Nicolas Rossolimo

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Nicolas Rossolimo (February 28, 1910, Kiev - July 24, 1975, New York) was an American-French-Greek-Ukrainian chess Grandmaster. He was awarded the International Master title in 1950 and the International Grandmaster title in 1953.

Born in the Ukraine, he moved to Paris with his Russian-Ukrainian mother in 1929. Having finished second behind José Raúl Capablanca in 1938 in a tournament in Paris, he won the French Championship in 1948. Moreover he was Paris Champion eight times and drew two matches in 1948 and 1949 with Savielly Tartakower.

Rossolimo variation of the Sicilian Defense. Now, Black can play 3. ... g6, 3. ... d6 or 3. ... e6.

In 1953 he moved to the U.S. to be with his Greek father. He worked as a bellhop, a taxi driver, played the accordion and worked as a singer as well as running a chess studio to support himself. He died of head injuries after an accident.

One of Rossolimo's more enduring innovations is the variation of the Sicilian Defence which bears his name, 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5. While generally steering clear of the tactical fireworks common to the open Sicilians, the Rossolimo variation (as well as its close relative the Moscow variation) offers white some opening advantage, as well as allowing the first player to avoid the massive quantities of theory associated with the open Sicilians.

Here is one of Rossolimo's most celebrated brilliancies:

Rossolimo-Paul Reissman, Puerto Rico 1967 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Bd2 Bxd2+ 8.Nbxd2 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Qb3 Nce7 11.O-O c6 12.Rfe1 O-O 13.a4 b6 14.Ne5 Bb7 15.a5 Rc8 16.Ne4 Qc7 17.a6 Ba8 18.Qh3 Nf4 19.Qg4 Ned5 20.Ra3 Ne6 21.Bxd5 cxd5 22.Nf6+ Kh8 23.Qg6!! Qc2 24.Rh3! 1-0