Soviet and Ukrainian chess player Efim Geller (Efim Petrovich Geller) was born in Odessa on 8 March 1925. Before turning to chess full time he was an excellent basketball player and gained his doctorate in physical education. His peak World Ranking was 2nd (in 3 different months between May 1963 and July 1963). According to Chessmetrics his peak rating is 2765. He was considered to be one of the top ten chess players between 1959 and 1964.

He reached the later stages of the World Championship six times. He participated in the 1953 Candidate Tournament in Zurich and in the 1956 in Amsterdam. He achieved one of his best results at the Stockholm Interzonal in the 1962 cycle when he finished second behind Bobby Fischer. Later at the Curacao Candidates Tournament he finished 1 ½ points short of the first place and tied at second place with Paul Keres. Although he lost the play-off against Keres in 1962 in Moscow, he could still qualify to the 1965 Candidates Tournament as a substitute. Here he defeated Smyslov (5½-2½) in the first round in Moscow, but lost against Spassky (5½-2½) in Sukhumi. He returned to Interzonal level in 1970 in Mallorca and became Candidate again. In Moscow he lost his first match against Korchnoi (5½-2½). In 1973 he finished second together with Lajos Portisch and Lev Polugaevsky at the Petropolis Interzonal, but fell out in Portorož. Therefore he lost two qualifying spots and could not advance.

Efim Geller was a successful chess player in Chess Olympiads. He competed seven times for the Soviet Union between 1952 and 1980 and won team gold all seven times. In 1954, 56 and 62 he won individual gold medal and silver in 1952, 68 and 80.

Interesting facts:

Geller trained Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov who were both World Champions.

He died on 17 November 1998 at the age of 73.