Dr. Ossip Samoilovich Bernstein, 1999

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January 02 1999

The Guardian, London, Greater London, England, Saturday, January 02, 1999

Ossip Bernstein used to claim he was the only grandmaster who had lost three fortunes. Son of a wealthy Jewish family and a successful Tsarist advocate, he was 1911 Moscow champion and played in the great tournament of St. Petersburg 1914 but had to free penniless from the Bolsheviks.
Resettled in France, he became one of Paris's most prosperous financial lawyers only to lose it all again in the Wall Street crash.
Then in the 1930s he tied a match with world champion Alekhine, and created yet another fortune until this, too, was seized by the Nazis in 1940.
Finally he achieved a lifelong dream when he flew back to his beloved Moscow as No. 1 board for France in the 1956 Olympiad but the excitement brought on a heart attack.

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