Florin Gheorghiu


Florin Gheorghiu is a Romanian chess player and university lecturer in foreign languages.
Born in Ploiești, on 6 April 1944, while the American bombers attacked the country's capital, his prodigious talent for the game was evidenced by his many early achievements; he became an International Master in 1963 and Romania's first Grandmaster just two years later. He was also awarded the title of World Junior Chess Champion in 1963 at Vrnjacka Banja.
In his home country there were few who could rival his dominance of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. He won the Romanian Championship nine times and represented his country in all of the Chess Olympiads between 1962 and 1990, playing first board on ten occasions.
Gheorghiu was a lecturer in French at Bucharest University and also speaks English, Russian, German, and Spanish.

Chess career

Gheorghiu has seldom been regarded a serious contender for the world chess championship title, although he regularly participated in the cycle and at other prestigious events. His placings at four Interzonal Tournaments confirm that he was not as strong as the world's elite players at the time, but could nevertheless perform consistently well at a high level. At Petropolis 1973 he finished 14th, at Manila 1976 10–13th, Riga 1979 5–6th and twelfth at Moscow 1982. At the Riga Interzonal, he only narrowly failed to qualify for the Candidates Matches. Overall, he participated in 9 zonal and 4 interzonal tournaments.
When playing at his peak on the regular international tournament circuit, he won on many occasions, including Hastings 1967–68, Reykjavik 1972, Orense 1973, Torremolinos 1974, Lone Pine 1979, Novi Sad 1979, Biel 1982 and Lenk 1990. He was always a formidable opponent at the U.S. Open tournament and finished first in three successive years—1979, 1980 and 1981.
Playing for his country, he gathered 461 games in 65 contests, summing up to an overall result of 145 wins, 274 draws and 42 losses. Details are given in the table below.
TownYearContest's name+=-
Tbilisi1960friendly match S. S. R. Georgia – Romania 130
Leningrad1960World student team ch. VII 511
Bucharest1961friendly match Romania – S. S. R. Georgia 310
Karl Marx-Stadt1961friendly match East Germany – Romania 101
Bucharest1962friendly match Romania – Bulgaria 110
Budapest1962friendly match Hungary – Romania 020
Marianske Lazne1962World student team ch. IX 481
Varna1962Olympiad XV 681
Bucharest1963friendly match Romania – Hungary 200
Krakow1964World student team ch. XI 730
Sinaia1964preliminaries of European team ch. 420
Tel Aviv1964Olympiad XVI 881
Bucharest1965friendly match Romania – Poland 110
Hamburg1965European team ch. III 172
Sinaia1965World student team ch. XII 841
Örebro1966World student team ch. XIII 850
La Habana1966Olympiad XVII 973
Bucharest1966friendly match Romania – S. S. R. Latvia 020
Warsaw1967friendly match Poland – Romania 020
Sofia1967preliminaries of European team ch. 240
Harrachov1967World student team ch. XIV 470
Lugano1968Olympiad XVIII 3140
Novi Sad1969friendly match Yugoslavia – Romania 020
Bucharest1970friendly match Romania – Yugoslavia 020
Siegen1970Olympiad XIX 6103
Bamberg1971friendly match Romania – West Germany 020
Atena1971Balkaniad III 121
Bucharest1971preliminaries of European team ch. 200
Sofia1972Balkaniad IV 220
Skopje1972Olympiad XX 5123
Bath1973European team ch. V 052
Paris1973friendly match France – Romania 110
Poiana Brașov1973Balkaniad V 040
Nisa1974Olympiad XXI 5130
Poreci1974Balkaniad VI 030
Istanbul1975Balkaniad VII 040
Crans Montana1976preliminaries of European team ch. 130
Bucharest1976friendly match Romania – R. F. G. 020
Athens1976friendly match Greece – Romania 200
Athens1976Balkaniad VIII 121
Moscow1977European team ch. VI 151
Albena1977Balkaniad IX 220
Bucharest1977friendly match Romania – West Germany 020
Boras1978preliminaries of European team ch. 020
Băile Herculane1978Balkaniad X 310
Buenos Aires1978Olympiad XXIII 590
Bensheim1979friendly match West Germany – Romania 110
Istanbul1980Balkaniad XII 230
Malta1980Olympiad XXIV 372
Athens1981Balkaniad XIII 220
Luzern1982Olympiad XXV 354
Băile Herculane1983Balkaniad XV 220
Zinnowitz1983friendly match East Germany – Romania040
Eforie Nord1984friendly match Romania – East Germany022
Skopje1984Balkaniad XVI 041
Salonic1984Olympiad XXVI 581
Iraklion1985Balkaniad XVII 220
Luzern1985World team ch. I 072
Dubai1986Olympiad XXVII 390
Kastela Stari1988Balkaniad XX 060
Salonic1988Olympiad XXVIII 373
Haifa1989European team ch. IX 090
Kavala1990Balkaniad XXI 042
Novi Sad1990Olympiad XXIX 381
Debrecen1992European team ch. X 142

Gheorghiu is renowned for his success against the reputedly solid Nimzo-Indian Defence. The variation comprising an early f3 for White became his trademark weapon, improving on the games and development work of Lajos Portisch and Gyozo Forintos before him. The system is now referred to as the Gheorghiu Variation in many chess opening manuals and has been employed by tactical experts such as Alexei Shirov.

Notable games

Here is how Gheorghiu, playing White, beat future world champion Bobby Fischer at the Havana Olympiad in 1966. This was the only competitive game Fischer ever lost to a player younger than himself.