Russian chess player, Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (1850-1908) lived in an orphanage from the age of 10.

Chigorin was born in the town of Gatchina but later moved to Saint Petersburg where his father worked in a gunpower factory.

From the age of 10, after his parents died, the boy lived in the Gatchinsk Orphan’s Institute. He became the institution’s most famous alumnus.

A teacher at the Institute taught Chigorin chess, but he didn’t take up the game until he was about 24 years of age.

By 1876, he had begun playing professionally. He also started a magazine, Chess Sheet, which he edited until 1881.

After he’d played a series of games with established masters, Chigorin was regarded as the best chess player in Saint Petersburg & one of the best in Russia.

By the end of the 19th century, Chigorin was one of the top 5 players in the world.

He also became an ambassador for Russian chess, giving lectures, writing articles & founding a chess club in Saint Petersburg.

Many Russians still regard Michail Chigorin as the founder of the Soviet School of Chess which produced all the world champions from 1948 until the collapse of the USSR.