Years covered: 1982 to 2012
Last FIDE rating: 2727
Highest rating achieved in database: 2761, January 2010.
His
record against Anand in classical games is +6 -9 =27.
Overall record: +488
-250 =951 (57.0%)*
Boris Abramovich Gelfand (Born 24 June 1968) is a Soviet, Belarusian, and Israeli Chess Grandmaster.
He won the 2011 Candidates Tournament and is challenging the Reigning World Champion from India Viswanathan Anand for the World Chess Championship 2012, in Moscow, from today, 10-05-2012.
Boris Gelfand was born in Minsk, Belarus, USSR on 24 June 1968. In 1998, he immigrated to Israel and settled in Rishon LeZion, where he became Israel's top ranking chess player.
Early career
Gelfand
won the Junior Championship of the Soviet Union with 9/11 in January 1985, at
the age of 16, half a point ahead of Vassily
Ivanchuk, one of the greatest of chess players of all time! In 1988 he tied for the first in the World Junior Championships,
the title however going to Joël Lautier
of France. He won the European Junior Champion title in 1989;
he was awarded the GM title in the same year, making him one of the selected
few in the world to have the GM title without first acquiring the IM title.
He has won about 30 tournaments in his professional
career, including tournaments at Wijk aan Zee (in 1992 and
1994) and first places in Biel (1993), Dos Hermanas (1994), Belgrade (1995),
Tilburg (1996), Malmö (1999), and Pamplona (2004); most of his great tournament
performances coming in the 1990s, followed by a great lull in his form, though
he remained in the World Top 20, in the last 25 years of his professional
career!
Early World
Championship Results
Gelfand has qualified several times for Candidates Tournaments for the World Chess Championship. He competed in
all the knockout tournaments that either determined the World Championship, or
was part of the World Championship cycle apart from the 2004 tournament in
Tripoli.
In
1990, Gelfand won the Manila Interzonal to qualify as a Candidate for the 1993
World Championship. At the 1991 Candidates, he prevailed over Predrag
Nikolic , but was then defeated in the quarter final by eventual
Candidates winner and championship challenger Nigel Short
of Great Briton. He qualified for the FIDE 1994 Candidates event by winning the
last Interzonal in Biel, beating Michael Adams
of Great Briton and Vladimir
Kramnik of Russia, on the way, only to lose to Anatoly
Karpov of Russia in the finals. He had
numerous strong results in the knockout tournaments for the FIDE World Chess Championships
1998–2004, with his best result being a semi-finalist in 1997. Though
he played in the 8-player 2002 Dortmund Tournament, which was the Candidates for the Classical World Chess Championship
2004, he failed to reach the semi-finals.
2007 World
Championship
Gelfand finished in the top 10 in the 2005 FIDE
World Cup, which qualified him for the Candidates for the World Chess Championship 2007. He won his
Candidates matches against Rustam Kasimdzhanov (in rapid tie-breaks) of
Kazakhstan and Gata Kamsky (+2 −0 =3) of America, to qualify
for the championship tournament in September 2007. Gelfand was not one of the
favourites for the World Chess Championship 2007, but he
surprised most observers by finishing joint second with reigning world champion
Vladimir
Kramnik (third after tie breaks)of Russia; the tournament and the
World Championship was won by Viswanathan
Anand.
2012 World
Championship
In the Chess World Cup 2009, Gelfand was the top
seed, and defeated Judit Polgár of Hungary, the then reigning
World Junior Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, Dmitry
Jakovenko of Russia, and Sergey
Karjakin of Ukraine to reach the final. He then faced former FIDE
World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine for the
championship, and won the match 7–5 in a playoff. By winning the Chess World
Cup 2009, Gelfand qualified for the World Chess Championship 2012 Candidates Tournament.
In May 2011, Gelfand participated in the World
Chess Championship 2012 Candidates tournament in Kazan, Russia where he was
seeded fourth. In the quarterfinals, he won a complex struggle on the black
side of the Najdorf Defense in game three to defeat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan 2.5–1.5
and advance to the semifinals, where he faced American Gata Kamsky.
After splitting the first four games 2–2, Kamsky won game three in the rapid
playoff to go ahead 2–1, forcing Gelfand to win with black in the final rapid
game in order to avoid elimination. Gelfand was up to the task, and then won
the blitz playoff 2–0 to advance to the final. In the final, he faced Alexander Grischuk of Russia. After drawing the
first five games, Gelfand won the sixth and final game on the white side of
a Gruenfeld Defence to win the match and the
tournament 3.5–2.5. As winner of the Candidates Tournament, Gelfand will face
Anand for the 2012 Moscow World Championship.
Olympiads
Gelfand appeared in a total of nine Chess
Olympiads, representing the Soviet Union once, Belarus twice, and
Israel six times.
- In 1990, he won the team gold medal playing board two for the Soviet Union.
- In 2008, he won the team silver medal, and also an individual silver medal, playing board one for Israel.
- In 2010, he won the team bronze medal playing board one for Israel.
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