Efim Geller

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Efim Petrovich Geller (Ефим Петрович Геллер) (March 8, 1925 – November 17, 1998) was a Soviet chess player.

1 Early life
2 Grandmaster
3 World title Candidate
4 Beating the best
5 Legacy
6 Notable chess games
7 External links

[edit] Early life

He was Jewish and grew up in Odessa, Ukraine. He was a fine basketball player, and earned his Doctorate in Physical Education, before specializing in chess. His development as a top chess player was delayed by the timing of World War II, which hit the Soviet Union exceptionally hard.

[edit] Grandmaster

He began to make his mark in the late 1940s; he qualified for the USSR Championship for the first time in 1949, and challenged for the title each of the next two years. He is reckoned to have been among the best ten players in the world for around twenty years. He was awarded the International Master title in 1951, and the International Grandmaster title the following year.

Geller played in 23 USSR Chess Championships, a record equalled by Mark Taimanov, achieving good results in many. He won in both 1979 and 1955 when, despite losing five games, he finished with 12/19 and then defeated Vasily Smyslov in a playoff match. Among his best results in other important tournaments were equal first with Mikhail Botvinnik at Wijk aan Zee 1969 (ahead of Paul Keres), first at Moscow 1975 (ahead of Boris Spassky, Viktor Korchnoi and Tigran Petrosian), and equal first with Smyslov at Wijk aan Zee 1977.

[edit] World title Candidate

Geller reached the later stages of the World Championship several times. He was a Candidate at Zurich 1953 and Amsterdam 1956. His best result was in the 1962 cycle. He finished second to Bobby Fischer at the Stockholm Interzonal. Then in the Candidates', he ended up just half a point short of playing in the final match by scoring 17/27 at Curaçao, tieing for second place with Keres. That tournament was won by Tigran Petrosian who went on to win the title the next year. Geller lost a playoff match to Keres in 1962, but was able to enter the 1965 Candidates' matches when Botvinnik (defeated World Champion) declined to take part. He defeated Smyslov in the first round, but lost to Spassky in the semi-finals. In a 1966 Copenhagen playoff match against Bent Larsen, the two players split eight games with two wins each, and Larsen won the first tiebreak game to secure Candidates' exemption in case of a withdrawal by a qualified player. (Eventually, this turned out not to matter.) In the 1968 cycle, Geller again lost to Spassky in a Candidates' first-round match. He had to go back to the Interzonal stage in 1970 at Palma de Mallorca, but qualified as a Candidate again, losing his first match to Korchnoi. Then in 1973 he tied with Lajos Portisch and Lev Polugaevsky for second place at the Petropolis Interzonal, but lost out in the three-way playoff match tournament at Portoroz, so did not advance.

[edit] Beating the best

Geller represented the USSR seven times in chess Olympiads, and contributed well each time to overall team gold medal victories. He played at Helsinki 1952, Amsterdam 1954, Moscow 1956, Varna 1962, Lugano 1968, Siegen 1970, and La Valletta 1980. This represents a very impressive 28-year span of appearances.

According to Jeff Sonas' Chessmetrics rating system, Geller was ranked #3 in the world from 1962-3, and was in the world's top 10 for much of the 50s and 60s, and broke back into the top 10 in 1973, 1975–7 and 1979–80.[1] Geller also had an overall plus score against world champions, +40 -32 =123, comprising Max Euwe +1 -1 =0, Mikhail Botvinnik +4 -1 =5, Vasily Smyslov +11 -7 =31, Mikhail Tal +6 -6 =22, Tigran Petrosian +6 -2 =33, Boris Spassky +6 -9 =22, Bobby Fischer +5 -3 =2, Anatoly Karpov +1 -2 =5, and Garry Kasparov +0 -1 =3.

[edit] Legacy

Geller is best remembered today for the tactical ability and original attacking style which characterised the earlier part of his career. In later years he became a more rounded player. He was noted as an openings expert, and was one of the pioneers in developing the King's Indian Defence to prominence, along with fellow Ukrainians Isaac Boleslavsky and David Bronstein. He acted as second (assistant) to World Champion Boris Spassky in the World Championship match of 1972 against Bobby Fischer, and later seconded World Champion Anatoly Karpov. His books included an autobiography, translated by Bernard Cafferty as Grandmaster Geller at the Chessboard (1969). This was later updated and reissued in 1983 under the title The Application of Chess Theory, and contains 100 well-annotated games. With impressive scores against so many top players, Geller was perhaps a bit unlucky not to become World Champion himself. Former champion Botvinnik stated that, in his (Botvinnik's) own opinion, Geller was the best player in the world in the late 1960s. Geller seemed to be stronger in tournament play than in matches.