(Translation: English version of Italiano version)
The passion for chess was the indirect cause of Aleksandr Pushkin’s death.
Pushkin married Natalia Nikolaeva Goncharova, to whom he passed on his passion for chess. Goncharova soon became the best chess player in St. Petersburg. Shortly after, anonymous letters began to arrive accusing Pushkin’s wife of infidelity. According to these letters, the chess matches at court were merely a pretext for meetings with admirers.
Pushkin discovered that the letters came from the French ambassador. On February 8, 1837, he challenged him to a duel.
“I aim for the hand that writes ignominies,” Pushkin said, and so he did. The ambassador, however, grazed his abdomen. The wound was poorly treated, and two days later Pushkin died of septicemia.