The late Eduard Gufeld was quite a figure on the international chess circuit. Even before the fall of the USSR he travelled quite widely to many western tournaments including the 1988 Doeberl Cup (which he tied for 1st in). It was rumoured however that part of the reason for this travel was as a 'messenger' for the KGB, in that in visiting overseas Russian communities he reminded them of who was watching from within the USSR.
The other odd thing about Gufeld is that he seemed to be on the receiving end of a couple of cruel barbs from Tigran Petrosian. In Dvoretsky and Yusopov's book 'Positional Chess' Dvoretsky describes a joint analysis session between the two. After being constantly outplayed by Petrosian Gufeld asked 'How is it that my position isn't better?'. 'Because my head is better' explained Petrosian.
Petrosian delivered an even crueller put down soon after Gufeld became a Grandmaster. Gufeld, not an immodest man I must say, walked up to Petrosian at a tournament and said 'Tigran, now we are equals'. At that moment a journeyman GM walked by (possibly Matulovic) at whom Petrosian pointed and said, 'No. Now you are his equal'.
btw Click for a definition of Butt Monkey
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3 comments:
To be declared the equal of Jadoubavic is indeed a cruel barb.
Gufeld was no Petrosian !
In Joel Benjamins "American Grandmaster" there more not so flattering stuff about Gufeld...
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