Nick de Firmian

Nick de Firmian at the 1986 Chess Olympiad
Surname	Nicholas Ernest de Firmian
Association	United States
Born	July 26, 1957 Fresno , United States
title	International Master (1979) Grand Master (1985)
Current  Elo rating	2496 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2610 (January 1999)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Nicholas Ernest de Firmian (Nick de Firmian; born July 26, 1957 in Fresno , California) is an American chess grandmaster and author of chess books.

Life

De Firmian studied physics and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. In 1979 he became International Master and 1985 Grand Master.

He won the US championship three times, in 1987 together with Joel Benjamin , in 1995 and 1998 . In 2002 he was tied for first with Larry Christiansen and lost the playoff against him.

Among his successes in open tournaments, his win at the Canadian Open Championship in 1983 and winning the first prize at the 1986 World Open, which at the time was a record for open tournaments of US $ 21,000 at the time , stand out . De Firmian is a founding member of Prochess , an advocacy group of grandmasters promoting the game of chess in the United States.

Yasser Seirawan , Lubomir Kavalek , John Fedorowicz and Nick de Firmian at the 1986 Chess Olympiad in Dubai

De Firmian is considered a specialist in chess openings. He is the author of opening books and has written the 13th - 15th edition of the standard work Modern Chess Openings . He was involved in the development of the opening book for the chess computer Deep Blue before its second match in 1997 against the world champion Garry Kasparow , which the computer won.

In 2006 de Firmian published a revised and expanded edition of Chess Fundamentals , a work by the third world chess champion José Raúl Capablanca from 1921. This edition met with opposition from the chess historian Edward Winter because Capablanca's text had been changed and games were removed from previous editions to add new games that were not played by Capablanca. He has participated several times in interzonal tournaments for the World Chess Championship.

National team

De Firmian took part with the US selection between 1980 and 2000 in eight Chess Olympiads . The best results were two second places in 1990 in Novi Sad and 1998 in Elista as well as three third places in 1984 in Thessaloniki , 1986 in Dubai and 1996 in Yerevan . In the individual ranking he also achieved the third-best result of the board ranking on the second reserve board in 1984 and on the first reserve board in 1996. Nick de Firmian also took part in the team world championships in 1989 and 1997, with the USA team reaching second place in 1997 and de Firmian achieving the best individual result on the third board in 1989.

societies

De Firmian played in the German Federal Chess League from 1999 to 2003 at the Lübeck Chess Club from 1873 and became champion with this in 2001 , 2002 and 2003 . In the Swedish Elitserien he played from 2001 to 2005 for Södra SASS , in the Danish 1st Division in the 1997/98 season for the Espergærde Skakklub and in the 2001/02 season for the SK Sydkysten .

Works

• Modern Chess Openings
  • with Walter Korn: 13th edition, A. & C. Black, 1990
  • 14th edition, Random House, 1999, ISBN 0-8129-3084-3 .
  • 15th edition, Random House, 2008
• with John Fedorowicz : The English Attack , Sterling, 2004, ISBN 978-0-945806-14-1 .
• Edited and revised by José Raúl Capablanca : Chess Fundamentals. Completely Revised and Updated for the 21st Century . 1st edition 1921. Random House, 2006, ISBN 0-8129-3681-7 .

Web links

Commons : Nick de Firmian  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Chessmetrics Player Profile: Nick deFirmian , tournament results January 1976 to July 2004 on Chessmetrics.com
• Playable chess games by Nick de Firmian on chessgames.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 78
2. ^ Edward Winter : Capablanca Goes Algebraic . Review of Nick de Firmian (ed.): José Capablanca Chess Fundamentals , 2006 in Chess Notes , 1997
3. ↑ Nick De Firmian's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
4. ↑ Nick De Firmian's results at team world championships on olimpbase.org (English)