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| Mar-07-04 | | badbadLeroyBrown: Gufeld was a pretty odd man. Very talkative and friendly, almost to the point of annoyance. He was well liked. Gufeld was a regular on the Los Angeles chess scene for a few years before his death. One time while I was at the chessclub studying a position, a chubby hand snatched one of my black knights off the board. I looked up and saw Gufeld setting up a bizarre position at the next board using my knight and two other black knights, demonstrating a weird 3 knight mating net. He apologized and gave the knight back after demonstrating the mate (which I can't remember). After a particularly dismal performance in a big tournament I decided I'd give Gufeld a call and ask about receiving lessons. Imagine my surprise when he told me he charged $200 an hour!! I laughed and told him I preferred to spend that kind of money on prettier people than him! He laughed too and wished me luck. |
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| Mar-07-04 | | Bitzovich: Woah! Are you serious about $200? Its a heck lot of money, even for a man, who defeated both Tal and Petrosian. |
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Mar-07-04
 | | Sneaky: I think that was just his way of saying, "I'm retired, leave me alone." |
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| Mar-07-04 | | badbadLeroyBrown: That's not the case. He was advertising himself as a chess instructor in Chess Life at the time, which is how I got his number. |
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| Apr-13-04 | | Carroll: He must have been joking. I was Gufeld's student for many years and he charged 75 an hour---and I must say the money was well spent; I learned things about chess from him that I couldn't imagine having come to know otherwise. Gufeld was a great and underappreciated artist of the chessboard; people often forget that he was near the top ten for a time. |
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Apr-14-04
 | | TrueFiendish: Perhaps he calculated his fee based on the effort he perceived would be required of him... :-) |
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| May-30-04 | | AlgebraGenius: Gufeld is a true artist. I've read his book Chess: Art and Struggle at least ten times and I dont get bored reading it!! He is a brilliant annotator. In the ICC, I have given private lectures on some of his games and people liked them, they said they wanted more of those. I remember his story about a girl he met in a tournament in 1953 wherein he had to offer a draw in order to share the lady's tragedy. It was the best chess story I've ever read. Gufeld is an epitome of chess as art. So long as there are Eduard Gufelds roaming in the streets, the danger that chess would disappear because of the evolution of computers will be lightyears away. Currently, I am looking forward to receive a book written by him which I ordered from a friend, The Complete Dragon. I hope to learn as much from this book as I did on the other books I've read written by him. |
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| Aug-22-04 | | uponthehill: Beside chess, his two live passions were eating (not to say devouring) and trade. See his Bagirov vs Gufeld, 1973 |
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| Jul-23-05 | | Abdooss: In the early 1990s, I was 20 or 21.. I remember playing in the same tournament with Gufeld, in Shah Alam, Malaysia.. by that time I did not know him well or his famous books yet..it was in a tropical forest reserve,Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam (the Hill of Lights) and was sweltering hot.. he was very gracious and just request for the fans.. I was playing at second board against Mok Tze Meng (National Master of Malaysia).. Gufeld had finished his game and was observing my game.. then my opponent sacrificed his rook for my knight.. and I, under pressure of time and playing against a person with 1200 Elo point higher than me, and most of all - being observed by the "GM from Russia"- resigned on the spot! .. after I shaked hands with my opponent, Gufeld commented to a trembling me in his heavy accent English .. "Why do you resigned?.. you are winning!" and my opponent was just chuckling.. I just walked away, shaking my head.. the moral - never resigned in a game with a GM watching, you never know what exactly he was thinking... Oh that game was the King's Indian, and I was White.. which GUFELD was ONE of the GREATEST, wasn't he? |
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Feb-23-06
 | | dakgootje: nice storys everyone =) |
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Jul-02-06
 | | Karpova: <I remember his story about a girl he met in a tournament in 1953 wherein he had to offer a draw in order to share the lady's tragedy. It was the best chess story I've ever read.> Please tell the story. |
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Jan-07-07
| | MyriadChoices: Yes please do, anyone. |
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| Mar-19-07 | | BIDMONFA: Eduard Gufeld GUFELD, Eduard
http://www.bidmonfa.com/gufeld_edua...
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Mar-19-07
| | mckmac: White to play and win(a gift for Eduard Gufeld?)
click for larger view |
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| Mar-19-07 | | James Bowman: whites nf6+ followed by blacks K move followed by ne4 to remove the black defending knight on g5 from the fork of king and queen on f7 upon the promotion. Is that close?? After that idea it is too difficult to branch the posabillities for me. |
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Mar-19-07
| | mckmac: <James Bowman> If 2.Ne4 then 2...Nxe4 with check and Black wins. |
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Mar-19-07
| | mckmac: <James Bowman> This position is lifted from Eduard Gufeld's book "Chess:The Search For The Mona Lisa" and the story is charming... <Dance of the elephant> <Now I would like to share with my readers a fantastic story and a position that sings the praises of the bishop.In Russian the bishop is known as an elephant and the knight is called a horse.According to statistical data,the former is stronger than the latter.If anyone disbelieves this,I advise them to visit the nearest zoo and see for themselves...How often I like to repeat it: no matter how much you feed a horse,it will not turn into an elephant!This story happened in 1992 in Manila,Philippines,during the Chess Olympiad there.Mok Tze Meng,a member of the Malaysian team,received an anonymous phone call for me,and the caller provided Mok with an extraordinary position,adding that this was a gift for Gufeld. The combination contained in the position is of unsurpassed beauty and reinforces my statement that the bishop is stronger than the knight. Both Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov expressed astonishment at the ideas revealed in this "Dance of the elephant"Until now nobody has claimed to be the creator of this extraordinary position.To me there is only one possible answer to the puzzle--the inventor is from Outer Space!Yes,my friend,you may smile...> |
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Mar-19-07
| | tatarch: CG.com--I realize it was a loss, but how is the Gufeld-Kavalek student olympiad game not among his notable games? |
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Mar-19-07
 | | Gypsy: <tatarch> Behold the home page of Lubomir Kavalek. |
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Mar-19-07
| | tatarch: Also, mckmac--that's a great puzzle, I remember seeing it at a chess club meeting a few years ago and being astonished at the answer. That being said, it's also unrealistic for a non-master to solve, so here's a link with the solution for those who are interested: http://www.chessbase.com/puzzle/puz... |
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Mar-19-07
 | | alexmagnus: <karpova> Gufeld tells the story in his book. I hopy I won't violate copyright by quoting a whole page of a book. See my next post for the story. |
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Mar-19-07
| | alexmagnus: It was a team game between Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The girl who Gufeld was in love with, Bella, played for the Russian team in the other match. Hear is Gufeld's game:
Khasidovsky-Gufeld, Kharkov 1953
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Nd7 10. Be3 f5 11.f3 f4 12.Bf2 g5 13.Nd3 Rf6 14.c5 Rg6 15.h3 h5 16.Ne1 g4 17.hxg4 hxg4 18.fxg4 Nf6 19.g5 Rxg5 20.cxd6 cxd6 21.Nf3 Rh5 22.Nd2 Rh7 23.Rc1 Ng6 24.Qb3 Bf8 25.Nb5 Bg4 26.Qd3 f3 27.Bxf3 Nf4 28.Qb3 Qe8 29.Rc7 Rh1+ 30. Kxh1 Qh5+. And here happened the actual story, see my next post. |
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Mar-19-07
| | alexmagnus: So, now I quote Gufeld:
<Almost all participants of the championship came to our table. Almost all. Bella, who played for Russia, was not there. I remember, I came to her table, in thoughts begging her to stand up and watch my game. Playing that game, I always thought about her. But he sad, without moving, thinking about her next move. Suddenly she looked at me. It seemes she noticed in my eyes more then being interested in her position. Maybe she even understood what I wanted, and she was touched. She mayed her move and - o horror! - she blunderes her Queen! It was a tragedy. Tears came from her eyes. She lost.Overwhelmed by what happened, und understandind that I somehow was guilty in Bella's tragedy, I surprisingly for everybody offered a draw to my opoonent, which was agreed.> <...And what about Bella?She came to the chief arbiter and said that I'm guilty in her loss. On the next day, there came a unique law: to forbid the participant of the Ukrainian Team Eduard Gufeld to come close to the female Russian team. I think, no comeitee in the world has ever made some similar law.> There was another Bella-related story, if sombody wants I post it. |
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Mar-19-07
| | alexmagnus: he sad=she sat*
mayed=made*
Man I never can type without making some silly typo! |
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Mar-19-07
| | mckmac: <tatarch> Thanks for posting that link.There's more to this than I was aware of,and the chessbase.com article explains many of the complexities surrounding both the puzzle and the 'Dance of the Elephant story'.However,simply because I can't help myself...here's the final astonishing position! 
click for larger view |
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