Ossip Samoilovich Bernstein (20 September 1882 – 30 November 1962) was a French chess player and businessman.

Bernstein was a successful businessman who earned considerable wealth before losing it in the Bolshevik Revolution.

His Jewish origins meant that he could not remain in Nazi-occupied France, and he was forced to flee to Spain and settled in Barcelona.

According to Arnold Denker, who was told by Edward Lasker, a 36-year-old Bernstein in 1918 was arrested in Odessa by the Bolshevik secret police whose purpose was to investigate and punish "counterrevolutionary" crimes.

After confronting Bernstein about his identity, the commanding officer offered him a deal he couldn't refuse.⁣ They would play a game of chess.

[3] In 1933, he drew a training match against reigning World Chess Champion Alexander Alekhine in Paris (+1−1=2).

[4] During World War II, he played friendly games with Alekhine and others in Paris in Spring 1940.

In December 1948, he drew a game against Reuben Fine at a cable match New York vs. Paris.

Najdorf protested that it was unfair to play such an aged opponent, and then became so confident of victory that he convinced the tournament organizers to double the First Prize money at the expense of reducing the payouts for the lesser prizes, a gamble that backfired in spectacular fashion as the septuagenarian Bernstein routed him in a 37-move Old Indian Defense that won Bernstein the Brilliancy Prize.

Bernstein played at first board for France at the 11th Chess Olympiad in Amsterdam 1954 (+5−5=5).

He had level or nearly level lifetime scores against such outstanding players as the second World Champion Emanuel Lasker (+2−3=1),[7] Akiba Rubinstein (+1−1=7), Aron Nimzowitsch (+1−2=4), Mikhail Chigorin (+2−1=0) and Salo Flohr (+0−0=3).