Eduard Gufeld

Eduard Yefimovich Gufeld (; 19 March 1936 – 23 September 2002) was a Soviet/American International Grandmaster of chess, and a chess author.

Chess career Gufeld began participating in chess tournaments in 1953 and won the junior championship of Ukraine the following year. He became an International Master in 1964 and an International Grandmaster in 1967. In 1977, he ranked 16th in the world with an Elo rating of 2570.

He moved to Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, where he coached Maia Chiburdanidze, who became the youngest women's world chess champion in 1978. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he emigrated to the United States. which he called his "Mona Lisa"; and his 1967 win over Vasily Smyslov (see below). The first of these games made it into John Nunn's collection of the hundred greatest games of all time, Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games, and the 112-game collection that followed it. Gufeld beat Smyslov again in 1975.

He used to say to those who laughed at his English: "I think that my English is better than your Russian!"

Death In September 2002, Gufeld suffered a stroke and heart attack. He was unable to speak or walk and appeared to be in a state of obtundedness; not comatose and nearly stuporous. He died two weeks later at the age of 66 in the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

Notable games

Here is Gufeld's 1967 win over Smyslov:

Books Exploiting Small Advantages, Batsford, 1985. 2003 reprint: . The Sicilian for the Tournament Player, Batsford, 1989. . My Life in Chess, Intl Chess Enterprises, 1993. .

The Modern French Tarrasch, Cadogan, 1996. . with Oleg Stesko: The Giuoco Piano, Batsford, 1996. . with Eric Schiller: Secrets Of The Sicilian Dragon, Cardoza, 1998. . Leonid Stein: Master of Risk Strategy, Thinkers Press, 2000. . with Eric Schiller: Secrets Of The King's Indian (Cardoza Publishing's Essential Opening Repertoire Series), Cardoza, 2000. . Chess: The Search for Mona Lisa, Batsford, 2001. . Bobby Fischer: From Chess Genius to Legend, Thinkers Press, 2003. . Chess Strategy, Batsford, 2003. . The Art of the King's Indian, Batsford, 2003. .