25 Facts About Boris Gelfand

Boris Gelfand is a Soviet-born Israeli chess player.

Boris Gelfand has won major tournaments at Wijk aan Zee, Tilburg, Moscow, Linares and Dos Hermanas.

Boris Gelfand has competed in eleven Chess Olympiads and held a place within the top 30 players ranked by FIDE from January 1990 to October 2017.

Boris Gelfand was born in Minsk, in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, on 24 June 1968 to Belarusian Jewish parents.

Boris Gelfand's father bought him a book about chess, Journey to the Chess Kingdom, by Averbakh and Beilin, when he was five years old.

Boris Gelfand's successes saw him ranked in the world's top 40 players.

Boris Gelfand was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1989.

Boris Gelfand shared first place with Valery Salov at Wijk aan Zee in 1992, shared second place at Munich, lost in the final of Tilburg knockout to Michael Adams and shared first with Anand at the Alekhine Memorial held in Moscow.

Boris Gelfand remained ever-present in the world's top 20 players, winning the 1994 editions of Dos Hermanas and Cap d'Agde, Belgrade in 1995, shared first at Tilburg and Vienna in 1996, finished third at Dortmund and shared second place at Groningen.

Boris Gelfand came third in a strong Biel tournament and second at the Rubinstein Memorial held in Polanica Zdroj.

In 2001, Boris Gelfand shared first place in the rapid section of the Melody Amber tournament and came third in Astana.

Boris Gelfand played in Dortmund, which was the Candidate Tournament for the Classical World Chess Championship 2004, but only managed to finish in third place in the preliminary group, so didn't progress to the knockout stages.

Boris Gelfand shared first in the Bermuda Invitational and Biel in 2005.

Boris Gelfand finished in sixth place at the Chess World Cup 2005, earning a place in the 2007 Candidates Matches.

Boris Gelfand competed for Israel at the 2009 Maccabiah Games in Israel.

In May 2011, Boris Gelfand participated in the Candidates Matches in Kazan, Russia where he was seeded fourth.

Boris Gelfand played in the 2013 Candidates Tournament, which took place in London, from 15 March to 1 April.

Boris Gelfand gained 18 rating points and achieved his all-time highest Elo rating till that time of 2773.

Boris Gelfand bounced back from a fourth-round exit from the World Cup to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave by sharing first with Caruana in the final FIDE Grand Prix in Paris.

Boris Gelfand gained 11.9 rating points and again achieved a record personal rating of 2777.

Boris Gelfand finished fourth in the Grand Prix overall standings with 325 points missing out on a Candidates place due to his weak results in the Tashkent and Beijing events.

Boris Gelfand shared first with Caruana at the next FIDE Grand Prix event held in Baku.

In 1998, Boris Gelfand emigrated to Israel and settled in Rishon LeZion, where he became Israel's top ranking chess player.

Boris Gelfand is a football fan and is a fan of FC Barcelona.

Boris Gelfand is noted for his strong positional awareness and precise strategic play.