A chess game managed to save a man from a
firing squad.
In 1918, chess grand master Ossip Bernstein
was arrested by the Bolshevik secret police.
He was ordered to be shot by a firing squad
since he was an advisor to bankers—who were considered an enemy of the people
during the Red Terror and the Bolshevik revolution.
As the firing squad lined up, getting ready
to take their shots, a superior officer asked to see the list of prisoners’
names.
Scanning the list, he recognized Bernstein
as one of the greatest chess masters of the previous decade.
He gave him a choice.
He told Bernstein that if he beat him, the
officer, at a chess game, he would be released and his life would be spared.
Bernstein agreed, and subsequently beat him
fairly quickly, thus granting him release from the prison.
Bernstein went on to be one of the greatest
chess players of his time.
It’s pretty shocking to think that he had
his life spared due to just one chess game.
From the stars,
Dawn.
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