Boris Gulko

Boris Gulko Franzevich (Russian Борис Францевич Гулько; born February 9, 1947 in Erfurt) is an American chess Grandmaster of Russian-Jewish origin.

Career

Gulkos ancestors had emigrated to Russia. His father was in World War II soldier in the Red Army and later stationed in Thuringia, where Gulko was born. Gulko began playing chess in the early 1960s. As early as 1966 he was a member of the Soviet national team at the World Team Championship in students in Örebro. In 1974 he won with Jan Timman in Sombor, 1975, FIDE awarded him the title of International Master. He won this year together with Vitaly Zeschkowski and Yuri Balashov the zone tournament in Vilnius and qualified by tag battles for the Interzonal in Biel in 1976. In this year in which he also won the Capablanca Memorial Tournament in Cienfuegos, FIDE awarded him the Grand Master title. In 1977, he won jointly with Josif Dorfman, the USSR Championship in Leningrad.

1978, the year in which he was the Soviet selection for the first time at the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires, he and his wife, the Grand Master of the women Anna Achscharumowa, an exit visa to Israel. The rejection of the request followed a prolonged surveillance by the KGB and other reprisals. The couple went through various actions (including a 40- day hunger strike ) aware of his situation, but only in 1986 he was allowed to emigrate to Israel. Shortly thereafter, the American Chess Federation has become aware of him and invited him to the USA. Gulko had celebrated until his departure several successes in the USSR: In 1981, he won in Wolgodonsk the First League of the USSR Championship and the Open Championship of Moscow, among other Psachis Lew, David Bronstein, Artur Yusupov, Rafael and Andrei Sokolov Vaganian.

Gulko won in 1987 in Biel and played first time in 1988 for his new home on the U.S. Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki. 1993, the year in which he won the World Team Cup in Lucerne with the U.S. selection, he succeeded in Groningen PCA qualifying tournament with 7 points out of 11 and the split 3 - 7th Place the dip in the candidate struggles. Gulko met in the quarter- finals in 1994 at New York's Trump Tower on the British Nigel Short, whom he defeated in rapid chess piercing with 1,5-2,5 after the regular competition with 4:4 ( 1, -1, = 6) was ended. In the same year Gulko won for the first time the championship of the USA, also in Bern. He won in 1996 in Las Palmas and 1998 Cardoza in the U.S. Open together with Judit Polgár. In 1999 he again won the U.S. Championship, which was played by a knockout system, with a 2.5-0.5 -final victory against Grigori Serper in Salt Lake City. In the FIDE World Championship KO- 2000 in Moscow Gulko came down to the second round, where he defeated Evgeny Bareev. In 2001 he won with Jan Timman in Malmö. Gulko was qualified for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 in Tripoli. Due to anti -Israeli statements Libyan officials and disadvantages for players with an Israeli passport, there were protests against the organizers and FIDE, which Gulko joined with an open letter to the President of FIDE. He belonged to a group of players who finally canceled their participation. Since 2004, Gulko is titled FIDE Senior Trainer.

Gulko lives with his wife Anna Achscharumowa (* 1957) in Fair Lawn (New Jersey). Achscharumowa is Grand Master of the women and stood in 1990 at the 9th place in the FIDE world ranking of women.

Since 2009, Gulko writes a weekly column for the Russian-speaking American newspaper " Ewrejskij me" ( " Jewish World " ), where he deals with the role of Judaism in the modern world.

Gulkos current Elo rating is 2533 (as of April 2013). However, he does since 2009 barely in the tournament scene. His previous highest Elo rating of 2644, he reached in January 2000 He is one of the few players who have a positive balance against Garry Kasparov. He won three games for a loss and four draws.