anniversario"), Tal was co-winner in 1991 together with Granda Zuniga and Nogueiras, including also Adams, Larsen, Panno, or Dolmatov.

Chernin won the third edition in 1992 ahead of 2. Nikolic, 3./4. Larsen, Morovic, 5. Granda Zuniga, including Judit Polgar (14 participants in the first three editions, among them also many South American players, and less strong contestants such as Swiss Lucas Brunner, for him, of course, it was a great honour to be invited).

Kamsky and Shirov won in 1993, half a point above veteran Korchnoi who had beaten in a row Illescas Cordoba, Seirawan, and Shirov. In sole tournament lead, Korchnoi suffered his only loss in the last round to Bent Larsen (the crazy ones, Korchnoi allowed Larsen to mate him, and Vic did not get mated every day).

The fifth edition in 1994 to honour <Lev Polugaevsky>, featured a unique <Sicilian Theme Tournament>, won by Salov (a last-minute replacing; Polugaevsky sadly could not play due to bad health), above 2. Anand, 3.-4. Ivanchuk, Judit Polgar, 5.-6. Kamsky, Karpov, beaten by Salov with white and black, 7. Shirov, 8. Ljubojevic (eight players, double round robin):

Game Collection: 99_Lev Polugajevky Tourn. Buenos Aires 1994

San Segundo and Van Wely, above de Firmian took the podium in 1995, Tiviakov, the traveller, triumphed in 1996, together with Magem Badals, above Almasi. The winners in 1997 (8th edition) were Morovic and Sutovsky.

Miguel Najdorf, born near Warsaw, April 15, 1910, died in Malaga, Spain, July 4, 1997, after eight invitational tournaments of his series.

The 11th edition, won by Judit Polgar on tie-break above Viktor Bologan, was again internationally mixed, with Short as clear third, and Anatoly Karpov finishing in sole 4th place after losing his final round game on time against Pablo Ricardi.

Larsen once said: Karpov can’t win in Argentina. This was now Karpov's fourth fail to win a tournament in Argentina!

Then World Champion Karpov twice had little success at the Clarin (series) world elite tournaments 1980 in Buenos Aires, won by Larsen, and 1982 in Mar del Plata, won by Timman, finishing third to fourth and third to fifth respectively, later finishing fifth to sixth in the Najdorf Sicilian Theme Tournament, and fourth in the above mentioned Najdorf Memorial 2000. But, Chapeau, Karpov wanted to play again in Argentina, to make it better, and indeed, in 2001, he finally won in his fifth attempt (more below).

Korchnoi obviously had good memories of Buenos Aires and Argentina:

In 1960, a world elite tournament was held at Buenos Aires, as a 150 year celebration of May Revolution, won by Korchnoi and Reshevsky; meanwhile Fischer, then already a Candidate, finished on shared 13-16 place in a field of 20 players from different continents. Argentines Guimard who maybe had his very best years in the 1930s and 1940, and Rossetto were both awarded the GM title after that tournament for sharing fourth place ahead of many reputed grandmasters: Buenos Aires (1960).

Korchnoi also won a smaller invitation tournament that same year 1960 in Cordoba, ahead of Taimanov.

In the year 1978, Buenos Aires hosted its second Chess Olympiad after 1939, with the historical victory of Hungary (Portisch, Sax, Ribli, Adorjan, Csom, Vadasz). Not at least exhausted from Baguio City, Korchnoi took the individual gold medal on board 1.

In 1979, Korchnoi and Ljubojevic won the international Konex (aka Konex-Canon) tournament, including amongst other Miles, Browne, Najdorf or Quinteros, it was boycotted by the Soviet Union (Korchnoi never got an invitation to the Clarin series to secure Soviet participation, that’s why this tournament had been launched): Buenos Aires (Konex) (1979).

In 1980, Buenos Aires saw a hard fought Candidate’s semi-final: Viktor Korchnoi beat Lev Polugaevsky in extra-time, still in classical chess.

In his late years, as Senior with a “Non-Senior” approach, Korchnoi twice was invited at Najdorf Tournament / Memorial, finishing both time on podium.

The 12th Najdorf Memorial in 2001 saw the last win of an invitation tournament in classical chess by Anatoly Karpov (*1951), he was half a point ahead of septuagenarian Korchnoi (*1931), who had just won at the Biel GMT outright, and teenager Radjabov (*1987), fourteen years young, as unbeaten runners-up, followed by Short as fourth, Xie Jun (then reigning Woman World Champion) and tournament title defender Judit Polgar as joint fifth, including former child prodigy Mecking in a brief comeback period, Milos, also from Brazil, Felgaer and Ricardi, both from the hosting nation Argentina (ten players).

This contest in 2001 became also the last truly international invitation tournament of the Najdorf series with considerable reputation (the claim Najdorf Memorial had been used for speed exhibitions, simuls, national events, but no more international invitation tournament had been held). Independently, there are Najdorf Memorials organised in Poland.

The rise and fall of Argentine chess coincided with the life of Miguel Najdorf!

PS: My grandfather lived in Buenos Aires for around ten years in the 1920s / 1930s. Of course, I bought the english language edition of the <Najdorf x Najdorf> biography by his daughter Liliana Najdorf, with a foreword and annotated games by Jan Timman.

The Korchnoi - Polugaevsky Candidates Semifinal (1980) was indeed a huge event. I was a 13 year old kid and went to the theater to see the match several times. It was overflowing with people.

Unrelated to Najdorf, we can also remember that the Fischer - Petrosian Candidates Final (1971) took place in Buenos Aires too.

Just as Karpov seemed cursed in Argentina, Larsen seemed blessed. His win in Buenos Aires (Clarin) (1979) (+9 =4 -0!) and Buenos Aires (Clarin) (1980) made him my childhood hero. No wonder he fell in love in Argentina, got married, and lived there until his death in 2010.

I didn't know Timman wrote the foreword of the English edition of <Najdorf x Najdorf>. I have the Spanish version, with foreword by Oscar Panno, Miguel Quinteros, and I think someone else, but I am not sure where I put the book now to go check.

I've been looking around for candidate replacements.

I absolutely love the photo of Najdorf giving a simul in this article: https://www.elgrafico.com.ar/articu.... The publisher is the most important Argentine sports magazine, and they make it very clear the photo is copyrighted. I just wrote to them inquiring about buying he photo. I will ask about the possibility of using it on this website. Unfortunately, Najdorf's arm got out of focus, but I still love it.

This one, from 1950, is available for public use: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/...). No offense to the lady (possibly Najdorf's wife), but it'd be nice to have a chess photo instead.

Here's another photo of Najdorf giving a simul: https://relatosehistorias.mx/nuestr.... According to the website, the photo is of anonymous author, which means not copyrighted as far as I am concerned.

Of all the photos of peak Najdorf I found, the one on this page is my favorite: https://britishchessnews.com/2021/1.... I've seen it elsewhere too, no indication of copyright.

[Event "Warsaw"]
[Site "Poland"]
[Date "1931.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Rubinstein, Akiba & E"]
[Black "Najdorf & Tovbin"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D05"]
[PlyCount "70"]