Israel’s chess grandmaster readies for championship
By BEN HARTMAN
04/09/2012 18:48
Rishon Leion’s Boris Gelfand trains in Swiss Alps ahead of World Chess Championship match in Moscow.
The world of Israeli press could be facing a watershed moment next month, when Rishon Lezion’s Chess Grandmaster Boris Gelfand plays for the chess world’s top prize at the World Chess Championship in Moscow, according to the General Secretary of the Israel Chess Federation.
“It’s a historic event for Israeli chess but also Israel altogether,” said Almog Burstein, the General Secretary of the Association, comparing the match to the 1972 World Championships between American Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky for the USSR, which Fischer won helping boost the popularity of chess in the United States.
Burstein said that there are a few thousand Israelis who take part in chess competitions, but that the association is looking for ways to spread the sport among Israeli youth, something he hopes that a victory by Gelfand will help secure.
Gelfand, who moved to Israel from Minsk in 1998, qualified for the world championships last May, when he bested Russian challenger Alexander Grischuk in the six-game Candidates Final in Kazan, Russia last May. Gelfand had previously won the World Chess Cup in 2009.
As a young man in Minsk, the Belarus brawler was a demon on the chessboard, becoming the junior champion of the USSR at age 17. He later played in nine Chess Olympiads, representing the USSR once, Belarus twice, and finally six times for Israel, including the 2010 Olympiads, where he won bronze for Israel.
No stranger to trophies, over the course of his 44 years, Gelfand has won more than 30 major chess tournaments.
Anand is also not a newcomer to the pantheon of chess greats, winning the Wrold Chess Federation Championship from 2000-2002. He has also been awarded a bevy of civilian and sporting honors by the authorities in India, where he is a highly celebrated figure.
Gelfand faces a rather different reality back in Israel. Like most of Israel’s top chess players he is a native of the former Soviet Union, where chess was a well-respected sport, as opposed to Israel where it is far down the list of beloved sports long after soccer, basketball, matkot and stealing towels from hotels. In Israel, Gelfand enjoys a meager level of support from the country that belies his prominence in the international chess world.
According to Burnstein, Gelfand has a team of 4 or 5 coaches that he pays for mainly out of his own pocket, using the prize winnings from former tournaments to support his training. He should have an easier time paying for his training if he wins the tournament, which has a first prize of $2.55 million.
Before leaving for the Swiss Alps last week, where he has shut himself off from distractions back in Israel, Gelfand gave a press conference in Tel Aviv where he spoke about being a chess grandmaster in Israel.
“In the USSR if you tell people you are a chess player they tell you way to go, bravo, Here, you tell people and they say, ok, but where do you work, what do you do?
“I hope that in the coming years, there will be respect for the profession in Israel, and kids who study chess will get respect” he said, his words breaking with emotion mid-sentence at the prospect of a better future for chess in Israel.
Source: http://www.jpost.com
He has no chance against Anand. Anand will rule this time and Nakamura will beat Anand next time.