The New York Times has recently started a series of obituaries of those overlooked by the Times when they died, and several days ago it was the turn of chess great Sultan Khan. His story is a remarkable one, and while he did grow up playing a similar version of chess, it’s still incredible that he was able to adapt so quickly and easily to the form we know, and to not only compete but more or less immediately become a world-class player despite having no chess books and no experience playing elite opposition (at least in our form of chess). He came, he made a colossal impression, and then he left - a story reminiscent of his countryman, the brilliant mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan a decade or so earlier.
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