David Bronstein

David Ionovich Bronstein was a Soviet chess grandmaster, who narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was one of the worlds strongest players from the mid1940s into the mid1970s, and was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics. He was also a renowned chess writer, and his book Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953 is widely considered one of the greatest chess books ever written.

David Bronstein was born in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine, to Jewish parents. Growing up in a poor family, he learned chess at age six from his grandfather. As a youth in Kiev, he was trained by the renowned International Master Alexander Konstantinopolsky. He finished second in the Kiev Championship when he was only 15, and achieved the Soviet Master title at agefor his secondplace result in the 1940 Ukrainian Chess Championship, behind Isaac Boleslavsky, with whom he became close friends both on and off the chessboard. He later went on to marry Boleslavskys daughter, Tatiana, in 1984.

Source: Wikipedia