Nick de Firmian
Nicholas Ernest de Firmian ( Nick de Firmian; born July 26, 1957 in Fresno, California) is a chess grandmaster and author of chess books.
De Firmian studied physics and obtained a degree at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1979 he became an International Master in 1985 and Grand Master.
Three times, in 1987, together with Joel Benjamin, 1995 and 1998, he won the U.S. Championship. In 2002, he was tied for first with Larry Christiansen and lost the playoff against this.
Several times he has participated in inter-zonal tournaments around the world chess championship. He was a member of the U.S. team at the Chess Olympiads of 1980, 1984 in Thessaloniki ( both bronze medals with the team as a player on the second replacement board ), 1986, 1988, 1900, 1996, 1998 and 2000.
Among his successes in open tournaments his victory at the Canadian Open Championship in 1983 and winning the first prize at the World Open in 1986 stand out, which at that time represented a record for open tournaments in its height of 21,000 U.S. $. The Firmian is a founding member of Prochess, an interest group of grandmasters for the promotion of chess in the United States. He has also played in the Chess League. He belonged to the crew of Lübeck chess club of 1873, the Master was in 2001-2003, respectively. In November 2009, his Elo rating was 2553rd
De Firmian is considered an expert on chess openings. He is the author of opening books and has the 13th - 15th edition of the standard work Modern Chess Openings written. He was involved in establishing the opening book for the chess computer Deep Blue before its second match in 1997 against the World Champion Garry Kasparov, which has won the computer.
In 2006, de Firmian has a revised and enlarged edition of Chess Fundamentals, a work of the third José Raúl Capablanca chess world champion of 1921 issued. This issue encountered opposition on the part of the chess historian Edward Winter, because Capablanca's text changed and games have been removed from previous editions to add new games that were not played by Capablanca.
De Firmian lives in Denmark with his wife Christine, who is also an expert chess and has already played in the Danish women's national team.
Works
- Modern Chess Openings Walter Korn: 13th edition, A. & C. Black, 1990
- 14th edition, Random House, 1999, ISBN 0-8129-3084-3.
- 15th edition, Random House, 2008