Mikhail Tchigorin
You will often see Tchigorin’s name spelled “Chigorin”, however “Tchigorin” was his own preferred English spelling. He is on Robert Fischer’s Top Ten List and below are Fischer’s thoughts on this great chess player.
The Russians call Tchigorin, who has been dead for sixty years, the father of the Soviet style of chess; he was, in fact, one of the last of the Romantic School and a good all-around player in spite of the fact that almost all of his opening novelties have long been discarded.
Tchigorin, who was beaten twice by Steinitz, was the finest endgame player of his time, although judging from his notes, he often over-evaluated his position. Steinitz and Tchigorin were rivals – they represented respectively the new and the old schools. After defeating Tchigorin, Steinitz, although 30 years his senior, wrote happily: “Youth has triumphed!”
Tchigorin had a very aggressive style, and was thus a great attacking player. He was always willing to experiment and as a result was often beaten by weaker players. He was easily discouraged, a fact that held him back from even greater heights. He was not really an objective player; at times, he would continue playing a bad line even after it had been refuted. In the later years of his career, after trial and error, he gave up trying to refute Steinitz’ lines and began playing them himself.
Tchigorin was the first great Russian chess player, and still is one of the greatest Russians of all time.