An interesting man was Mikhail Tal (1936-1992), a Soviet / Latvian chess player. He was a grandmaster at 21, a world champion at 23 (that record has since been broken by Garry Kasparov who won the title at 22), a par excellence offensive player and much more. Until his passing, Tal remained one of the best players in the world.
He appeared as if out of nowhere, and, beginning in 1957, recaptured a spectacular series of successes winning five of his six tournaments. Experts say Tal brought romance back to chess, with his penchant for sacrificing left, right and center and without considering who or how famous his opponent was.
He defeated the great Bobby Fischer and others like Fischer on numerous occasions. Tal won the USSR national championship, undoubtedly the most rigorous in the world, and was a gold medal winner as part of the Soviet Chess Olympiad team eight times. The Chess Olympiad is held every two years.