Kola Kwariani

Chess career According to Chess Review magazine, Kwariani was the only chess-playing professional wrestler in the U.S.

Other media Kwariani had a role in Stanley Kubrick's 1956 film The Killing, in the role of chess-playing wrestler Maurice Oboukhoff, who is hired to start a fight to create a diversion during a heist. A picture of Kwariani, Kubrick, and Sterling Hayden appeared on the cover of Chess Review magazine in March 1956.

Death In February 1980, while entering the Chess and Checker Club, Kwariani was seriously injured after being assaulted by a group of teenagers. The incident was later described by Samuel Sloan: "Nick came in the downstairs entrance one evening when about five black youths were leaving. They bumped into each other. Words were exchanged. Nick never took any guff from anybody and soon he was engaged in a fight with all five black kids at once. Nick probably could still have handled any one or two of them, but five were too many. Nick was beaten." He was then taken to a hospital, where he died at age 77. He was predeceased by his wife, Sidonia (Novak) Kwariani.

Filmography The Killing (1956) - Maurice Oboukhoff