Israeli chess player Boris Gelfand was born in Minsk on 24 June 1968. He started to play chess at a very early age. He was four when he got Averbakh’s chess book for children and read it through in a few months with the help of his father. At seven he was already a member in a chess club where he was coached by Eduard Zelkind, later Tamara Golovey and Albert Kapengut. Between 1980 and 1983 he attended Tigran Petrosian’s school. His peak World Ranking was 3rd (in July 1990). His current rating is 2740.

Gelfand qualified himself in the 1990-1993 World Championship cycle for the first time, and as he won the Interzonal in Manila, he could participate in the Candidates Tournament where in the quarter finals he lost against British Nigel Short. In the next 1996 World Championship cycle he won the Interzonal again, and in the Candidates Tournament he lost against Anatoly Karpov only in the finals. In the 1998 World Championship cycle he got to the semi-finals of the Candidates Tournament, where he lost against Indian Viswanathan Anand. In the 2002 FIDE World Championship he got in the quarter finals where he was defeated by Peter Svidler in the play-off.

In the 2007 World Championship he got to the Candidates Tournament, where he won first against Rustam Kasimdzhanov then against Gata Kamsky, qualifying for the Championship tournament with seven other candidates. In the two-round tournament he finished joint second with Vladimir Kramnik behind Viswanathan Anand. In 2012 he played Championship Match against reigning champion Anand. He drew 6 to 6, but Anand won the four game rapid playoff 2 ½ to 1 ½ thus keeping his title.

He participated in eleven Chess Olympiads between 1990 and 2014, playing for the Soviet Union in 1990, for Belarus in 1994 and 1996, and for Israel from 2000. In 1990 he won team bronze. He did not win individual medals until 2008 when he won both individual and team silver medals. In 2010 he won team bronze.