Andrei Davidovich Dadiani

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This page owes it's existence to WilhelmThe2nd  from Chessgames.com who not only did most of the research, but provided translations and transcriptions as well as rational interpretations to the historical data.

Prince Andre Dadian of Mingrelia lived from 1850 to 1910. His chess career, such as it was, began around 1867. While there are only a very limited number of games, several made it into prestigious chess publications and were annotated by such men as Steinitz and Tschigorin. 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 definitively, he has been accused of creating some of his games, or of having them created, beforehand and paying his opponents to follow the script. Much of the criticism was possibly muted and diffused by the media which was the recipient of Dadian's generosity. But things reached a head at the 1903 tournament at Monte Carlo where Prince Dadian and Mikhail Tschigorin had an altercation.

This page doesn't claim to find the answers to the controversy that surrounded Prince Dadian, but rather to offer accurate information for a better understanding of one of the most interesting figures in the history of chess.