Efim Geller | |
|---|---|
 Geller in 1977 | |
| Full name | Efim Petrovich Geller |
| Country | Soviet Union → Russia |
| Born | (1925-03-08)8 March 1925 Odessa,Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Died | 17 November 1998(1998-11-17) (aged 73) Moscow, Russia |
| Title | Grandmaster (1952) |
| Peak rating | 2620 (January 1976) |
| Peak ranking | No. 8 (January 1976) |
Efim Petrovich Geller (Russian:Ефим Петрович Геллер;Ukrainian:Юхим Петрович Геллер; 8 March 1925 – 17 November 1998) was a Sovietchess player and world-classgrandmaster at his peak. He won the Soviet Championship twice (in 1955 and 1979) and was aCandidate for theWorld Championship on six occasions (1953, 1956, 1962, 1965, 1968, and 1971). He won fourUkrainian SSR Championship titles (in 1950, 1957, 1958, and 1959) and shared first in the 1991World Seniors' Championship, winning the title outright in 1992.
His wife Oksana was a ballet dancer while his son Alexander was also a chess master. Geller was coach to World ChampionsBoris Spassky andAnatoly Karpov. He was also an author.[1]
Geller grew up inOdessa, Soviet Union, and wasJewish. He was a fine basketball player, and earned hisdoctorate inphysical education before specialising in chess. His father was a First Category chess player. His development as a top player was delayed by the inception ofWorld War II.
Geller's first notable result was sixth place in the 1947Ukrainian SSR Chess Championship atKiev with 9½/15; the winner wasAlexei Sokolsky. He shared 3rd–5th places atBaku 1948 with 9/15, an event won byJüri Randviir. Geller scored 11/18 at the 1948 Ukrainian SSR Championship in Kiev for a shared 5th–8th place; the winners were Sokolsky and Poliak.
Geller began to make his mark in the late 1940s, as he won the USSR Championship semifinal qualifier atTbilisi 1949 with 11½/16, thus advancing to the final later that year. His finals debut was sensational at URS-ch17 at Moscow; as a virtual unknown he tied for 3rd–4th places with 12½/19, behind only winnersDavid Bronstein andVasily Smyslov. Geller defeated such established players asSemyon Furman,Isaac Boleslavsky,Alexander Kotov,Salo Flohr, fellow finals debutantTigran Petrosian,Viacheslav Ragozin, andGrigory Levenfish. Despite this showing, he was obliged to return to the semifinal level the next year, but advanced with a third-place finish in the 1950 qualifier atKiev with 9/15. At URS-ch18 at Moscow 1950, Geller made 9/17 for a shared 7th–10th place; the winner wasPaul Keres. Also in 1950, Geller won the Ukrainian SSR Championship in Kiev, the first of his four titles in that event; he repeated from 1957 to 1959, with all three events in Kiev. Geller in 1950 made his international debut at the Przepiorka Memorial atIwonicz Zdroj with 11½/19 for seventh place in a powerful field; Keres won again.
Geller is reckoned to have been among the best ten players in the world for around twenty years. He was awarded theInternational Master title in 1951, and theInternational Grandmaster title the following year.
Geller played in 23USSR Chess Championships, a record equalled byMark Taimanov, achieving good results in many. He won in 1955 at Moscow (URS-ch22) when, despite losing five games, he finished equal first with 12/19, then defeated Smyslov in the playoff match by the score of +1=6. He won his second title in 1979 atMinsk (URS-ch47) at the age of 54, making him the oldest Soviet champion.
Among his best results in other important tournaments were: clear first at Iwonicz Zdroj 1957, equal first with Taimanov atDresden 1959, equal first withLajos Portisch atBeverwijk 1965, clear first atKislovodsk 1966, clear first atGothenburg 1967, clear first at Kislovodsk 1968, equal first withMikhail Botvinnik atWijk aan Zee 1969 (ahead of Keres), equal first atHavana 1971 withVlastimil Hort, equal first atHilversum 1973 withLaszlo Szabo, clear first atBudapest 1973 ahead ofAnatoly Karpov, clear first atTeesside 1975, clear first at Moscow 1975 (ahead ofBoris Spassky,Viktor Korchnoi, and Petrosian), clear first atLas Palmas 1976, equal first withGennadi Sosonko at Wijk aan Zee 1977, clear first atBogotá 1978, equal first atBern 1987 withDaniel Campora, clear first atDortmund 'A' 1989, and equal first atNew York Manhattan 1990 withGregory Kaidanov, at age 65.
In Seniors' competition, Geller further distinguished himself in the early 1990s. At the World Seniors' Championship,Bad Woerishofen 1991, he tied for first with Smyslov at 8½/11. Then, in the next year's Championship at the same site, Geller claimed clear first with the same score. Geller remained active in high-level competitive chess until age 70; his last event was the 1995 Russian Championship atElista.
Geller reached the later stages of theWorld Championship several times. He was aCandidate atZurich 1953 andAmsterdam 1956.
Geller's best result was in the1962 cycle, as he finished second toBobby Fischer at theStockholmInterzonal. Then in the Candidates', he ended up one-half point short of playing for the title by scoring 17/27 atCuraçao, tying for second place with Keres, half a point behindTigran Petrosian, who went on to defeatBotvinnik for the title the next year. Geller lost a playoff match to Keres at Moscow 1962 by 4½–3½, but was able to enter the 1965 Candidates' matches as a substitute when Botvinnik (defeated World Champion) declined to take part.
In the1965 Candidates he defeated Smyslov by 5½–2½ at Moscow in the first round, but lost to Spassky by 5½–2½ atRiga in the semifinals. In a 1966Copenhagen playoff match againstBent 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 in the next cycle. (Eventually, this turned out not to matter, since none withdrew.)
In the1968 cycle, Geller again lost to Spassky, atSukhumi by 5½–2½, in a Candidates' first-round match. He returned to the interzonal stage in 1970 atPalma de Mallorca, and qualified as a Candidate again, losing his first match to Korchnoi at Moscow by 5½–2½. In 1973, he tied withLajos Portisch andLev Polugaevsky for second place at thePetropolis Interzonal, but lost out in the three-way playoff match tournament atPortorož, with two qualifying spots at stake, so he did not advance.
Geller represented the USSR seven times in theChess Olympiad, over a 28-year span from 1952 to 1980, and contributed well each time to the team gold medal victories. He won three gold medals and three silver on his board. His overall score in the Olympiad play is: (+46−7=23), for 75.7 per cent.
Geller was also selected on six occasions for the USSR team to the European Team Championships.His team won gold each time, and he won four gold medals on his board. According to olimpbase.org, his overall score in Euroteams events is: (+17−1=19), for 71.6 per cent.
Geller also represented the USSR eleven times in theUSSR versus Yugoslavia matches held from the 1950s to the 1970s, more than any other Soviet player.[2]
According to Jeff Sonas'Chessmetrics rating system, Geller was ranked No. 2 in the world May–July 1963, and was in the world's top ten for much of the 1950s and 1960s.[3] After FIDE adopted theElo rating system in 1971, Geller appeared in the top 10 three times: in 1971 (equal 6th, 2630), 1976 (equal 8th, 2620) and 1981 (equal 10th, 2615).
Geller had an overall plus score against four world champions: Mikhail Botvinnik +4−1=7, Vasily Smyslov +11−8=37, Tigran Petrosian +5−3=32, Bobby Fischer +5−3=2.[4] In total, Geller played ten and beat eight world chess champions, and his overall record in games in classical chess against world champions is positive: +39−36=131 (Max Euwe +1−1, Mikhail Botvinnik +4−1=7, Vassily Smyslov +11−8=37, Mikhail Tal +6−6=23, Tigran Petrosian +5−3=32, Boris Spassky +6−10=22, Bobby Fischer +5−3=2, Anatoly Karpov +1−2=5, Garry Kasparov +0−1=2, Viswanathan Anand +0−1=1). Geller did rather badly against Korchnoi (+6−11=16) and Polugaevsky (+4−11=21).
Note: only official tournament and match games in classical chess are counted here.
| Player | Wins | Losses | Draws |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mikhail Botvinnik | 4 | 1 | 7 |
| David Bronstein | 5 | 5 | 15 |
| Bobby Fischer | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Svetozar Gligoric | 4 | 1 | 22 |
| Vlastimil Hort | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| Paul Keres | 7 | 9 | 21 |
| Viktor Korchnoi | 6 | 11 | 16 |
| Bent Larsen | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| Tigran Petrosian | 5 | 3 | 32 |
| Lev Polugaevsky | 4 | 11 | 21 |
| Lajos Portisch | 4 | 2 | 12 |
| Vasily Smyslov | 11 | 8 | 37 |
| Boris Spassky | 6 | 10 | 22 |
| Leonid Stein | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| Mark Taimanov | 8 | 7 | 12 |
| Mikhail Tal | 6 | 6 | 23 |
| Total | 86 | 84 | 269 |
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 anopenings expert, and was one of the pioneers in developing theKing's Indian Defence to prominence, along with fellow UkrainiansIsaac Boleslavsky andDavid Bronstein. Geller also greatly advanced the knowledge in several variations of theSicilian Defence, such as the quiet line with 6.Be2 against theNajdorf Variation 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6, which he used to defeatBobby Fischer. He introduced the sharp Geller Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e4) against theSlav Defence. He acted as second (assistant) to World Champion Boris Spassky in theWorld Championship match of 1972 againstBobby Fischer, and later seconded World ChampionAnatoly Karpov, as well as his lifelong close friendTigran Petrosian. His books included an autobiography, translated by Bernard Cafferty asGrandmaster Geller at the Chessboard (1969). This was later updated and reissued in 1983 under the titleThe Application of Chess Theory, and contains 100 well-annotated games. Former champion Botvinnik stated that, in his opinion, Geller was the best player in the world in the late 1960s. Geller seemed to be stronger in tournament play than in matches.
Geller was featured in the 2014Bobby Fischer biopicPawn Sacrifice, portrayed by Edward Zinoviev.
