Efim Geller - World Title Candidate

World Title Candidate

Geller reached the later stages of the World Championship several times. He was a Candidate at Zurich 1953 and Amsterdam 1956. Geller's best result was in the 1962 cycle, as he finished second to Bobby Fischer at the Stockholm Interzonal. Then in the Candidates', he ended up one-half point short of playing for the title by scoring 17/27 at Curaçao, tying for second place with Keres. That tournament was won by Tigran Petrosian, who went on to defeat Botvinnik for the title the next year. Geller lost a playoff match to Keres at Moscow 1962 by 4½–3½, but was able to enter the 1965 Candidates' matches as a substitute when Botvinnik (defeated World Champion) declined to take part. He defeated Smyslov by 5½–2½ at Moscow in the first round, but lost to Spassky by 5½–2½ at Riga in the semifinals. In a 1966 Copenhagen playoff match against Bent Larsen, the two players split eight games with two wins each, and Larsen won the first tiebreak game to secure Candidates' exemption in case of a withdrawal by a qualified player in the next cycle. (Eventually, this turned out not to matter, since none withdrew.) In the 1968 cycle, Geller again lost to Spassky, at Sukhumi by 5½–2½, in a Candidates' first-round match. He returned to the interzonal stage in 1970 at Palma de Mallorca, and qualified as a Candidate again, losing his first match to Korchnoi at Moscow by 5½–2½. In 1973, he tied with Lajos Portisch and Lev Polugaevsky for second place at the Petropolis Interzonal, but lost out in the three-way playoff match tournament at Portorož, with two qualifying spots at stake, so did not advance.

Read more about this topic:  Efim Geller

Famous quotes containing the words world, title and/or candidate:

    ...if you are to gain any great amount of good from the world, you must attain a passive condition of mind. ...it is never to be forgotten that it is the rest of the world and not you that holds the great share of the world’s wealth, and that you must allow yourself to be acted upon by the world, if you would become a sharer in the gain of all the ages to your own infinite advantage.
    Anna C. Brackett (1836–1911)

    Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong.
    —Anonymous. Popular saying.

    Dating from World War I—when it was used by U.S. soldiers—or before, the saying was associated with nightclub hostess Texas Quinan in the 1920s. It was the title of a song recorded by Sophie Tucker in 1927, and of a Cole Porter musical in 1929.

    Hear, then, a mortal Muse thy praise rehearse,
    In no ignoble verse;
    But such as thy own voice did practise here,
    When thy first-fruits of Poesy were given,
    To make thyself a welcome inmate there;
    While yet a young probationer,
    And candidate of Heaven.
    John Dryden (1631–1700)