Carmine Nigro

Carmine Domenico Nigro (born January 2, 1910 , † August 16, 2001 in Peachtree City , Georgia ) was an American chess teacher . He was best known as Bobby Fischer's first teacher .

Life

Nigro was born in 1910 as the second of three sons. He grew up in poor conditions and dropped out of school at the age of 14 to earn a living. At the same time he learned to play the saxophone and the clarinet and began playing cards. After a time as a musician, in which he performed with the band he founded, Tommy Little and His Orchestra , with which he was able to achieve moderate success, he later worked as a stockbroker .

In his late 20s, he played bridge at the Brooklyn Chess and Checkers Club against a chess master who subsequently taught him the game of chess. He then played chess regularly and ultimately made it to a master level and became chairman of the Brooklyn Chess and Checkers Club .

Nigro was married twice and had a son.

Bobby Fischer's coach

In 1951, Nigro first met Bobby Fischer, then eight, at a simultaneous event by chess master Max Pavey . A little later, Nigro became the first chess teacher of the later world champion Fischer. For three years, Fischer received lessons from Nigro at least once a week . Contact broke off, however, when Nigro and his family moved to Florida in 1956 .

Fischer dedicated his first book to Nigro Bobby Fischer's Games of Chess and wrote in the foreword:

"Mr. Nigro was possibly not the best player in the world, but he was a very good teacher. "- Bobby Fischer

In popular culture

In the Bobby Fischer biopic Pawn Sacrifice - Game of Kings from 2014, Nigro is played by actor Conrad Pla .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Dylan Loeb McClain: Carmine Nigro, 91, Bobby Fischer's First Chess Teacher . In: The New York Times, September 2, 2001.
2. ^ Fischer, Bobby (1959), Bobby Fischer's Games of Chess, Simon and Schuster, p. 2.