player. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Missed being the Grand Champion on five separate occasions. Many chess historians consider him to be one of the greatest players in history, and the strongest player never to become world champion. He was born in Narva. Hence, the sculpture, the plaque, and … I happen to live on the street named after him. Needless to say, on this past Saturday, he remained number two. I beat him handily. Sorry, Paul. You can’t win ‘em all. Obviously. 
“…𝚋𝚎 𝚊 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚛, 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚕, 𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚔 𝚝𝚘 𝚠𝚊𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜, 𝚠𝚊𝚕𝚔 𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍, 𝚗𝚘 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏-𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚢…𝚒𝚝’𝚜 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚊𝚜 𝚠𝚎 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚒𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝚋𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎.”
.
― 𝙹𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝙺𝚎𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚊𝚌, “𝙱𝚒𝚐 𝚂𝚞𝚛”
Narva, Estonia September 2021