Mikhail Chigorin was born on November 12, 1850. He was a leading Russian chess player and the first grandmaster from Russia. He served as a major source of inspiration for the "Soviet school of chess," which dominated the chess world in the latter part of the 20th century. Among his many contributions to the theory of chess the most notable is Chigorin's defense (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6), recently re-discovered and made popupar again by Russian GM A. Morozevich.
