Israel Zilber

Israel Zilber
Country	Latvia  Soviet Union  Israel  United States
Born	(1933-06-25) June 25, 1933 Riga, Latvia

Israel Zilber (June 25, 1933, Riga, Latvia) is a chess player who won the Latvian Chess Championship in 1958.

Latvia chess player

Zilber achieved excellent results during 1950–1973 period when he lived in Soviet Latvia. He played for Latvia in Soviet Team juniors chess championships in Leningrad in 1951 at first board (5,5 from 9).^[1]

He played in Latvian Chess Championship finals in:

• 1950 (6th place),^[2]
• 1951 (8th place),^[3]
• 1952 (4th place),^[4]
• 1953 (9th place),^[5]
• 1954 (7th place),^[6]
• 1955 (6th place),^[7]
• 1956 (2nd place),^[8]
• 1957 (4th place),^[9]
• 1958 (1st place, ahead Aivars Gipslis and Mikhail Tal),^[10]
• 1961 (4th place),^[11]
• 1962 (2nd place),^[12]
• 1963 (5th place),^[13]
• 1964 (3rd place),^[14]
• 1972 (2nd place),^[15]
• 1973 (9th place).^[16]

He was Riga champion in 1962 and 1974, and "Daugava" champion in 1962^[17] and won second place in 1965.^[18] In the Championship of USSR he reached semifinals in 1956,^[19] 1957,^[20] 1958,^[21] and 1962.^[22]

Zilber also played for Latvia in Soviet Team chess championships in 1953 (second place at seventh board: +4 -1 =2), 1955 (at fourth board: +2 -2 =5), 1958 (at first board: +1 -5 =1), 1960 (at fifth board: 2,5 from 7), 1962 (second place at fourth board: +4 -1 =3), and 1963 (at fourth board: 6 from 9).^[23]

He played in the Soviet Team chess cup for team "Daugava" at fifth board in 1961 (+0 -3 =3) and 1964 (+0 -1 =0).^[24]

USA chess player

After 1974, Zilber immigrated first to Israel and then to the United States. In 1979, he played in Hastings International Chess Congress^[25] but in 1980 Zilber won the Masters Open tournament in Biel and a year later he won Limoges tournament. Also his name can be found between the participants of Manchester Benedictine in 1980.^[26] However, his life was not very successful in the United States. Zilber would end up homeless on the streets of New York City through most of the 1980s and played in Washington Square Park.^[27] This story about the park was the setting for the 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer. Details of Zilber's life in the end are controversial – an unconfirmed story states that during one hard winter he froze to death.^[28] But in another version he is not listed in the Social Security Death Index.^[29]

Notable games

• Mikhail Tal vs Josif Israel Zilber, URS 1952 First victory over young Mikhail Tal.
• Josif Israel Zilber vs Mikhail Tal, URS 1958 The deciding battle in Latvian Chess Championship in 1958.
• Josif Israel Zilber vs Yasser Seirawan, Hastings 79-80 1979 The very interesting game with Yasser Seirawan.

References

External links

• Israel Zilber rating card at FIDE
  
• Israel Zilber  player profile at chessgames.com
• Israel Zilber  player profile at 365chess.com
• Israel Zilber  player profile at chesstempo.com
• Israel Zilber  player profile at chessmetrics.com