I don't Read, I Just Look at the Pictures

Photo credit: Najdorf X Najdorf , p. 167.

The Argentinian / Israeli chess player, Horacio Volman, has kindly agreed to an interview with me. He and his wife have told me many interesting stories about many chess players they have known (especially Miguel Najdorf and Moshe Czerniak) -- more of which will be posted soon on this blog, I hope.

For the meantime, one "appetizer": Volman pointed out to me that a biography of Najdorf by his daughter, Liliana Najdorf, has been published in Buenos Aires in 1999. Volman told me the book, Najdorf X Najdorf  [Najdorf on Najdorf], is excellent. The book was unfortunately not translated into English, let alone Hebrew; so, not reading Spanish, I was reduced to looking at the pictures (and the high-quality glossy paper...). But, for what it's worth, I agree.

The book has numerous photographs that clearly come from the Najdorfs' private photo albums, showing the family man in a way never seen before, as well as pictures of Najdorf from various sources with personalities ranging from Yehudi Menuchin to Che Guevara. Above is one such photo, of Najdorf, a Jew of course, wearing his skullcap and prayer shawl at the Western Wall, Jerusalem, during a visit to Israel in the 1990s.