Bela Soos ( hu, Soós Béla; 6 March 1930, in Târgu Mureș – 12 September 2007, in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

) was a Romanian chess player who was awarded the title of

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

in 1967. As a youth, he was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player, representing

Dinamo Bucharest A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterinbu ...

during his military service.Gh. Botezan
''Soós Béla sakkozó - Marosvásárhelyi sportlegendák (Bela Soos, chess player - sporting legends of Targu Mures)''
e-nepujsag.com, 25 August 2013 (in Hungarian) He represented Romania in 4 chess olympiads in 1956, 1962, 1966 and 1968, before

defecting In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

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in the early 1970s. Following his defection, all further mention of him was suppressed in Romanian publications. He is noted for two wins over leading Soviet grandmaster Efim Geller, including a crushing win in 23 moves at the 1962 olympiad in Varna, Bulgaria.Marius Ceteras & Olympiu Urca
Geller's Nightmare
chesscafe.com, 29 November 2005

References

External links

* * Romanian chess players Romanian sportspeople of Hungarian descent German chess players Chess International Masters Chess Olympiad competitors 20th-century chess players 1930 births 2007 deaths People from Târgu Mureș {{romania-chess-bio-stub