Efim Petrovich Geller (, ; 8 March 1925 – 17 November 1998) was a Soviet chess player and world-class grandmaster at his peak. He won the Soviet Championship twice (in 1955 and 1979) and was a Candidate for the World Championship on six occasions (1953, 1956, 1962, 1965, 1968, and 1971). He won four Ukrainian SSR Championship titles (in 1950, 1957, 1958, and 1959) and shared first in the 1991 World Seniors' Championship, winning the title outright in 1992. Geller was coach to World Champions Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov. He was also an author. Early life Geller grew up in Odesa, USSR, and was Jewish. He was a fine basketball player, and earned his doctorate in physical education before specialising in chess. His development as a top player was delayed by the inception of World War II. Geller's first notable result was sixth place in the 1947 Ukrainian SSR Chess Championship at Kyiv with 9½/15; the winner was Alexei Sokolsky. He shared 3rd–5th places at Baku 1948 with 9/15, an event won by Jüri Randviir. Geller scored 11/18 at the 1948 Ukrainian SSR Championship in Kyiv for a shared 5th–8th place; the winners were Sokolsky and Poliak. Grandmaster Geller began to make his mark in the late 1940s, as he won the USSR Championship semifinal qualifier at Tbilisi 1949 with 11½/16, thus advancing to the final later that year. His finals debut was sensational at URS-ch17 at Moscow; as a virtual unknown he tied for 3rd–4th places with 12½/19, behind only winners David Bronstein and Vasily Smyslov. Geller defeated such established players as Semyon Furman, Isaac Boleslavsky, Alexander Kotov, Salo Flohr, fellow finals debutant Tigran Petrosian, Viacheslav Ragozin, and Grigory Levenfish. Despite this showing, he was obliged to return to the semifinal level the next year, but advanced with a third-place finish in the 1950 qualifier at Kyiv with 9/15. At URS-ch18 at Moscow 1950, Geller made 9/17 for a shared 7th–10th place; the winner was Paul Keres. Also in 1950, Geller won the Ukrainian SSR Championship in Kyiv, the first of his four titles in that event; he repeated from 1957 to 1959, with all three events in Kyiv. Geller in 1950 made his international debut at the Przepiorka Memorial at Iwonicz Zdroj with 11½/19 for seventh place in a powerful field; Keres won again. Geller is reckoned to have been among the best ten players in the