Kochi, July 6: Every year in April, when he had his birthday, he organised a big tournament. He spent nearly $ 1,00,000 on each of them. Miguel Najdorf, who is a thing of the past now after having lived for 87 years, was a living legend till his death. A strong Grandmaster who contributed as much to chess as any world champion, a humorous and sincere journalist, a successful businessman and above all a gentleman to the core.

Najdorf died of complications from surgery. He had been staying at a hotel at the southern Spanish resort of Marbella before undergoing surgery on Friday, said Elena Gonzalez, a spokeswoman at Malaga University Hospital where Najdorf died late on Friday.

There is a story which Najdorf used to narrate when he was asked to pick the gentlemen of chess: ``Kasparov is not a gentleman. He is not sympathetic. He is a God. You cannot be a God. The Israeli Government once asked Einstein to be their president. And Einstein told them I am too big an idiot to be president,'' he said. No wonder, his list of gentlemen included the likes of Max Euwe, Tartakower, Paul Keres, Rubinstein, Nikolic, Timman.

Did he omit Viswanathan Anand ? Certainly not. Najdorf came down to New York two years ago to watch the PCA match between Kasparov and Anand and paid glowing tributes to Anand, the person and the player. Curiously, he reached the venue at a time when Anand was driving Kasparov to the brink in a variation called the Najorf in Sicilian, supposedly the stronghold of the PCA world champion.

Najdorf, born in Poland in 1910, sought asylum in Argentina in 1939 and changed his forename from Mieczyslaw to Miguel. He was a strong Candidate in the first half of this century. Najdorf is one of the veterans of the chess Olympiad, having played in 14 editions, which is a unique feat. He represented Poland in 1935, 1937 and 1939 and for Argentina 11 times between 1950 and 1976. He won the first board gold in the Olympiad in 1950 and 1952. He was the national champion of Argentina in 1949, 1951, 1955, 1960, 1964, 1967 and 1975.

Chess life in Argentina owes a lot to Miguel Najdorf. He has already spent nearly $ 10,00,000 organising his tournaments in Buenos Aires. He has helped Argentinian players the chance to meet strong opposition, inviting new foreign chess players every year to Buenos Aires from April 15, his birthday.GM Sergei Tiviakov once recollected one of the interesting statistical points about Najdorf: That he played against all world champions except Steinitz and against Emanuel Lasker he played bridge and not chess.Najdorf's key move in the variation in Sicilian 5...a6 is a waiting move, and in his own words this invites white `to show his hand first'.

Don Miguel was true to his variation in his business career also preferring not to show his hand and waiting for others to make their moves. Najdorf, who reports for Clarin, a chess-friendly newspaper in Buenos Aires, always enjoyed a couple of hours of blitz chess in his club in Buenos Aires, Alfil Negro, one of the 100-odd chess clubs in the city. Najdorf's friends have always said he used to drive his car without glasses even now and that he was an expert in this.

Another interesting story is about his comments on sex.``Sex before the game is very bad for chess players,'' he wrote once. He told his wife to go back home when she came during a tournament. She pleaded she loved him too much to which he replied, `loving is not bad but loving too much....''

He was mad after chess but not really ambitious. ``Around 32 or 35 I realised that chess was a big pleasure for me, but that it was not my career. Not the way I wanted to make money, but chess helped me very much because nothing is easy in life,'' he said in one of his interviews. ``If you want to do business with somebody, you should first play a game of chess with him and you will know whether he is a gentleman or not.''

Anand had this to say once about Miguel's love for chess.``I wish I will still have so much love for the game when I am his age. And see as much. Especially when he is attracted by a position, he still sees amazingly much.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.