Alexander Petrov (chess player)

Petrov was born in Biserovo (now part of Opochka in Pskov Oblast) into a noble family and is usually remembered as the first great Russian chess master.

[1] He is an author of the first chess handbook in Russian (Shakhmatnaya igra [...], St Petersburg 1824).

He also analysed with Carl Jaenisch the opening that later became known as the Petrov's Defense or Russian Game (ECO C42).

From 1840 he lived in Warsaw (then in the Russian Empire), where he successfully played against top Warsaw chess masters: Alexander Hoffman, Piotrowski, Szymański, Siewieluński, Hieronim Czarnowski, Szymon Winawer, etc.

[5] Petrov's most well-known problem is "The Retreat of Napoleon I from Moscow" (St. Petersburg 1824).