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Florin Gheorghiu
Gheorghiu 
Photo by Peter Bolt 

Number of games in database: 2,060
Years covered: 1960 to 2019
Last FIDE rating: 2367
Highest rating achieved in database: 2605
Overall record: +680 -222 =1156 (61.1%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games in the database. 2 exhibition games, blitz/rapid, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS
With the White pieces:
 King's Indian (126) 
    E81 E82 E92 E83 E80
 Queen's Indian (91) 
    E12 E15 E17 E19 E16
 English (79) 
    A16 A14 A15 A17 A10
 Sicilian (74) 
    B36 B52 B32 B89 B43
 English, 1 c4 c5 (65) 
    A30 A31 A34 A33 A36
 Ruy Lopez (65) 
    C93 C95 C91 C92 C94
With the Black pieces:
 Sicilian (357) 
    B42 B43 B41 B40 B22
 Sicilian Kan (148) 
    B42 B43 B41
 Modern Benoni (89) 
    A56 A57 A62 A58 A64
 English, 1 c4 c5 (89) 
    A30 A36 A37 A34 A31
 King's Indian (57) 
    E63 E94 E77 E76 E75
 Grunfeld (39) 
    D78 D94 D86 D82 D85
Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   Gheorghiu vs Fischer, 1966 1-0
   Gheorghiu vs Uhlmann, 1967 1-0
   Uhlmann vs Gheorghiu, 1976 0-1
   Gheorghiu vs M Basman, 1968 1-0
   Kramnik vs Gheorghiu, 1989 1/2-1/2
   Andersson vs Gheorghiu, 1981 1/2-1/2
   Gheorghiu vs S Momo, 1962 1-0
   Fischer vs Gheorghiu, 1968 1/2-1/2
   Gheorghiu vs Fischer, 1970 1/2-1/2
   Gheorghiu vs B Larsen, 1972 1/2-1/2

NOTABLE TOURNAMENTS: [what is this?]
   Romanian Championship (1965)
   Romanian Championship (1967)
   Romanian Championship (1977)
   Novi Sad (1979)
   82nd US Open (1981)
   World Junior Championship Final-A (1961)
   Romanian Championship (1970)
   Reykjavik (1972)
   Forssa / Helsinki Zonal (1972)
   4th Lloyds Bank Masters Open (1980)
   Romanian Championship (1961)
   Australian Open (1971)
   Skopje Solidarnost (1970)
   Athens Zonal (1969)
   Riga Interzonal (1979)

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   0ZeR0's collected games volume 178 by 0ZeR0
   Forssa/Helsinki zonal tournament 1972 by Chessdreamer

RECENT GAMES:
   🏆 TCh-SUI
   S Ovsejevitsch vs Gheorghiu (Oct-19-19) 1-0
   Gheorghiu vs S Ovsejevitsch (Aug-28-16) 1/2-1/2
   Gheorghiu vs N Georgiadis (Oct-10-15) 1/2-1/2
   Gleizerov vs Gheorghiu (Sep-17-12) 1/2-1/2

Search Sacrifice Explorer for Florin Gheorghiu
Search Google for Florin Gheorghiu
FIDE player card for Florin Gheorghiu

FLORIN GHEORGHIU
(born Apr-06-1944, 81 years old) Romania

[what is this?]

Florin Gheorghiu was born in Bucharest. In 1963, he won the World Junior Championship and was awarded the IM title. In 1965 he became a Grandmaster. He won the Romanian Championship in 1960 (age 16), 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1973, 1977 and 1984. He played for Romania in a record 14 Olympiads (every Olympiad from 1962 through 1990, except 1976).

He finished first at Hastings (1967/68) (tied with Hort and Stein), Reykjavik 1972 (tied with Hort and Ólafsson), Orense 1973, Torremolinos 1974 (with Torre), Lone Pine (1979) (with Gligorić, Liberzon, and Hort), Novi Sad (1979), Biel (1982) (with Nunn) and Lenk 1990. He won the U.S. Open in 1979, 1980 (tied with Fedorowicz) and 1981 (tied with Christiansen and three others). At his peak in November 1980, he was rated No. 10 in the world.

Wikipedia article: Florin Gheorghiu

Last updated: 2023-02-17 16:15:20

Try our new games table.

 page 1 of 83; games 1-25 of 2,060  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. Gheorghiu vs A Izvozchikov  1-0531960GEO-ROUB01 Scandinavian
2. A Saidy vs Gheorghiu 1-0431960WchT U26 07thE93 King's Indian, Petrosian System
3. C Radovici vs Gheorghiu  ½-½321961Romanian ChampionshipE59 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Main line
4. M Radulescu vs Gheorghiu  0-1241961Romanian ChampionshipB92 Sicilian, Najdorf, Opocensky Variation
5. I Szabo vs Gheorghiu  0-1331961Romanian ChampionshipB62 Sicilian, Richter-Rauzer
6. Gheorghiu vs E Reicher  1-0241961Romanian ChampionshipB32 Sicilian
7. Gheorghiu vs V Urseanu  0-1321961Romanian ChampionshipD25 Queen's Gambit Accepted
8. V Vaisman vs Gheorghiu  ½-½401961Romanian ChampionshipB94 Sicilian, Najdorf
9. Gheorghiu vs D Drimer  1-0281961Romanian ChampionshipB96 Sicilian, Najdorf
10. V Ciocaltea vs Gheorghiu ½-½531961Romanian ChampionshipB56 Sicilian
11. Gheorghiu vs J S Fischer  1-0421961Romanian ChampionshipD35 Queen's Gambit Declined
12. Gheorghiu vs V Georgescu  0-1391961Romanian ChampionshipD44 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
13. Gheorghiu vs O Puscasiu  1-0241961Romanian ChampionshipD30 Queen's Gambit Declined
14. Gheorghiu vs T Ghitescu 0-1411961Romanian ChampionshipA89 Dutch, Leningrad, Main Variation with Nc6
15. C Botez vs Gheorghiu  ½-½301961Romanian ChampionshipA37 English, Symmetrical
16. Gheorghiu vs C Bozdoghina  1-0381961Romanian ChampionshipE99 King's Indian, Orthodox, Taimanov
17. G Mititelu vs Gheorghiu  ½-½281961Romanian ChampionshipA81 Dutch
18. B Soos vs Gheorghiu  ½-½311961Romanian ChampionshipD73 Neo-Grunfeld, 5.Nf3
19. Gheorghiu vs A Ginsberger  ½-½361961Romanian ChampionshipC78 Ruy Lopez
20. Gheorghiu vs M Pavlov  ½-½301961Romanian ChampionshipE91 King's Indian
21. C Partos vs Gheorghiu  0-1361961Romanian ChampionshipA26 English
22. O Jakobsen vs Gheorghiu  0-1301961Wch U20 prel-AE86 King's Indian, Samisch, Orthodox, 7.Nge2 c6
23. Gheorghiu vs W Schmidt 1-0271961Wch U20 prel-AE71 King's Indian, Makagonov System (5.h3)
24. J Rubinetti vs Gheorghiu  0-1531961Wch U20 prel-AE98 King's Indian, Orthodox, Taimanov, 9.Ne1
25. Gheorghiu vs H Holaszek  1-0361961Wch U20 prel-AE70 King's Indian
 page 1 of 83; games 1-25 of 2,060  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Gheorghiu wins | Gheorghiu loses  

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 3 OF 3 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Apr-06-13  waustad: One more year as a sexigenarian!
Jul-26-13  galdur: Great player. Bobby´s loss to him at Havana in 1966 was the only competitive game he ever lost to a player younger than himself.
Jul-26-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: Great player? Not really: he obviously was unsure of himself in some way or other, despite his undoubted strength.

For those who have doubts, see the kibitzing at Gheorghiu vs L Piasetski, 1977.

Jul-26-13  galdur: Relax <perfidious> I didn´t say he was a great human being. He played some great chess though, there´s no denying that.
Jul-26-13  nescio: <...unsure of himself,,,> Gheorghiu had the talent to reach the candidates matches but his nerves couldn't cope with the tensions of high-level play. See for example the story by <ToTheDeath> under Larsen vs Gheorghiu, 1970
Jul-26-13  galdur: So, he´s still a sort of a non-person? Which would explain his meager biography here. It sure is difficult to conform in a perfect world where even Ray Keene denounces you. Amen and qmen.
Jul-26-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: <nescio>: Never heard that story till now; maybe it was a small down payment on Gheorghiu's karmic debt.
May-24-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: Now that is a profile pic to die for.

<Also, he won the Philipines (Manila) Open in 1970 with 11/11, beating Bobby's record of 10.5/11 an year earlier.>

Fischer played in the Manila Open in 1969? Really? Guess no one saved the game scores?

May-24-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  tamar: Yeah, quite a picture. I didn't know Rudolph Valentino played chess.
Apr-20-18  epistle: https://joeam.com/2018/04/20/mr-chi...
Oct-25-18  zanzibar: Actually the <CG> photo is a terrible photograph, in the sense that Gheorghiu looks to be a blond due to some chemical washing of the photo.

See the blow-up here:

http://www.gahetna.nl/collectie/afb...

Photoshopped before photoshop!

He was dark haired (and the above photo misled me due to the hair color when trying to match up players in another photo).

See this extensive, and quite informative, collection of the Romanian player:

http://www.stere.ro/albume-personal...

(Don't mind the washed-out look, just click on the squares to get a good look at each photo)

Some incredible photos of him as a child player.

Mar-30-19  siggemannen: Great pics, <zanzibar>! Check out this one of Gheorghiu together with Suba and two other somehow familiar players: http://www.stere.ro/wp-content/uplo...
Mar-30-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  Fusilli: <siggemannen> Nice. The games Kasparov-Suba and Gheorghiu-Karpov happened in two olympiads: 1982 and 1986. As the URL in your link indicates, the photo shows the players at the 1986 Olympiad in Dubai. The games in question were:

Kasparov vs Suba, 1986

Gheorghiu vs Karpov, 1986

The Romanians held both world champions to a draw.

The third board, Sokolov v Ionescu (not in this database), was also a draw.

The USSR won the match because Yusupov produced this devilish endgame win on board 4:

M V Ghinda vs Yusupov, 1986

(Take a look at that endgame. It's worth pondering on it!)

Mar-30-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: what city is the page photo taken in? (The world jr. championship site.)
Mar-30-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  Fusilli: <HeHateMe>

The Hague. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World...

Mar-31-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  Fusilli: <HeMateMe> Apologies, I misread your user name yesterday.
Dec-18-20  waustad: His connection to the recent media sensation was the huge picture of him with Walter Tevis that the latter had in his chess shrine in a finished garage in Athens Ohio. Tevis wrote “Queen’s Gambit.”
May-04-21  Nosnibor: In the 1965 Rumanian Championship he finished 3 points ahead of the field! Final scores were : Gheorghiu 17, Ciocaltea 14, Partos 13.5, Nacu, Nacht, Ghitescu, Mititelu, Pavlov and Georgerscu 12.5, Soos 10.5, Vaisman, Drozd, Reicher 10, Neamtu 9.5, Botez, Voiculescu and Ungereano 9, J Szabo 8.5, Moisini 8, Suta 7.5, Bondoe 7, Radelescu 6.5.
Nov-08-21  floryncd1970: Some of the above names are misspelled:
Georgerscu - Georgescu
Ungereano - Ungureanu
Bondoe - Bondoc
Radelescu - Radulescu.
The 1965 was the second year from a series of 4 consecutive victories for Gheorghiu (1964 - 1965 - 1966 - 1967), which is a record until today!
Jan-14-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: That photo is horrible. Can't we use a different one, such as this one from Wikimedia Commons?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flori...
Jan-15-24  stone free or die: The old 2018 post by <zanzibar> complaining about the same photo needs updating - unfortunately the full album isn't available via Wayback.

Here's the best I could do at the moment:

https://web.archive.org/web/2018060...

Jan-15-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  Stonehenge: I think stere.ro chess is now arhisah.ro.

Apparently there are seven Gheorghiu pages here https://www.arhisah.ro/gheorghiu-fl....

It takes ages to load, if loading at all.

Jan-15-24  stone free or die: Thanks <Stonehenge>, nice to see it's still available.

The photo gallery starts on the 2nd page fwiw.

Apr-07-24  Pyrandus: Y-at-il Roumains sur ce bateau? Aujourd'hui
c'est son anniversaire. Pourquoi le silence???
Apr-07-24  virginmind: La multi ani, Florin Gheorghiu!
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