Alexander Nikitin’s own career as a player did not make him a legend of the game. That’s not an insult—he became an International Master, which is a genuine accomplishment that most of us would be delighted to add to our resumes. But in a world with nearly 2000 grandmasters and around twice that many IMs, “legend” status requires more.

In Nikitin’s case, his claim to fame is as a trainer; specifically, as the trainer of one Garry Kasparov, from 1973 (the year Kasparov turned 10) until 1990 (the year of Kasparov’s last world championship match with Anatoly Karpov). While Kasparov was a hard working genius who may very well have become the dominant world champion he became with any number of other trainers, it was with Nikitin that it happened, and he has received widespread acclaim for his work. (He also, subsequently, worked with other very accomplished players like Etienne Bacrot and Dmitry Jakovenko, both of whom were at one time in the world’s top ten.) Nikitin recently wrote two very good books on his years with Kasparov, which I warmly recommend to you.

There’s a good obituary of Nikitin, who died on June 5 (as did Paul Keres, back in 1975), in the New York Times. As for his own chess games, you might have a look at his page on Chessgames.com; in particular, the win over Kupreichik was entertaining. His best-known game is probably this spectacular loss to Mikhail Tal. It’s a pity, perhaps, to have one’s most famous game be a loss, but it wasn’t a game for him to be ashamed of. Tal played wonderfully. And there’s a happy ending: in their only other game, Nikitin won.

Rest in peace.