Biography
Boris Gelfand was born in Minsk, Belarussian SSR, on 24 June 1968. His parents, Abram and Nella, were engineers. His father bought him a book about chess, Journey to the Chess Kingdom, by Averbakh and Beilin, when he was four years old. In 1980–83, he attended the Tigran Petrosian School, where he met the former world champion in person and received advice that impacted on his life as a chess player: "I remember Petrosian saying to me that I shouldn’t make a single move without having an idea: 'Even when you’re playing blitz, always think!'"
In 1998, Gelfand immigrated to Israel and settled in Rishon LeZion, where he became Israel's top ranking chess player. He is married to Maya.
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