Ossip Bernstein, the Chess master Who Played to Save His Life
Ossip Bernstein, the chess master, was saved from death thanks to his chess skills
The Red Terror
On Aug. 30, 1918, a young woman named Fanya Kaplan stepped forward from the crowd and shot the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in the chest and shoulder.
Lenin survived the assassination attempt. Kaplan was arrested, interrogated, and brutally tortured by the Bolshevik secret police Cheka before being shot. But Kaplan’s deed became a convenient scapegoat for the regime to unleash its red terror on all those supposedly against the government and had a 'bourgeois' background.
The red terror was an officially approved Bolshevik campaign of intimidation, arrests, violence, and executions. The Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police, carried it out. It was aimed against tsarists, liberals, non-Bolshevik socialists, clergy members, kulaks (affluent peasants), foreigners, and political dissidents of all parties. Estimating the precise number of people killed would be difficult, but the unofficial accounts go in upwards of 20,000 – 30,000 victims.
During this precarious time, a skilled chess player named Ossip Bernstein found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was a successful lawyer by profession, working in Odesa, Ukraine as a legal advisor to bankers. He was arrested because of his involvement with the banks and support for bourgeois capitalism.
But just before he was set to be executed by the firing squad, he was presented with an extraordinary opportunity by the firing officer to save himself.
"Play chess with me. If you win, you go free. If you lose, you die."
Ossip Bernstein thus agreed to play the greatest game of his life, with his own life at stake.
The Story of Ossip Bernstein
Bernstein was born in 1882 in a Jewish family from the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr, in the Russian Empire. He completed his education and eventually started his training as a lawyer. It was around the same time he started playing chess.
Bernstein's reputation in chess gradually spread, and in 1902, he played his first international match against Harry Pillsbury, a prominent chess player from the United States. Although he lost the game, his reputation as a chess player was cemented by that time, and he went on to win the General Chess Federation of Berlin tournament later that year, earning the title of chess master. And over the years, he became one of the top chess players with numerous titles.
Later he traveled to Germany to attend Heidelberg University, where he obtained a doctorate in the field of law, graduating in 1906. He then started working as a lawyer in Moscow.
In Moscow, he met Wilma, whom he married later and started a family. The period following marriage was the golden years of Bernstein's life. He became accomplished within the law and chess fields, becoming considerably wealthy and famous throughout Russia.
Bernstein Was Arrested
In 1918, the Russian revolution happened, and the Bolsheviks seized power under Lenin. And during the difficult times of the red terror that followed, Bernstein was arrested in Odessa after the discovery of his work as a banking advisor. His wealthy status made him the perfect candidate for a 'blood-sucking' bourgeois who needed to be eliminated by the oppressed peasants.
Bernstein was set up before the firing squad and lined for execution.
But before he could be executed, one of the firing officers noted his name and asked if he was the famous chess player Ossip Bernstein. Ossip Bernstein replied in the affirmative, but the officer did not believe him. He set up a condition to play chess with him. If Bernstein won, he was free. If he loses, he will be killed.
Bernstein won quite easily as he swiftly defeated his opponent on this occasion. The officer honored the terms of the match and was set free. Bernstein decided to flee the country. Utterly penniless with all his properties seized, he somehow managed to get aboard a British boat and made it to France.
In France, he hoped to construct a new, peaceful life for himself and his family. But then fate had other plans in store for him.
Life After Fleeing the Soviet Union
Nazi Germany attacked France in May 1940.
Within a month, on June 10, the French government abandoned Paris, and the Germans marched in four days later. Life was again hell for Bernstein, who was a Jew. By Oct 1940, he, along with other Jews, had no rights and was no longer permitted to obtain work as a lawyer, shop owner, and doctor. And they were also banned from frequenting specific locations in the city.
Bernstein again lost everything he had saved the last 20 years in France and fled to Spain. Paris was liberated from the Nazis in August 1944, and Bernstein returned to the city the following year. He finally settled down and started playing and winning again in several tournaments in the next decades.
He finally managed to reach and die at a ripe old age surviving the Red terror, two world wars, and two heart attacks. History will forever remember his incredible survival saga that started with that fateful game of chess in 1918 that saved his life.
Sources
·        What is the legend of Ossip Bernstein, who supposedly played chess to save his life?
·        Chess Master Ossip Bernstein: They wanted to execute him but winning the game of chess saved his life
·        The Forgotten Chess Masters: Ossip Bernstein
·        Lined Up for The Firing Squad, This Chess Master Was Offered to Play a Game of Chess for His Life
·        The Amazing Story of The Man Who Escaped the Firing Squad by Winning A Game Of Chess
·        The Forgotten Chess Masters: Ossip Bernstein
·        Ossip Bernstein
Thanks Ravi. Another interesting story.