Gufeld began participating in chess tournaments in 1953 and won the junior championship of Ukraine the following year.[1] He became an International Master in 1964 and an International Grandmaster in 1967. In 1977, he ranked 16th in the world with an Elo rating of 2570.
He moved to Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, where he coached Maia Chiburdanidze, who became the youngest women's world chess champion in 1978.[2] After the fall of the Soviet Union, he emigrated to the United States.[2] and continued to play/write/teach chess proactively at his adopted homeland.
He started the FIDE Committee on Chess Art and Exhibition.
Gufeld was one of the most prolific authors in all of chess, writing over 80 chess books.[1] His proudest achievements, however, were his win with the King's Indian Defence, Sämisch Variation against Vladimir Bagirov,[3] which he called his "Mona Lisa"; and his 1967 win over Vasily Smyslov (see below). The first of these games made it into John Nunn's collection of the hundred greatest games of all time, Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games, and the 112-game collection that followed it. Gufeld beat Smyslov again in 1975.[4]
He used to say to those who laughed at his English: "I think that my English is better than your Russian!"[5]
Death
In September 2002, Gufeld suffered a stroke and heart attack. He was unable to speak or walk and appeared to be in a state of obtundedness; not comatose and nearly stuporous. He died two weeks later at the age of 66 in the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.
