If your chess opponent takes a seat on the chair across from you and wiggles around until the chair is perfectly straight - if they slowly and thoughtfully set up their pieces and adjust them until they are actually in the perfect centre of their square - if they then gently remove one or two pieces of dust from the board that you hadn't noticed at all: then you might suspect that they are born in Virgo, that is, between 23 August and 22 September. However, they might just have a Virgo Ascendant, several strong planets in Virgo, or a cluster of those in the sixth house, which corresponds to Virgo in the horoscope. In any case, the stars make them finicky.
A Virgo-born person goes for order, cleanliness and structure. They like to get things right. They are a passionate perfectionist, and like the chessboard because it has a structured pattern. Furthermore, they are also fond of wickerwork or tartan, but what appeals to them most is this reliable alternation of black and white, all squares exactly the same size: wonderful!
Many Virgo-born people wear glasses. Not necessarily because they see badly. But perhaps an adequate lens will make their vision that little bit more perfect?
Emil Sutovsky, the Director General of the International Chess Federation, was able to achieve an Elo rating of over 2700 in 2012.
When everything is lined up, Virgo starts to think. There are two great thinkers in the zodiac, Gemini and Virgo, both ruled by Mercury. With Gemini it's more playful, easier - with Virgo it's usually a dead affair. Privy Councillor Goethe, *28 August, who liked to play chess with his mother, explained that this game was a "touchstone of the brain" (German:"Probierstein des Gehirns").
Perhaps a typical Virgo sometimes takes it so seriously that they are so busy thinking that they can't make a move? There is Fritz Sämisch, *20 September, 1950 Grandmaster and a good blitz chess player, who nevertheless found it extremely difficult to manage his thinking time correctly in tournaments. In Prague in 1938 he simply couldn't agree with himself on the best 12th move - he brooded over it for two and a half hours - and finally lost because his time was up. And in 1969 in Büsum he lost all his games by exceeding his time.
Friedrich "Fritz" Sämisch was infamous for his frequent time trouble, but also famous for his beautiful games!
A Virgo rarely has too little or, regrettably, too much on their mind. And they want to pull off the ideal move.
Perhaps it could be a problem that Mercury stands less for abstract thinking and more for understanding through words. Many well-known Virgo chess players use this talent to articulate themselves - and to formulate.
In the 1860s, Johannes Zukertort, * 7. September, a chess legend by this point, took over as editor of the Neue Berliner Schachzeitung. Zukertort was the first recognized vice world champion in chess in 1886.
Chess Master George Koltanowski, *17 September, wrote the autobiographical books "Adventures of a Chess Master" and "With the Chess Masters" as well as wonderful anecdotes about players and the game, the "Chessnicdotes". After emigrating to the United States, he worked as a chess journalist from 1940. He ran the daily chess section of the San Francisco Chronicle for more than half a century, writing a total of more than 19,000 articles, often with chess problems. This made him probably the most prolific chess columnist of all time.
George Koltanowski was 97 years old and died in 2000. | Photo: Chess Hall of Fame
Grandmaster Georg Meier, *26 August, and Grandmaster Benjamin Finegold, *6 September, are characterized by the fact that they tweet very eloquently and cheekily - as long as they don't immediately operate their own YouTube/Twitch channels.
Grandmaster Daniel King, *28 August, and Grandmaster Peter Leko, *8 September, are popular chess presenters and have even been on air together.
Do join Peter Leko and me for live commentary from 18.00 CET on https://t.co/sc07iU7IeQ #UNICEF #CharityCup pic.twitter.com/Mxa0mJJ5JH
— Daniel King (@DanielKingChess) March 20, 2022
Daniel King is not only one of our most popular Fritztrainers because of his precision:
The great young hopeful Nodirbek Abdusattorov, * 18 September, has the typical, through-mindedly sensitive Virgo face - but! He has a very mischievous, somewhat left-field grin, and he can apparently curb perfectionism desirably. After all, he became the youngest ever world rapid chess champion in Warsaw in 2021. So, he obviously doesn't think endlessly about the perfect move.
The 2022 Olympic champion is considered by many to be a future World Champion| Photo: Anna Shtourman / Mark Livshitz (FIDE)
Two ladies from Ukraine should also be mentioned: Both Anna Uschenina, *30 August, and Mariya Muzychuk, *21 September, won gold with the women's team in Chennai.
Mariya Muzychuk is one of the strongest female chess players in the world.| Photo from the Leopolis Hotel, Lviv, Ukraine by Vitaliy Hrabar
Perhaps it is sufficient to place your pieces a little haphazardly on the board, barely in their squares—the muzzles of the knights a little to the left or right. It will at least annoy a genuine Virgo opponent because they constantly want to adjust the pieces more perfectly.
Graf, Alexander - 25 August 1962
Meier, Georg - 26 August 1987
Ivić, Velimir - 27 August 2002
King, Daniel J. - 28 August 1963
Almási, Zoltán - 29 August 1976
Ushenina, Anna - 30 August 1985
Onischuk, Alexander - 3 September 1975
Sargissian, Gabriel - 3 September 1983
Erigaisi, Arjun - 3 September 2003
Zhang Zhong - 5 September 1978
Ribli, Zoltán - 6 September 1951
Finegold, Benjamin - 6 September 1969
Zukertort, Johannes - 7 September 1842
Leko, Peter - 8 September 1979
Amin, Bassem - 9 September 1988
Nikolić, Predrag - 11 September 1960
Albin, Adolf - 14 September 1848
Koltanowski, George - 17 September 1903
Abdusattorov, Nodirbek - 18 September 2004
Sutovsky, Emil - 19 September 1977
Sämisch, Friedrich - 20 September 1896
Muzychuk, Mariya - 21 September 1992
Shevchenko, Kirill - 22 September 2002
Pelletier, Yannick - 22 September 1976
We have already found out that Virgo-born chess players love the perfect move. So what could be better than chess studies, which often have only one direct path to the solution? Enclosed are three special studies for Virgos:
Examples from our "Study of the month" articles on ChessBase
