Efim Geller

Efim Geller, 1977
Association	Soviet Union (until 1991) Russia (from 1992)
Born	March 8, 1925 Odessa , Soviet Union
Died	November 17, 1998 Moscow
title	International Master (1951) Grand Master (1952)
Best Elo rating	2620 (January 1976)

Efim Geller ( Ukrainian Ефим Геллер , scientific transcription Efim Geller , also Russian Ефим Петрович Геллер , scientific transliteration Efim Petrovič Geller ; * March 8, 1925 in Odessa ; † November 17, 1998 in Moscow , Soviet grand master - was an important Soviet Ukrainian master .

Life

Efim Geller, 1977

Efim Geller, a PhD in economics , found chess relatively late; his passion was supposedly basketball before . At the beginning of the 1950s he made the chess world aware of himself. In 1949 he won the semifinals of the USSR championship in Tbilisi , in the same year he shared 3rd and 4th place in the USSR championship. In 1951 he shared 2nd and 3rd place at the national championship and was sent to the interzonal tournament in Stockholm in 1952 by the USSR Chess Federation . His fourth place at this tournament qualified him for the 1953 Candidates Tournament in Zurich and Neuhausen . His 7th place at this tournament was honorable. In 1955 he became USSR champion for the first time. In 1956 he was again a participant in the Candidates Tournament in Amsterdam , where he was tied 3rd to 7th.

In 1962 Geller was second behind Bobby Fischer at the interzonal tournament in Stockholm, together with the eventual world champion Tigran Petrosjan . At the following Candidates Tournament in Curacao , he shared 2nd and 3rd place - in this tournament he achieved a positive result against Robert James Fischer: (+2 = 1 −1). In the next cycle, too, Geller came to the candidates. In 1965 (the regulations had been changed - competitions were now played instead of a major tournament) he defeated ex-world champion Vasily Smyslow in the quarterfinals with 5.5: 2.5, but in the semifinals he was defeated by Boris Spasski , who would later challenge the world champion 2.5: 5.5. In 1968 he was defeated by the eventual world champion Boris Spasski in the quarterfinals with 2.5: 5.5. He also qualified in 1970 by his 3rd place in the interzonal tournament in Palma for the candidate fights, but this time he failed in the quarter-finals. Viktor Korchnoi defeated him 5.5: 2.5. This was his last attempt to get among the candidates for the world championship throne. In 1972 he seconded Boris Spasski in his title defense against Robert James Fischer. In 1979 he was USSR champion for the second time, this time ahead of Yusupov , Balashov and Kasparov .

Geller and Karpow, 1980 Chess Olympiad, fight against Iceland (left: Friðrik Ólafsson )

Geller went down in chess history as the player who had a positive record against the world champions Michail Botvinnik (+4 = 6 −1), Vasily Smyslow (+11 = 37 −8), Tigran Petrosjan (+6 = 36 −3) and Bobby Fischer (+5 = 2 −3), as well as against all world champions combined. Eight times he took part in interzonal tournaments, seven times he won the gold medal with the USSR at Chess Olympiads . In 1979, at the age of 54, he won the USSR championship; no player over 50 years had succeeded in doing this before. Geller also shone in team competitions. He won gold medals at the Chess Olympiads with the USSR team seven times ( 1952 , 1954 , 1956 , 1962 , 1968 , 1970 and 1980 ), that is, in a period of 28 years. He himself won three gold medals and two silver medals for his individual results. In addition, Geller won the European team championships in 1961 , 1970, 1973, 1977, 1980 and 1983 with the Soviet team , and he also won the individual ranking on his board in five of these six competitions. In the competition between the USSR and the rest of the world , he played on the fifth board of the Soviet team in 1970 and defeated Svetozar Gligorić with 2.5: 1.5. In the Soviet club championship he played for Nauka in 1952 , between 1961 and 1982 a total of eight times for the army selection (including seven times on the top board), with which he became Soviet club champion in 1966 and won the European Club Cup in 1986 (under the name CSKA Moscow ) . Mikhail Tal once expressed the opinion that Geller would have achieved a significantly better result in his career if the Second World War had not intervened (which probably also applies to Keres ).

Geller's last Elo number was 2455, his best Elo number of 2620 he reached in 1976. Before the introduction of Elo numbers, his best historical Elo number was 2765. He reached this in August 1963. In 1963 he was temporarily in second place the world rankings.

In 1989 Geller won the grand master's tournament at the Dortmund Chess Days . In 1992 Geller became world champion in the senior class .

Game example

Fischer – Geller

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

End position after 25 ... Ke6

In the following game Geller defeated future world champion Fischer with the black pieces in the tournament in Monte Carlo in 1967.

Fischer – Geller 0: 1

Monte-Carlo, April 4, 1967

Sicilian Defense ( Najdorf Variation ), B97

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Qb6 (Geller chooses the sharp Poisoned Pawn ) 8. Qd2 Qxb2 9. Tb1 Da3 10. f5 Nc6 11. fxe6 fxe6 12. Nxc6 bxc6 13. e5 Nd5 14. Nxd5 cxd5 15. Be2 dxe5 16. 0–0 Bc5 + 17. Kh1 Rf8 18. c4 Rxf1 + 19.Rxf1 Bb7 20. Bg4 dxc4 21. Bxe6 Qd3 22. De1 Be4 23.Bg4 Rb8 24. Bd1 Kd7 25. Rf7 + Ke6 0: 1

Interesting facts from his career

• In 1948 the then unknown Geller won all six games in the Soviet team championship for Ukraine.
• In 1952 he received the title of Grand Master for his success in Budapest .
• At the 1955 interzonal tournament in Gothenburg, he refuted (almost simultaneously with Paul Keres and Spasski ) a sequence of moves prepared by Argentine masters in the Najdorf variant ; this line has since been called the Gothenburg variant .

literature

• Efim Geller: The application of chess theory . Pergamon Press, Oxford 1984, ISBN 0-08-029738-2 .

Individual references and sources

1. ^ Klaus Lindörfer: Large chess dictionary
2. ^ Salo Flohr : 47th USSR Championship in Minsk . Schach-Echo 1980, issue 2, title page (with cross table).
3. ^ André Schulz : On the birthday of Efim Geller. chessbase.com, March 8, 2018, accessed March 9, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Efim Geller's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English).
5. ↑ Efim Geller's results at European team championships on olimpbase.org (English).
6. ↑ Efim Gellers results at Soviet club championships on olimpbase.org (English).
7. ↑ Efim Geller's results at European Club Cups on olimpbase.org (English).
8. ↑ Efim Geller's Elo development on olimpbase.org (English).
9. ↑ Efim Geller's historic Elo rating on chessmetrics.com (English).
10. ↑ Dortmund Chess Days 1989
11. ↑ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 74.

Web links

Commons : Efim Geller  - Collection of Images

• Literature by and about Efim Geller in the catalog of the German National Library
• Replayable chess games by Efim Geller on chessgames.com (English)