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Geller 
 
Efim Geller
Number of games in database: 2,262
Years covered: 1946 to 1996
Overall record: +803 -353 =1101 (60.0%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
      Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
      5 exhibition games, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS
With the White pieces:
 Sicilian (298) 
    B83 B92 B84 B42 B58
 Ruy Lopez (178) 
    C92 C95 C96 C78 C84
 Ruy Lopez, Closed (100) 
    C92 C95 C96 C84 C93
 French Defense (83) 
    C07 C09 C05 C03 C16
 Sicilian Scheveningen (75) 
    B83 B84 B85 B81
 French Tarrasch (71) 
    C07 C09 C05 C03 C04
With the Black pieces:
 Ruy Lopez (215) 
    C84 C93 C89 C85 C92
 King's Indian (188) 
    E92 E60 E67 E61 E73
 Ruy Lopez, Closed (170) 
    C84 C93 C89 C85 C92
 Sicilian (170) 
    B52 B64 B62 B88 B50
 Orthodox Defense (103) 
    D58 D55 D59 D50 D54
 Queen's Gambit Declined (75) 
    D31 D37 D35 D30 D39
Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   Geller vs Karpov, 1976 1-0
   Geller vs Smyslov, 1965 1-0
   Fischer vs Geller, 1967 0-1
   Fischer vs Geller, 1967 0-1
   Geller vs Keres, 1973 1-0
   Geller vs Portisch, 1967 1-0
   Kotov vs Geller, 1949 0-1
   Geller vs Fischer, 1962 1-0
   Geller vs Kotov, 1955 1-0
   Geller vs Panno, 1955 1-0

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   Geller Defeats the Best by Anatoly21
   Geller beats the world champions and pretenders by ughaibu
   Grandmaster Geller: The First Quarter Century by Resignation Trap
   Geller and Tal beat the French by ughaibu
   WCC Index [Zurich 1953] by suenteus po 147
   WCC Index [Curacao 1962] by Hesam7
   USSR Championship 1955 by Phony Benoni
   King's Indian pioneers by keywiz84
   Geller App of Chess Theory by Sparky123

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EFIM GELLER
(born Mar-08-1925, died Nov-17-1998) Ukraine

[what is this?]
Efim Petrovich Geller was born March 8, 1925 in Odessa, Ukraine. He learned how to play chess as a young man, and arrived on the international scene quickly by qualifying as a World Championship Candidate in 1952, earning the grandmaster title in the process. Throughout his career he appeared in the Candidates five more times and competed in a record 23 Soviet Championships (winning two, in 1955 and 1979). His aggressive playing style and expertise in double-edged positions culminated in a positive score against no fewer than five World Champions over the course of his career (Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian, and Robert James Fischer). He also scored victories against Boris Spassky, Mikhail Tal and Anatoli Karpov, bringing his total of World Champions beaten to eight--a record he shares with only Botvinnik, Petrosian and Viktor Korchnoi.

 page 1 of 91; games 1-25 of 2,262  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves Year Event/LocaleOpening
1. Geller vs B Kogan 1-034 1946 OdessaB53 Sicilian
2. Geller vs Lubensky ½-½16 1947 Kiev ch-UkraineC80 Ruy Lopez, Open
3. Geller vs Koblents  ½-½31 1947 SverdlovskD44 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
4. Geller vs V Saigin  0-137 1947 SverdlovskB60 Sicilian, Richter-Rauzer
5. Furman vs Geller  1-041 1947 LeningradD11 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav
6. Geller vs G Ilivitsky  1-026 1947 SverdlovskB60 Sicilian, Richter-Rauzer
7. Geller vs P Dubinin 1-032 1947 SverdlovskC79 Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defense Deferred
8. Geller vs Zagorovsky 1-026 1948 Soviet UnionD15 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav
9. Geller vs V Makogonov  1-036 1949 TbilisiC61 Ruy Lopez, Bird's Defense
10. Furman vs Geller 0-141 1949 MoscowE67 King's Indian, Fianchetto
11. Geller vs Smyslov ½-½55 1949 USSRE24 Nimzo-Indian, Samisch
12. Geller vs Keres  0-138 1949 MoscowC78 Ruy Lopez
13. Petrosian vs Geller ½-½30 1949 Tbilisi ch-SU sfC01 French, Exchange
14. Geller vs Bronstein ½-½43 1949 Ch URSD44 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
15. Lilienthal vs Geller  1-043 1949 MoscowE92 King's Indian
16. Geller vs M Grozdov 1-016 1949 Soviet UnionD15 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav
17. Geller vs K Klaman 1-071 1949 TbilisiC61 Ruy Lopez, Bird's Defense
18. Kotov vs Geller 0-140 1949 Moscow ch-SUE67 King's Indian, Fianchetto
19. Geller vs Nezhmetdinov 1-027 1949 Tbilisi URS sfC84 Ruy Lopez, Closed
20. Geller vs Sokolsky  0-172 1949 MoscowE26 Nimzo-Indian, Samisch
21. Chistiakov vs Geller  ½-½56 1949 TbilisiC86 Ruy Lopez, Worrall Attack
22. Geller vs V Mikenas  ½-½29 1949 MoscowC08 French, Tarrasch, Open, 4.ed ed
23. S Kotlerman vs Geller 0-131 1949 OdessaE70 King's Indian
24. G Ilivitsky vs Geller  0-171 1949 TbilisiD47 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
25. Geller vs Novotelnov 0-120 1949 TbilisiC77 Ruy Lopez
 page 1 of 91; games 1-25 of 2,262  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Geller wins | Geller loses  
 

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 19 OF 19 ·  Later Kibitzing >
Jun-15-09   xrt999: <returnoftheking: < xrt999: In his lifetime, Geller played 890 games as black and only lost 90 of these games. He won 264 and drew 536. >
He had a 60 percent score with black??>

These numbers may not be 100% accurate; I extracted these statistics from the CM database, which only contains about 1,700 Geller games, and physically counted each section by hand. It was quite tedious, but I was really on a mission to get the info, and couldnt figure out how to get the database to give me the statistics.

I was able to get to the actual point of all of Geller's games as black, and could then arrange them by win-loss-draw. After a while of laboring over how to then get the numbers, I remember saying to myself "just freakin count the things".

Sometimes we rely on technology too much, and forget that we can always "old school" it.

cheers

Jun-15-09   WhiteRook48: my that's impressive
Jul-24-09   M.D. Wilson: Botvinnik thought Geller was the best player in the world in the mid to late 1960s. I think Spassky was better, but only just. Spassky matched up well against Geller, but Geller matched up well against virtually everyone else.
Aug-07-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  percyblakeney: <Botvinnik thought Geller was the best player in the world in the mid to late 1960s>

If Botvinnik really ranked Geller ahead of Spassky during that period his judgment could have been better... I mean, they played two Candidates matches then and Spassky won both with a big margin (+3), apart from also winning the World Championship.

Aug-08-09   M.D. Wilson: Botvinnik was, with all respect, wrong on a number of occassions. He was completely off the mark with the 10 year old Karpov. Spassky matched up very well against Geller, but Geller could beat anyone in any individual game or games; perhaps Botvinnik should have said "Geller is the most dangerous player in the world".

In my opinion, Anand is better than Ivanchuk, but when in form, Ivanchuk is very dangerous indeed, and can beat anyone. Lasker was also renowned, even in his latter years, for being "dangerous". An interesting quality.

Sep-29-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  kamalakanta: <percyblakeney: <Botvinnik thought Geller was the best player in the world in the mid to late 1960s>

<If Botvinnik really ranked Geller ahead of Spassky during that period his judgment could have been better... I mean, they played two Candidates matches then and Spassky won both with a big margin (+3), apart from also winning the World Championship.>

It is funny how sometimes it is a matter of players matching up correctly. Also, Spassky had a brilliant trainer, Bondarevsky, who helped him find Geller's weakness: Geller felt uncomfortable when his king was under attack.

Spassky, on the other hand, did not match well with Karpov.

Sep-29-09   WhiteRook48: ... a record he shares only with Botvinnik, Petrosian, and Korchnoi what about Paul Keres?
Sep-29-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Benzol: <WhiteRook48> You're right that Keres should get a mention. See the earlier post of <LittleWing: Dear chessgames.com! According to the database, Paul Keres is the recorder, who scored against 9 world champions: 1. Capablanca
2. Alekhine
3. Euwe
4. Botvinnik
5. Smyslov
6. Tal
7. Petrosian
8. Spassky
9. Fischer>

Checking in "Warriors Of The Mind" I find that Keres has a slight plus against Smyslov (+9, =23, -8); dead even with Petrosian (+3, =25, -3); a plus score with Euwe (+11, =9, -7); a negative score with Spassky (+3, =18, -5); a plus against Tal (+8, 15, -5); negative with Botvinnik (+3, =9, -8); negative with Alyekhin (+1, =8, -5); dead even with Fischer and a slight plus with Capablanca (+1, =5, -0). BTW he played Karpov twice as well with both games bein drawn.

Sep-29-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  JaneEyre: <dead even with Fischer>

A miscount, I think. Fischer was 4-3 with Keres.

Sep-30-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Benzol: <JaneEyre> It looks like you're right.

According to Keene & Divinsky the score was (+3, =4, -3) in ten games.

However, Wade & O'Connell have the following :

1.Zurich 1959 Fischer
2.Bled 1961 draw
3.Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade Candidates 1959 two wins each
4.Curacao Candidates 1962 One win each and two draws

This gives Fischer (+4, =3, -3) against Keres.

It appears that Keene & Divinsky have reversed the number of Fischer wins with the draws in their data.

Sep-30-09   ewan14: During the time period in question did Geller match up well against Korchnoi and Larsen ?
Sep-30-09   ewan14: I think Larsen is up on Geller ! ! !
when Larsen was at his peak , 1967 - 1970
Sep-30-09   returnoftheking: <xrt99> only now seen your post, I will try to check it one of these days with megabase and the computer count. Bravo for the work btw.
Sep-30-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  parisattack: A new volume in the Chess Secrets series is out now: Power Players - and includes Geller. Previous Secret volumes were Giants of Strategy and Great Attackers.
Oct-01-09   TheFocus: Does anyone know if Geller ever published a book he discussed in which he would analyze all the games he played against Fischer?
Oct-01-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  JaneEyre: <1.Zurich 1959 Fischer
2.Bled 1961 draw
3.Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade Candidates 1959 two wins each
4.Curacao Candidates 1962 One win each and two draws >

It's just a pity, of course, that Fischer played neither Keres, Tal nor Botvinnik again after 1962.

Oct-01-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  parisattack: <TheFocus: Does anyone know if Geller ever published a book he discussed in which he would analyze all the games he played against Fischer?>

Are you thinking of Application of Chess Theory?

Not much on Geller for the outstanding player he was - Grandmaster Geller at the Chessboard, the Russian 'Black' book of his games...

Oct-01-09   TheFocus: <parisattack> The review of that book says Geller analyzes 100 games, all wins. No, I think the book Geller spoke of doing would only be his games against Fischer. I will check and see if he spoke of it in Russians vs. Fischer.
Oct-01-09   returnoftheking: I don't remember anything about that, it would be a very short book..
Oct-01-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  stoy: According to Bronstein's widow her husband, as he lay on his deathbed, named Geller, not himself, as the greatest player of the King's Indian defence.
Oct-01-09   TheFocus: Botvinnik quote: "Before Geller, we did not understand the King's Indian."
Oct-01-09   ughaibu: By my quick calculation, I make his record 69%: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...
Oct-02-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  parisattack: I am looking forward to seeing the Chess Secrets book with Geller.

There was a website dedicated to him I saw once some years back. Can't find it now, anyone know of it? Done by a Danish or Sandinavian fellow if memory serves.

Oct-04-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  parisattack: I received my copy of Chess Secrets: The Giants of Power Play. Neil McDonald did a great job on the Giants of Strategy tome and appears to have done a good job here, also.

The players considered: Topalov, Geller, Bronstein, Alekhine and Morphy. I am not sure on Bronstein as a Power Player - and I would have switched Alekhine to the Attacking volume and Stein to this one.

I've only read the first chapter, Dynamic Elements which is something of an introduction. Some interesting topics follow - Catching the King in the Center, the Goldielocks Queen and A Battering Ram on the f-file.

For the Geller fan starved for annotated games, there are 18 here.

There are so many chess books coming out from the Brit publishers these past few years. I used to try and buy all of them but gave up - too many in quantity and too few of quality. But The Giants of Power Play is a keeper, IMHO.

Nov-03-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  BlueMooner: I thoroughly agree with Paris. McDonald's annotation collections are consistently entertaining and his latest offering 'Chess Secrets: The Giants of Power Play' is no exception. Geller's games are great fun & I have been impressed with his aggressive but principled repertoire - some good and exciting ideas.
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