Israel Zilber

Israel Zilber (June 25, 1933) is a chess player who won the Latvian Chess Championship in 1958.

Israel Zilber
CountryLatvia
Soviet Union
Israel
United States
Born (1933-06-25) June 25, 1933
Riga, Latvia

Latvia chess player

Zilber was born in Riga, Latvia. He achieved excellent results during the period 1950 to 1973 when he lived in Soviet Latvia. He played for Latvia in Soviet Team juniors chess championships in Leningrad in 1951 at first board (5½/9).[1]

He played in Latvian Chess Championship finals in:

He was Riga champion in 1962 and 1974, and "Daugava" champion in 1962[17] and won second place in 1965.[18] In the Championship of USSR he reached semifinals in 1956,[19] 1957,[20] 1958,[21] and 1962.[22]

Zilber also played for Latvia in Soviet Team chess championships in 1953 (second place at seventh board: +4−1=2), 1955 (at fourth board: +2−2=5), 1958 (at first board: +1−5=1), 1960 (at fifth board: 2½/7), 1962 (second place at fourth board: +4−1=3), and 1963 (at fourth board: 6/9).[23]

He played in the Soviet Team chess cup for team "Daugava" at fifth board in 1961 (+0−3=3) and 1964 (+0−1=0).[24]

US chess player

After 1974, Zilber immigrated first to Israel and then to the United States. In 1979, he played in Hastings International Chess Congress;[25] in 1980 Zilber won the Masters Open tournament in Biel and a year later he won Limoges tournament. Also his name can be found between the participants of Manchester Benedictine in 1980.[26] His life was not very successful in the United States, however. Zilber would end up homeless on the streets of New York City through most of the 1980s and played in Washington Square Park.[27] This setting was the story about the park in the 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer. Details of Zilber's life in the end are controversial – an unconfirmed story states that during one hard winter he froze to death.[28] But in another version he is not listed in the Social Security Death Index.[29]

Notable games
  • Mikhail Tal vs. Zilber, URS 1952.[30] First victory over young Mikhail Tal.
  • Zilber vs. Mikhail Tal, URS 1958.[31] The deciding battle in the 1958 Latvian Chess Championship.
  • Zilber vs. Yasser Seirawan, Hastings 1979/80.[32] The very interesting game with Yasser Seirawan.
gollark: WHY(JIT)?! WHY(JIT)?!
gollark: ++exec```hsimport Unsafe.Coercemain = putStr $ show $ (unsafeCoerce putStrLn :: (Int -> [Int])) 5```
gollark: ++exec```hsimport Unsafe.Coercemain = putStr $ show $ (unsafeCoerce putStrLn :: (Int -> [IO Int])) 5```
gollark: I want to see what putStrLn looked like and it denied my dream...
gollark: How evil of it.

References
  1. http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_urs/1951/ch_jut51.html
  2. "ch Latvia 1950". Al20102007.narod.ru. 1950-04-27. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  3. "ch Latvia 1951". Al20102007.narod.ru. 1951-01-04. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  4. "ch Latvia 1952". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  5. "ch Latvia 1953". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  6. "ch Latvia 1954". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  7. "ch Latvia 1955". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  8. "ch Latvia 1956". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  9. "ch Latvia 1957". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  10. "ch Latvia 1958". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  11. "ch Latvia 1961". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  12. "ch Latvia 1962". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  13. "ch Latvia 1963". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  14. "ch Latvia 1964". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  15. "ch Latvia 1972". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  16. "ch Latvia 1973". Al20102007.narod.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  17. http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_dso/1962/ch_dau62.html
  18. http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_dso/1965/ch_dau65.html
  19. http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_urs/1956/sf_len56.html
  20. http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_urs/1957/sf_len57.html
  21. http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_urs/1958/sf_ros58.html
  22. http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_urs/1962/sf_rig62.html
  23. Wojciech Bartelski. "Soviet Team Chess Championship :: Israel Zilbers". OlimpBase. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  24. Wojciech Bartelski. "Soviet Team Chess Cup :: Israel Zilbers". OlimpBase. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  25. "Hastings 7980 1979 – 365Chess.com Tournaments". 365chess.com. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  26. "Manchester Benedictine op 1980 – 365Chess.com Tournaments". 365chess.com. 1980-09-03. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  27. "New York Daily Photo: Chess Monsters". Newyorkdailyphoto.blogspot.com. 2009-08-06. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  28. "I'll get you Wolfgang Unzicker". Chessmastercoach.com. 1999-02-22. Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  29. "Israel Zilber". ChessBanter. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  30. "Mikhail Tal vs. Josif Israel Zilber, Latvian ch (1952), URS". Chessgames.com.
  31. "Josif Israel Zilber vs. Mikhail Tal, Latvian ch (1958), Riga". Chessgames.com.
  32. "Josif Israel Zilber vs. Yasser Seirawan, Hastings (1979/80), ENG". Chessgames.com.
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