Grandmaster
Geller began to make his mark in the late 1940s, as he won the USSR Championship semifinal qualifier at Tbilisi 1949 with 11½/16, thus advancing to the final later that year. His finals debut was sensational at URS-ch17 at Moscow; as a virtual unknown he tied for 3rd–4th places with 12½/19, behind only winners David Bronstein and Vasily Smyslov. Geller defeated such established players as Semyon Furman, Isaac Boleslavsky, Alexander Kotov, Salo Flohr, fellow finals debutant Tigran Petrosian, Viacheslav Ragozin, and Grigory Levenfish. Despite this showing, he was obliged to return to the semifinal level the next year, but advanced with a third-place finish in the 1950 qualifier at Kiev with 9/15. At URS-ch18 at Moscow 1950, Geller made 9/17 for a shared 7th–10th place; the winner was Paul Keres. Also in 1950, Geller won the Ukrainian Championship at Kiev, the first of his four titles in that event; he repeated from 1957 to 1959, with all three events at Kiev. Geller in 1950 made his international debut at the Przepiorka Memorial at Iwonicz Zdroj with 11½/19 for seventh place in a powerful field; Keres won again.
Geller is reckoned to have been among the best ten players in the world for around twenty years. He was awarded the International Master title in 1951, and the International Grandmaster title the following year.
Geller played in 23 USSR Chess Championships, a record equalled by Mark Taimanov, achieving good results in many. He won in 1955 at Moscow (URS-ch22) when, despite losing five games, he finished equal first with 12/19, then defeated Smyslov in the playoff match by the score of +1 =6. He won his second title in 1979 at Minsk (URS-ch47) at the age of 54, making him the oldest Soviet champion.
Among his best results in other important tournaments were: clear first at Iwonicz Zdroj 1957, equal first with Taimanov at Dresden 1959, equal first with Lajos Portisch at Beverwijk 1965, clear first at Kislovodsk 1966, clear first at Gothenburg 1967, clear first at Kislovodsk 1968, equal first with Mikhail Botvinnik at Wijk aan Zee 1969 (ahead of Keres), equal first at Havana 1971 with Vlastimil Hort, equal first at Hilversum 1973 with Laszlo Szabo, clear first at Budapest 1973 ahead of Anatoly Karpov, clear first at Teesside 1975, clear first at Moscow 1975 (ahead of Boris Spassky, Viktor Korchnoi, and Petrosian), clear first at Las Palmas 1976, equal first with Gennadi Sosonko at Wijk aan Zee 1977, clear first at Bogotá 1978, equal first at Bern 1987 with Daniel Campora, clear first at Dortmund 'A' 1989, and equal first at New York Manhattan 1990 with Gregory Kaidanov, at age 65.
In Seniors' competition, Geller further distinguished himself in the early 1990s. At the World Seniors' Championship, Bad Woerishofen 1991, he tied for first with Smyslov at 8½/11. Then, in the next year's Championship at the same site, Geller claimed clear first with the same score. Geller remained active in high-level competitive chess until age 70; his last event was the 1995 Russian Championship at Elista.
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