Jewish Chess players
The Sovietic chess school was the best at the time and is still the most solid; it has contributed to the chess culture a lot and is still a reference. But how about the “Jewish” school?
I had never looked for any chess player’s religion; but when I read a Wikipedia page, I changed my idea.
Here’s my logic:
1 case can go with indifference
2 cases are an exception
several cases are a funny coincidence
many cases are an interesting fact
almost all the cases are a phenomen.
Who would be interested about the religion of the Chess Champions of the world:
Wilhelm Steinitz
Emmanual Lasker
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Tal
Boris Spassky
Bobby Fischer
Garry Kasparov
Alexander Khalifman
Also, famous chess players
Polgar sisters
Aron Nimzowitsch (of course)
Miguel Najdorf
Efim Geller
Larry Evans
Reuben Fine
Viktor Korchnoi
Peter Svidler
Richard Réti
Dr Siegbert Tarrasch
Mark Taimanov
Let’s not forget about those whose their names are typically Jewish
Boris Alterman
Yuri Averbakh
Joel Benjamin
David Bronstein
Dawid Janowski
Lev Polugaevsky
Samuel Reshevsky
Now, the thing I want to understand is: What does make Jewish players the strongest in the world and in History? Is there something in Jewish Culture that encourages intelligence?
I know, finding out about these questions is like trying to investigate in CIA secret files: that would result nothing.
If there are Jewish chess players reading this post, may be they can help me to have an idea about.
May 28th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Go to La Griffe du Lion for an explanation of why CCNY ( City College in NY before it became City University ) produced 8 Nobel Prize-winners in hard sciences during a period of about 30 years. The explanation is plausible and would also apply to chess players. ( WHY the effect exists, if it does, is another matter and invites speculation e.g. constant discrimination weeds out the less-fit; alternatively, the best minds in the non-Jewish but European world might have been removed from the gene pool by clerical celibacy )