Florin Gheorghiu

Last updated
Florin Gheorghiu
Gheorghiu,Florin 1987 Altensteig.jpeg
Gheorghiu in Altensteig, 1987
Country Romania
Born (1944-04-06) 6 April 1944 (age 80)
Ploiești, Kingdom of Romania
Title Grandmaster (1965)
FIDE   rating 2375 (August 2021)
Peak rating 2605 (January 1980)
Peak rankingNo. 10 (January 1980)

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

Contents

Born in Ploiești, on 6 April 1944, while the American bombers attacked the country's capital, his prodigious talent for the game was evidenced by his many 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 Vrnjacka 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. [1]

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.

Gheorghiu standing to the side of the seated Coenraad Zuidema at the World Junior Championship 1961 Gheorgiu1961.jpg
Gheorghiu standing to the side of the seated Coenraad Zuidema at the World Junior Championship 1961
Gheorghiu (far right) playing against Anatoly Karpov at Luzern in 1982 URS ROM 3 1 Luzern 1982.jpg
Gheorghiu (far right) playing against Anatoly Karpov at Luzern in 1982
TownYearContest's name+=-
Tbilisi 1960friendly match S. S. R. Georgia – Romania (b. 5)130
Leningrad 1960World student team ch. VII (reserve 1)511
Bucharest 1961friendly match Romania – S. S. R. Georgia (b. 5)310
Karl Marx-Stadt 1961friendly match East Germany – Romania (b. 1)101
Bucharest1962friendly match Romania – Bulgaria (b. 4)110
Budapest 1962friendly match Hungary – Romania (b. 5)020
Mariánské Lázně 1962World student team ch. IX (b. 1)481
Varna 1962 Olympiad XV (b. 3)681
Bucharest1963friendly match Romania – Hungary (b. 1)200
Kraków 1964World student team ch. XI (b. 1)730
Sinaia 1964preliminaries of European team ch. (b. 3)420
Tel Aviv 1964Olympiad XVI (b. 2)881
Bucharest1965friendly match Romania – Poland (b.1)110
Hamburg1965European team ch. III (b. 1)172
Sinaia1965World student team ch. XII (b. 1)841
Örebro 1966World student team ch. XIII (b. 1)860
Havana 1966Olympiad XVII (b. 1)973
Bucharest1966friendly match Romania – S. S. R. Latvia (b. 1)020
Warsaw 1967friendly match Poland – Romania (b. 1)020
Sofia 1967preliminaries of European team ch. (b. 1)240
Harrachov 1967World student team ch. XIV (b. 1)470
Lugano 1968Olympiad XVIII (b. 1)3140
Novi Sad 1969friendly match Yugoslavia – Romania (b. 1)020
Bucharest1970friendly match Romania – Yugoslavia (b. 1)020
Siegen 1970Olympiad XIX (b.1)6103
Bamberg 1971friendly match Romania – West Germany (b. 1)020
Atena1971Balkaniad III (b. 1)121
Bucharest1971preliminaries of European team ch. (b. 2)200
Sofia1972Balkaniad IV (b. 1)220
Skopje 1972Olympiad XX (b. 1)5123
Bath1973 European team ch. V (b.1)052
Paris 1973friendly match France – Romania (b. 1)100
Poiana Brașov 1973Balkaniad V (b. 1)040
Nisa1974Olympiad XXI (b. 1)5130
Poreč 1974Balkaniad VI (b. 1)030
Istanbul1975Balkaniad VII (b. 1)040
Crans Montana 1976preliminaries of European team ch. (b. 1)130
Bucharest1976friendly match Romania – R. F. G. (b. 1)020
Athens 1976friendly match Greece – Romania (b. 1)200
Athens1976Balkaniad VIII (b. 1)121
Moscow 1977European team ch. VI (b. 1)151
Albena 1977Balkaniad IX (b. 1)220
Borås 1978preliminaries of European team ch. (b. 1)020
Băile Herculane 1978Balkaniad X (b. 1)310
Buenos Aires 1978Olympiad XXIII (b. 1)590
Bensheim1979friendly match West Germany – Romania (b. 1)110
Istanbul1980Balkaniad XII (b. 1)230
Malta1980Olympiad XXIV (b. 1)372
Athens1981Balkaniad XIII (b. 1)220
Luzern1982Olympiad XXV (b. 1)354
Băile Herculane1983Balkaniad XV (b. 2)220
Zinnowitz 1983friendly match East Germany – Romania040
Eforie Nord1984friendly match Romania – East Germany022
Skopje 1984Balkaniad XVI (b. 1)041
Salonic 1984Olympiad XXVI (b. 2)581
Iraklion 1985Balkaniad XVII (b. 1)220
Luzern1985 World team ch. I (b. 2)072
Dubai1986Olympiad XXVII (b. 2)390
Kaštel Stari 1988Balkaniad XX (b. 1)060
Thessaloniki 1988Olympiad XXVIII (b.1)373
Haifa 1989European team ch. IX (b. 1)090
Kavala 1990Balkaniad XXI (b. 1)042
Novi Sad 1990Olympiad XXIX (b. 1)381
Debrecen 1992European team ch. X (b. 1)142

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

Gheorghiu vs. Fischer, Havana 1966
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Final position

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.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 d5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 0-0 7.cxd5 exd5 8.e3 Nh5 9.Qc2 Re8 10.g4 Nf4 11.h4 c5 12.Kf2 Ng6 13.Bd3 Nc6 14.Ne2 Be6 15.g5 Rc8 16.h5 Nf8 17.g6 fxg6 18.hxg6 h6 19.Qb1 Na5 20.Nf4 c4 21.Bc2 Rc6 22.Ra2 Nd7 23.a4 Nf6 24.Ba3 Qd7 25.Rb2 b6 26.Rb5 Nb7 27.e4 dxe4 28.Bxe4 Rcc8 29.Re5 Bg4 30.Nd5 Rxe5 31.Nxf6+ gxf6 32.dxe5 Nc5 33.Bxc5 Qd2+ 34.Kg3 Bxf3 35.Bxf3 Rxc5 36.Qc1 Qxc1 37.Rxc1 Rxe5 38.Kf4 Kg7 39.Be4 h5 40.Rd1 Re7 41.Rd5 Kh6 42.Rd6 Kg7 43.Rc6 h4 44.Rxc4 h3 45.Kg3 Kh6 46.Bb1 Re3+ 47.Kh2 Re1 48.Bd3 Re3 49.Rh4+ Kg5 50.g7 1–0 [2]

Notes

  1. Sunnucks, Anne (1970). "The Encyclopaedia of Chess". St. Martin's Press: 145. LCCN   78106371.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. "Gheorghiu vs. Fischer, Havana 1966". Chessgames.com .

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References