Russian and French citizen Ossip Bernstein (Ossip Samoilovich Bernstein) was born on 20 September 1882 in Zhytomyr. His peak Word Ranking is 9 (in 10 different months between April 1904 and March 1906). He was considered to be one of the best ten chess players of the world between 1905 and 1906. According to Chessmetrics his highest rating is 2688.

He participated in a Chess Olympiad only in 1954, competing for France. He placed 16th individually and 21st in team. He never won the world champion title and did not play in World Championship games either.

Interesting facts: 

After the First World War he fled to France. In 1918 the Bolshevik secret police, Cheka arrested him and he was sentenced to death by firing squad as he was working as a bank advisor. After the firing squad stood in line, a high ranking officer double-checked the list of prisoners’ names. When he saw Ossip Bernstein’s name, he asked him if he was the famous chess master. The officer was not satisfied with his positive answer and challenged him for a game of chess. The bet was Bernstein’s life. If he lost or drew, he would be shot, if not, he would be free to go. Bernstein won the game in short order and he was let to leave.

When FIDE introduced the official titles in 1950 Bernstein was granted the International Grandmaster title.

He died on 30 November 1962 in a sanatorium at the age of 80.