Lev Alburt

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Lev Osipovich Alburt (b. August 21, 1945) is a chess grandmaster. Alburt was born in Orenburg, Russia and won the Ukrainian Chess Championship three times from 1972 to 1974. In 1976 he earned the International Master title and in 1977 he became a GM. Defecting to the United States in 1979, Alburt led the U.S. Chess Olympiad team in 1980 at Malta. He was the U.S. chess champion two years in a row in 1984 and 1985. Alburt drew an eight-game match in 1986 with British Chess Champion Jonathan Speelman. In the 1990 U.S. Chess Championship, Alburt defeated four-time U.S. champion Yasser Seirawan with the black pieces en route to winning the championship a third time. (Game shown in algebraic chess notation):

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 c5 3. c3 d5 4. Bf4 e6 5. e3 Bd6 6. Bb5+ Nc6 7. Qa4 Bxf4 8. exf4 Qb6 9. Nbd2 O-O 10. dxc5 Qxc5 11. O-O Bd7 12. Bxc6 bxc6 13. Qd4 Qe7 14. b4 c5 15. bxc5 Rfc8 16. Nb3 a5 17. Rfc1 a4 18. Nbd2 Qxc5 19. c4 Rab8 20. Qxc5 Rxc5 21. Ne5 Rcc8 22. Rab1 Kf8 23. a3 Ke7 24. g3 Rxb1 25. Rxb1 Rc7 26. Kf1 Be8 27. Ke1 h5 28. f3 Nd7 29. Nxd7 Bxd7 30. Rb4 Kd6 31. Kf2 Kc5 32. Ke3 Bc6 33. h4 Rd7 34. g4 Rd8 35. g5 Rd7 36. Ke2 Rb7 37. Rxb7 Bxb7 38. cxd5 exd5 39. Ke3 Bc8 40. Kd3 Bf5+ 41. Ke3 g6 42. Nf1 Kc4 43. Ng3 d4 44. Kd2 Kb3 45. Ne2 Kxa3 46. Nxd4 Kb2 47. Nb5 a3 48. Nxa3 Kxa3 49. Kc3 Ka2 0-1

Alburt is also the author of a series of highly praised chess books.

Alburt was once coached by fellow Ukrainian-Jewish chess player and chess journalist Michael Faynberg. Alburt stayed with Faynberg for several months immediately after defecting to the United States.

[edit] External links

FIDE rating card for Lev Alburt
Lev Alburt at ChessGames.com

Preceded by Walter Browne, Larry Christiansen, and Roman Dzindzichashvili	United States Chess Champion 1984–1985	Succeeded by Yasser Seirawan
Preceded by Roman Dzindzichashvili, Yasser Seirawan, and Stuart Rachels	United States Chess Champion 1990	Succeeded by Gata Kamsky