Russian computer programmer best known for creating Tetris, the most popular video game of all time. He released the game on 6th June 1984 while working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR.
The name of the game is a combination of tetra- (Greek prefix for four, as all pieces in the game have four segments) and tennis, Pajitnov’s favourite sport. The game was the first entertainment software to be imported by the US from the Soviet Union. Pajitnov received royalties from Tetris only in 1996. The rights to world’s most popular video game are with The Tetris Company, owned by Henk Rogers and Pajitnov.
