Lev Osipovich Alburt (born August 21, 1945) is an American chess Grandmaster, writer and coach. He was born in

Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...

, Russia, and became three-time Ukrainian Champion. After defecting to the United States in 1979, he became three-time U.S. Champion.

Chess career

Alburt won the Ukrainian Chess Championship in 1972, 1973 and 1974. He earned the

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

title in 1976, and became a Grandmaster in 1977. He defected to the United States in 1979, while on a chess team trip (European Champions' Cup) to Germany and upon his arrival to the U.S., staying for several months with his former coach and fellow Ukrainian chess player and chess journalist Michael Faynberg. In 1980, Alburt led the U.S.

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

team at

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. Alburt won the U.S. Chess Championship in 1984, 1985 and 1990, and the U.S. Open Chess Championship in 1987 and 1989. In 1986, he drew an eight-game match with the British Chess Champion, Jonathan Speelman.

Related work

Alburt is the author of numerous best-selling chess books. He served on the

Board of Directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

of the

United States Chess Federation The United States Chess Federation (also known as US Chess or USCF) is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in FIDE, The World Chess Federation (FIDE). USCF administers the official national Chess ...

from 1985 to 1988. At the conclusion of his term, he stated that not once did he ever hear any discussion by the board of how to promote chess or bring new players into the game. Alburt has worked as a chess coach for many years. In 2004, he was awarded the title of

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

Senior Trainer. In New York City, where he lives, several Wall Street figures and other prominent people have taken chess classes from him, including

Carl Icahn Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American businessman and investor. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach, ...

, Stephen Friedman, Doug Hirsch,

Eliot Spitzer Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 54th governor of New York from 2007 until his resignation in 2008 after a prostitution scandal. A member of the Democratic Party, he was also ...

and Ted Field. Alburt was the highest-rated American player on the January 1981 FIDE rating list.

Books

* * * * * * * * This book won the 2018 Chess Journalists of America "Book of the Year" award.

Legacy

The Alburt Variation in

Alekhine's Defence Alekhine's Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. e4 Nf6 Black tempts White's pawns forward to form a broad , with plans to undermine and attack the white structure later in the spirit of hypermodern defence. White's imposi ...

is named after him: 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 g6.

Notable games

In a 1977 tournament in Czechoslovakia, Alburt defeated

Vlastimil Hort Vlastimil Hort (12 January 1944 – 12 May 2025) was a Czech and German chess grandmaster. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the world's strongest players and reached the World Chess Championship 1978, 1977–78 Candidates Tournament for ...

, who was rated No. 6 in the world at the time, with the black pieces using the

Benko Gambit The Benko Gambit (or Volga Gambit) is a chess opening characterised by the move 3...b5 in the Benoni Defence arising after: :1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4, d4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6, Nf6 :2. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6/2. ...

: In the 1990 U.S. Championship en route to winning the championship a third time, Alburt defeated four-time U.S. champion

Yasser Seirawan Yasser Seirawan (; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States Chess Championship, United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess au ...

with the black pieces:

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alburt, Lev 1945 births Living people Soviet Jews American people of Russian-Jewish descent Chess Grandmasters Chess coaches Ukrainian chess players American chess players Jewish chess players American chess writers American male non-fiction writers Soviet chess players Soviet defectors to the United States Odesa University alumni Chess players from New York City