3. Sergei Prokofiev is remembered as one of the last century’s great classical music composers, and only a few know he was also an accomplished chess player.
Though he may have lived and work under the repressive Communist regime of Soviet-era Russia, Sergei Prokofiev nevertheless managed to become one of the great composers of the 20th century. His works spanned numerous musical genres, and his operas, concertos and symphonies are still performed to this day. But Prokofiev wasn’t just a highly accomplished composer. He was also a concert-level pianist. What’s more, he was a skilled chess player. After learning the game as a young boy, he became obsessed with it, and as an adult tested his wits against some of the world’s best players, sometimes coming out on top.
Famously, in 1914, Prokofiev welcomed the Cuban chess grandmaster Jose Raul Capablanca to Russia. The world champion was in St. Petersburg for a series of organized matches. Prokofiev challenged him to a match, and even managed to win a single game against the mighty Capablanca. In his later years, the composer enjoyed regular matches with a number of friendly rivals, including the master violinist David Oistrakh. In 1937, the men played chess to decide which one of them would get a gig playing on a lucrative concert tour. After just 7 of 10 planned matches, however, Oistrakh quit, and went off on the tour anyway, taken as a sure sign that Prokofiev was on top. Despite this, the two chess-loving musicians remained friends until the end.