Happy birthday Boris
Last year, during the world championship in Mexico City, he proved once again how terribly strong he is. One of the nicest top players around has turned 40 today: Boris Gelfand.Boris Gelfand was born in Minsk (Belarus) on 24 June 1968. He's been a member of the world elite for about twenty years now. Gelfand won two Interzonal tournaments and twice reached the semi-finals of the FIDE world championships. In September last year he was the oldest participant at the world championship in Mexico City, but finished joint second (third after tie breaks) with Kramnik, behind Anand but ahead of Leko, Svidler, Morozevich, Aronian and Grischuk.As Chess Today remarks, Gelfand is one of the few players who represented as many as three countries at the Chess Olympiads: USSR, Belarus and, finally, Israel where he now lives.After meeting him in Dortmund last year, and later in Mexico City and Nice, in my opinion Gelfand is one of the most friendly personalities in the chess world. Here's one of his best games (notes from Chess Informant; you can also replay this game in a separate window) and Macauley's video from the Mexico Wch:
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Peter Doggers is Chess.com’s Senior Global Correspondent. Between 2007 and 2013, his website ChessVibes was a major source for chess news and videos, acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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