Welcome

On this page I introduce myself. Also I mention some highlights of my chess career.

A few words about my chess career

I was born in Tel-Aviv (Israel) on 16/04/52 and started my versatile chess career when I was 14. I actually studied the rules of the game much earlier but it was around that age that I started to frequent the chess circle in the Tel-Aviv youth center first under the guidance of the would-be first Israeli born grandmaster IM  Yair Kraidman and then for 17 years with the club's director IM Moshe Czerniak (the Israeli mythological Mister Chess) . At 15 I published my first chess problem (a naïve twomover) as well as my first endgame study; at 16 I was already a trainer and tournaments organizer. At 20 I was a chess columnist in a daily newspaper. At 32 I was full-time club manager. For the last 45 years I have been a chess professional as a busy player (by far still the most active Israeli player ever), writer (hundreds of articles, columns and tournament reports but also co-author of five books), trainer, salesman and organizer. I have been also seriously interested in chess history and chess philately. Actually my only non-chess occupation in that period was editing the weekly crossword in a daily newspaper for about ten years… In 1989 I received a special decoration from the ministry of culture and education in Israel for my contribution to the informal education in Tel-Aviv. Over the years I happened to gain 5 Fide titles: International Master and International Arbiter for both chess and chess composition as well as Fide Master for problem solving. I have one GM norm as a player (winning Paris Championship in 2002- my best result ever) and a single IM norm for problem solving. Surprisingly I have got also a couple of non-chess interests like various sorts of music, quality films and Israeli literature.  Following 47 years in Tel-Aviv I moved in 1999 to Paris and then shortly after to Amsterdam (probably my best move ever!)  where I still currently reside.   

I very much like to visit and study at the Max Euwe Centrum in Amsterdam (www.maxeuwe.nl).