Prince Andre Dadian of Mingrelia
(born Oct-24-1850, died Jun-12-1910) Georgia, Prince Andre Dadian of Mingrelia (a lowland province of Georgia, bordering the Black Sea) was born in 1850. His chess career, such as it was, began around 1867. While there are only a few dozen recorded games, several made it into prestigious chess publications and were annotated by such luminaries as Wilhelm Steinitz and Mikhail Chigorin. Some of his recorded games teetered on brilliant; some were wild and undaunted; all of them deviously ingenious. Not just a player, Prince Dadian helped sponsor tournaments, most notably in Monte Carlo. Yet rumors and insinuations of irregularities plagued him. Though nothing has ever been proven, he has been suspected of creating some of his games, or of having them created beforehand and paying his opponents to follow the script.