Florin Gheorghiu

Florin Gheorghiu (born 6 April 1944) is a Romanian chess player and has been a university lecturer in foreign languages.

Born in Ploiești, on 6 April 1944, during the Allied bombing of the country's capital, his talent for the game was evidenced by his early achievements; he became an International Master in 1963 and Romania's first Grandmaster just two years later.

He earned the title of World Junior Champion in 1963, at Vrnjačka Banja, and has been the national champion of Romania on nine occasions.

Gheorghiu was a lecturer in French at the University of Bucharest and he also speaks English, Russian, German, and Spanish.

Chess career When playing at his peak on the international tournament circuit, he was many times a winner. His victories included: Hastings 1967–68 (with Hort and Stein), Reykjavik 1972 (with Hort and Ólafsson), Orense 1973, Torremolinos 1974 (with Torre), Lone Pine 1979 (with Gligorić, Liberzon, and Hort), Novi Sad 1979, Biel 1982 (with Nunn) and Lenk 1990. He was always a formidable opponent at the U.S. Open tournament and finished first in three successive years—1979, 1980 (with Fedorowicz), and 1981 (with Christiansen and three others).

In his home country, there were few who could rival his dominance of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. He won the Romanian Championship nine times (1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1973, 1977, and 1987). In 1970 he was equal first with Victor Ciocâltea, and after a subsequent tie-break match (5-5), the latter was awarded the champion title.

Despite these successes, Gheorghiu has seldom been regarded a serious contender for the world chess championship title. Although he regularly participated in the cycle and at other prestigious events, his placings at four Interzonal Tournaments (world championship qualifiers) confirmed that he was not as strong as the world's elite players at the time, but could nevertheless perform consistently well at a high level. At Petrópolis 1973 he finished 14th, at Manila 1976 10–13th, Riga 1979 5–6th, and at Moscow 1982, he came 12th. At the Riga Interzonal, he only narrowly failed to qualify for the Candidates Matches. Overall, he participated in nine Zonal and four Interzonal tournaments.

Playing for Romania in team competitions, he amassed 459 games in 64 contests (including friendly matches with other nations), summing up to an overall result of 145 wins, 272 draws, and 42 losses. This included playing in every Chess Olympiad between 1962 and 1990, usually on first board. Further details are given in the table below.

Town Year Contest's name + = - Tbilisi 1960 friendly match S. S. R. Georgia – Romania (b. 5) 1 3 0 Leningrad 1960 World student team ch. VII (reserve 1) 5 1 1 Bucharest 1961 friendly match Romania – S. S. R. Georgia (b. 5) 3 1 0 Karl Marx-Stadt 1961 friendly match East Germany – Romania (b. 1) 1 0 1 Bucharest 1962 friendly match Romania – Bulgaria (b. 4) 1 1 0 Budapest 1962 friendly match Hungary – Romania (b. 5) 0 2 0 Mariánské Lázně 1962 World student team ch. IX (b. 1) 4 8 1 Varna 1962 Olympiad XV (b. 3) 6 8 1 Bucharest 1963 friendly match Romania – Hungary (b. 1) 2 0 0 Kraków 1964 World student team ch. XI (b. 1) 7 3 0 Sinaia 1964 preliminaries of European team ch. (b. 3) 4 2 0 Tel Aviv 1964 Olympiad XVI (b. 2) 8 8 1 Bucharest 1965 friendly match Romania – Poland (b.1) 1 1 0 Hamburg 1965 European team ch. III (b. 1) 1 7 2 Sinaia 1965 World student team ch. XII (b. 1) 8 4 1 Örebro 1966 World student team ch. XIII (b. 1) 8 6 0 Havana 1966 Olympiad XVII (b. 1) 9 7 3 Bucharest 1966 friendly match Romania – S. S. R. Latvia (b. 1) 0 2 0 Warsaw 1967 friendly match Poland – Romania (b. 1) 0 2 0 Sofia 1967 preliminaries of European team ch. (b. 1) 2 4 0 Harrachov 1967 World student team ch. XIV (b. 1) 4 7 0 Lugano 1968 Olympiad XVIII (b. 1) 3 14 0 Novi Sad 1969 friendly match Yugoslavia – Romania (b. 1) 0 2 0 Bucharest 1970 friendly match Romania – Yugoslavia (b. 1) 0 2 0 Siegen 1970 Olympiad XIX (b.1) 6 10 3 Bamberg 1971 friendly match Romania – West Germany (b. 1) 0 2 0 Athens 1971 Balkaniad III (b. 1) 1 2 1 Bucharest 1971 preliminaries of European team ch. (b. 2) 2 0 0 Sofia 1972 Balkaniad IV (b. 1) 2 2 0 Skopje 1972 Olympiad XX (b. 1) 5 12 3 Bath 1973 European team ch. V (b.1) 0 5 2 Paris 1973 friendly match France – Romania (b. 1) 1 0 0 Poiana Brașov 1973 Balkaniad V (b. 1) 0 4 0 Nice 1974 Olympiad XXI (b. 1) 5 13 0 Poreč 1974 Balkaniad VI (b. 1) 0 3 0 Istanbul 1975 Balkaniad VII (b. 1) 0 4 0 Crans Montana 1976 preliminaries of European team ch. (b. 1) 1 3 0 Bucharest 1976 friendly match Romania – R. F. G. (b. 1) 0 2 0 Athens 1976 friendly match Greece – Romania (b. 1) 2 0 0 Athens 1976 Balkaniad VIII (b. 1) 1 2 1 Moscow 1977 European team ch. VI (b. 1) 1 5 1 Albena 1977 Balkaniad IX (b. 1) 2 2 0 Borås 1978 preliminaries of European team ch. (b. 1) 0 2 0 Băile Herculane 1978 Balkaniad X (b. 1) 3 1 0 Buenos Aires 1978 Olympiad XXIII (b. 1) 5 9 0 Bensheim 1979 friendly match West Germany – Romania (b. 1) 1 1 0 Istanbul 1980 Balkaniad XII (b. 1) 2 3 0 Malta 1980 Olympiad XXIV (b. 1) 3 7 2 Athens 1981 Balkaniad XIII (b. 1) 2 2 0 Lucerne 1982 Olympiad XXV (b. 1) 3 5 4 Băile Herculane 1983 Balkaniad XV (b. 2) 2 2 0 Zinnowitz 1983 friendly match East Germany – Romania 0 4 0 Eforie Nord 1984 friendly match Romania – East Germany 0 2 2 Skopje 1984 Balkaniad XVI (b. 1) 0 4 1 Salonic 1984 Olympiad XXVI (b. 2) 5 8 1 Iraklion 1985 Balkaniad XVII (b. 1) 2 2 0 Luzern 1985 World team ch. I (b. 2) 0 7 2 Dubai 1986 Olympiad XXVII (b. 2) 3 9 0 Kaštel Stari 1988 Balkaniad XX (b. 1) 0 6 0 Thessaloniki 1988 Olympiad XXVIII (b.1) 3 7 3 Haifa 1989 European team ch. IX (b. 1) 0 9 0 Kavala 1990 Balkaniad XXI (b. 1) 0 4 2 Novi Sad 1990 Olympiad XXIX (b. 1) 3 8 1 Debrecen 1992 European team ch. X (b. 1) 1 4 2

Gheorghiu is renowned for his success against the reputedly solid Nimzo-Indian Defence. The variation comprising an early f3 for White (which is allied to the Sämisch Variation) became his trademark weapon, improving on the games and development work of Lajos Portisch and Gyozo Forintos before him. The system is now referred to as the Gheorghiu Variation in many chess opening manuals and has been employed by tactical experts such as Alexei Shirov.

Notable games

Here is how Gheorghiu, playing White, beat future world champion Bobby Fischer at the Havana Olympiad in 1966. This was the only competitive game that Fischer ever lost to a player younger than himself.