Hall of Fame #31: Efim Bogoljubov
Detesting draws, he always seeks the path of hazard in preference to that of safety, and is sometimes unduly optimistic about the strength of his own position. Games Played in the World’s Championship Match by F.D. Yates and W. Winter (London, 1930), p.8
[A note for my regular readers: The intro has not changed (except for a new image and accompanying caption that has a surprising bit of news I was totally unaware of until researching this topic). Feel free to jump to the Table of Contents or even to the Biography if you don't want to learn something you might well have overlooked in your chess peregrinations--throwing that word in here to see if it tickles the word fancies of @FiammaFiorentina.]
[A note for my new readers: I believe it is useful to read the full introduction your first time. Cheers!]
This blog is a celebration that leverages an outstanding concept of GMs Nielsen and Gustafsson, but offers my unique takes and different material. The two GMs produced videos and multiple lessons regarding their top 50 chess players of all time. Although I freely accept their rankings and provide a link (below) to their work, my focus is different.
How does my work differ? Well, first off, I'm not a titled player. Second, I wrote brief biographies for each player and offer limited discussion and pictures of some of their works (if they wrote). Third, if they were eminently quotable, I'll throw in a few of those! I may have found occasion to add quotes from other famous (or even unknown) chess names regarding the Hall of Famer. Fourth, I'll toss in the occasional caricature😏.
Fifth, and most difficult, I will include at least two games analyzed by the individual, if such games exist. After all, the greatest of the great should be able to explain what they were thinking during a game, shouldn't they? (Spoiler alert: perhaps, except when there is no evidence that they ever had analyses published. Also, many of them analyzed games, but the ones available to me only offer some alternative lines, with symbolic indications but no textual explanations.)
Plus, I attempt to provide links to other relevant materials regarding these grandmasters of the game.
We've reached #31!
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chess.com Hall of Fame #31: Efim Bogoljubov
Efim Bogoljubow (14 April 1889 – 18 June 1952) was a Russian-born German GM. He had a late start in chess, only learning how to play at age 15 and not developing a sincere interest until age 18. ChessMetrics estimates his peak playing strength at 2768 in January 1927 with a peak rank of #1 in January and February 1927. The site places him in the Top Ten globally from September 1919 until August 1936. He played for the German team in the 1931 Olympiad, earning a silver medal on first board.
The winner of numerous tournaments (Berlin 1919, Stockholm 1919, Kiel 1921, Berlin 1926, Kissingen 1928, etc.), he won the Soviet CC in 1924 and 1925 and the German CC in 1925 and 1933. In 1928 he won FIDE's first-ever World CC match, beating Euwe by a score of 3W-2L-5D [FIDE Championship (1928) by Edward Winter]...not that the title was recognized by the top players in the world. Shades of the PCA and Garry Kasparov in the 1990s! Bogoljubow played Alekhine twice for the recognized World CC title, losing by large margins in both 1929 and 1934.
The Bogo-Indian (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+) is named after him.
Curious how he performed against his peers?
Sure, everyone knows he played Alekhine twice for the World CC and lost, but how did he perform in general against the best in his era over a period of years? Funny you should ask! I've gathered some data for your consideration. That number in the bottom right corner doesn't look super impressive, but it's fairly common. However, remove his large number of losses against the beast Alekhine, and Bogoljubow scored 50%! Hmm, he didn't do very well against Keres or Capa either. Then again, not many did. Meanwhile, he crushed poor Richard Reti on a regular basis.
Afraid I wasn't even aware of these books until February 2026. I've known about the player for over five decades, but had never seen anything written by him until this year. Well, the chess world publishes books so frequently that I should not be surprised. Older books are displaced from the shelves, even in libraries. Throw in the fact they're mostly written in German, and it would have been sheer happenstance if I were previously aware of his writings.
Nor am I surprised that I'd never seen the two books below, written about Bogoljubow and his games, even though Matthew Sadler wrote the Foreword for Volume 1. There are simply too many chess books and not enough time.
Bogo's most famous quote is the first seen below, but I can thoroughly relate to the second!
When I am White, I win because I am White. When I am Black, I win because I am Bogoljubow. (Tijdschrift van den Nederlandschen Schaakbond, August-September 1933, page 222) This is likely apocryphal, or a copy of an older saying.
To have a knight planted in your game at e6 is worse than a rusty nail in your knee. Chess Quotes About Knights
The young people have read my book! (explaining why he was losing to a new generation of talents) The Optimist Beloved of God
Apart from the fact that, for instance, Nimzowitsch is very hostile to me and lately has not missed any opportunity to harm me, I cannot expect fair treatment at the hands of Alekhine, Spielmann or Vidmar. Letter from Bogoljubow to Capablanca, 7 December 1926
Here is what others had to say about Bogoljubow.
This game – more than any other – proves how useless from the sporting point of view was the arrangement of this second match, and at the same time explains my indifferent play on a number of occasions. I felt sure that Bogoljubow was no longer able to take advantage of the opportunities my play might present to him, and – very unfortunately for the general artistic value of the present match – the score 7 to 1 in my favour after the 22nd game fully justified my sanguine outlook. Alekhine, Best Games Volume 2, regarding Bogoljubow's 29th move in the fourth game of the 1934 rematch.
... I consider Mr Bogoljubow a “non-gentleman”, a man from whom anything can be expected at any moment ... Mr Bogoljubow has, in every tournament in which we’ve participated (growing worse each time), brought with him such an atmosphere of hate, envy and reckless, malignant delight which doubtless disturbed me in developing my full strength. Letter from Alekhine to Norbert Lederer, 15 February 1924, Efim Bogoljubow by Edward Winter
'What do you consider to be his greatest strengths?’ ‘He possesses inexhaustible fantasy. There is no position where he finds nothing. His disadvantage is that in a bad position he does not have the necessary calm. It then seems to him that the position is lost, and he does indeed lose. Precisely in the positions where Capablanca managed to put up the greatest resistance, Bogoljubow breaks down completely. In contrast, he handles very well positions in which he stands somewhat better.’ Interview with Alekhine, Aachener Anzeiger – Politisches Tageblatt of 30 November 1929, Efim Bogoljubow by Edward Winter
With Bogoljubow, though, it is always a case of being hurled into an unexpected adventure. On that account he is also more dangerous, although it is much more difficult to win against Capablanca. Ibid
Bogoljubow is a man of moods who plays very unequally, but surpasses all his opponents when he is the proper frame of mind. And so his playing gives one the impression of being less a result of thoroughly considered technique than a phenomenon of Nature; a wild tempestuous stream that bursts all the dikes. Thus, Bogoljubow’s confidence in himself, his infinite optimism, must be an essential factor in his success. Reti The Optimist Beloved of God
As a man he is extremely popular both among his fellow masters and the amateurs of chess, being genial in manner and equally imperturbable in victory and defeat. Games Played in the World’s Championship Match by F.D. Yates and W. Winter (London, 1930), p.8
Another aspect of his sunny and naive optimism was manifested by a number of catch-phrases that evinced a general contempt of his opponents...when he felt compelled to make complications even more complicated, Man muss doch hauen ('all the same, one must slash about'). Harry Golombeck, Chess Treasury of the Air, p. 76 Efim Bogoljubow by Edward Winter
The kind of overly deep analysis that often suits my desires. It's not useful for all. Not even for me at times.
Given these are fifty of the greatest players of all time, how were they as annotators? Well, for those who wrote books we could truly explore that question in depth. But to keep the playing field even, I had been including only games taken from a DB. Why that limitation? Well, I didn't want to burden myself with transcribing comments from a book into a pgn file. Or increase my debt burden by buying books of those who did not yet offer free access to books released to the public domain. Besides, far easier and faster to look for annotated games in an online database.
Eventually, I changed my position on that for the reasons given in Hall of Fame #41: Jan Timman (The Best of the West!). There was nothing useful in the DBs I explored. So, books were now in. Then #35: Vasyl Ivanchuk forced me to revisit my thinking yet again! No DB analyses, no obscure sites providing analysis, no books available to me. Sigh. Roll the tape and go for a video review of the action!!
Fortunately, I did manage to find several games with excellent annotations by Bogoljubow.
Image on the left is Bogoljubow in 1922, image on the right is Rubinstein in 1925 (ChessBase.com).
Bogoljubow, Efim - Rubinstein, Akiba, Stockholm Four Masters, 12.12.1919
Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein (1 December 1880 – 14 March 1961) was a Polish master, one-time Polish CC, and frequent visitor to the list of greatest chess players never to wear the crown. ChessMetrics estimates his peak strength at 2789 in June 1913 and ranked him #1 globally for 25 separate months between May 1908 and April 1914. His game was never at quite the same level after spending WW-I confined to Poland. Nonetheless, ChessMetrics placed him in the Top Ten from September 1906 until October 1932. Around that time he withdrew from further tournament play due to mental health issues. He was in the initial tranche of GMs awarded the title when FIDE formalized it in 1950.
At the time this game was played, ChessMetrics estimates Bogoljubow's strength at 2683 and Rubenstein at 2672, numbers 7 and 8 in the world, respectively. The position shown above was, imo, a critical moment that went unmentioned in Efim's analysis. As for me, I see a bishop on c8 that is suddenly quite restricted in options, and a knight move that "forces" the white bishop to move to a safer square.
It's an exciting game, and Bogoljubow waffled in his various analyses on whether or not his 20th move (g4) deserved an exclam or a question mark. Well, the computer and the outcome of the game suggests that the exclam was on the spot! (To my erstwhile, I'm grateful to have you reader who hates "!" as a form of punctuation I can only say, "I feel you buddy. But it's a blog, not a professional treatise, so I relax repeatedly!")
[The second game included in the board below is written in the original German and includes no extra analysis by yours truly.]
There are a few holes in the analysis that pop out when using Stockfish 18. Usually, however, those miscues occur at the end of lengthy alternatives that are quite fine until the closing moments. That's typical of most pre-computer analysis. The analyst gets to a point where everything looks hunky-dory, slaps the equivalent of "good game" in the text, and doesn't bother to look any further into the last or next-to-last move they wrote down. Human nature being what it is, let's applaud the superb analysis up to that point.
Rubinstein, Akiba - Lasker, Emanual, Moscow International-01, 16.11.1925
A brief bio for Rubinstein was show above, so I won't repeat that here.
Emanuel Lasker (December 24, 1868 - January 11, 1941) was the second World CC, holding the title from 1894 – 1921. He learned the game from his older brother, Berthold. From 1890 – 1893 Emanuel played and won a series of matches against many of the best players of his time, including von Bardeleben, Mieses, Bird, Englisch, Blackburne, and Showalter. In 1894 he capped off his string of successes by claiming the crown from Steinitz by a score of 10W-4D-4L. In the 1896-97 rematch, he won more convincingly with 10W-5D-2L. The rest of his career in tournaments and matches is well discussed elsewhere, so we shall move on. Lasker was also a first-class contract bridge player who represented Germany at international events in the early 1930s.
Sometimes, all it takes is one mistake. Well, that's not really true. But one mistake can be the initial snowflake that eventually collects enough fellows to form a snowball that then continues to roll downhill, precipitating a slow-moving avalanche. That happened to one of the grandmasters of the endgame in this quiet masterpiece, won by a Lasker supposedly past his prime at age 57.
[The second game included in the board below is written in the original German and includes no extra analysis by yours truly.]
A lovely expression of the power of the passed pawn, overwhelming the all-too-often cited theoretical advantage of a bishop versus a knight in an endgame.
Care for a journey down memory lane? Just pick your path! The whole purpose of this section is to address some obvious questions that might pop into your head. How come Kevin didn't talk about this? Or that? Not to mention the other thing! Well, just call me lazy! Or you could appreciate the fact I'm limiting the word count that is imposed on you😏.
Nonetheless, in the series I'll be using this little section to provide links to more fulsome discussions that revolve around some well-known and lesser-known facets of the featured chess giant. That will range from videos to links to other chess.com blogs, usually by Top Bloggers. Enjoy or skip, it's your call, as always.
- GM Julio_Becerra The Optimist Beloved of God It offers a short bio and a few puzzles, plus a lovely game snippet against Mieses.
- A Century of Chess: Bogoljubow Matches 1920-21 - Chess.com in which @kahns highlighted this overlooked elite player.
- Top Blogger @kahns A Century of Chess: Efim Bogoljubow (1920-29) I love his statement that Bogo (that's what I've always called him for shorthand) was a "model player for people who are hot-blooded, bumptious, elbows-out, interested in just getting the job done." He included a number of games that are well worth playing through.
- In A Century of Chess: Bogoljubow-Euwe 1928-29 - Chess.com @kahns looks at a FIDE CC match between these two players. It was quite a controversial pairing, as he discusses.
- FIDE Championship (1928) by Edward Winter offers another look at this first attempt by FIDE to take over the World CC process.
- Top Blogger @kahns A Century of Chess: Alekhine-Bogoljubow 1929 (Part 1) looks at their 1929 match, in three parts.
- A Century of Chess: Alekhine-Bogoljubow 1929 (Part 2)
- A Century of Chess: Alekhine-Bogoljubow (Part 3)
- Top Blogger @kahns A Century of Chess: Alekhine-Bogoljubow 1934 covers (duh, dear reader) their 1934 contest for the World CC. The point that may be a revelation for most is the opening sentence of this post, "An unusual match in that led to a permanent damage in reputation for both players." Read more for yourself!
- Top Blogger @DonMcKim offers one of his fun chess puzzles, based on Efim Bogoljubow
- Efim Bogoljubov | Top Chess Players - Chess.com
- 31: Efim Bogoljubov | Chess Lessons - Chess.com
- The Best Chess Games of Efim Bogoljubov - Chess.com
Have you got 54 minutes for a GM Ben Finegold video?
That's it for the 20th installment of my own take on chess.com's 50 greatest players of all time. Hope you enjoyed the blog. The good GMs below have a full selection of videos and puzzles dedicated to each of the fifty.
Cheers!
If you enjoy reading "greatest of" lists then you might also enjoy chess.com's Every Chess 'Player Of The Decade' (From Morphy To Magnus).
Sources for this information included chess.com, wikipedia.com, ChessBase, FIDE, individuals' websites, YouTube.com, news articles, books, and other sources. Plus, my faulty memories. I mixed, matched, cut, and pasted so much that separation is implausible, and I apologize for misattributions. Particularly with quotes which are found in a thousand repositories, not to mention book covers, t-shirts, and the rantings of chess coaches of whom I've had more than a few thanks to Chess University and @AttilaTurzo (my primary instructor and co-author of three books, for different chess strengths, we are writing on how to analyze during a game and after.)
HoF #50: Nimzowitsch-"The Stormy Petrel"
HoF #49: Karjakin–"The Minister of Defense"
HoF #48: Portisch–"The Hungarian Botvinnik"
HoF #47: Polugaevsky–"The Great Poluga"
HoF #46: Kamsky–"London's King"
HoF #44: Leko–"The Cement Meister"
HoF #43: Winawer (The French King)
HoF #42: Najdorf–"Happy-Go-Lucky"
HoF #41: Jan Timman (The Best of the West!)
HoF #40: Mikhail Chigorin (Father of the Russian School of Chess)
HoF #39: Boris Gelfand (The Piece Twirler)
HoF #38: Efim Geller (The Giant Killer)
Hall of Fame #37: Harry Pillsbury
HoF #36: Carl Schlechter (The Viennese Drawing Master)
Hall of Fame #35: Vasyl Ivanchuk (Chuckie)
Hall of Fame #34: Siegbert Tarrasch
