Gerardo (Gert) Budowski (10 June 1925 – 8 October 2014) was a German–Venezuelan chess master. He was born in Berlin into a family with a love of chess. His mother drew a game with José Raúl Capablanca in his simultaneous exhibition in October 1925 in Berlin. His father had a friendly relationship with Alexander Alekhine who gave paid chess lessons to the

child prodigy A child prodigy is defined in psychology research literature as a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful output in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to young people who are extraor ...

in Paris. The Jewish family left Nazi Germany in 1933 for France, and then - during World War II - emigrated to Venezuela, where Gert changed his name to Gerardo and became a Venezuelan citizen in the early 1950s. From 1952, he resided in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

. Dr. Budowski graduated in 1948 as an agricultural engineer from the Universidad Central in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

, Venezuela, then earned his master's degree at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) in

Turrialba Turrialba may refer to: Places * Turrialba Volcano * Turrialba Volcano National Park, created around Turrialba Volcano. * Turrialba (canton), located in Cartago Province * Turrialba (district), located in Turrialba canton. Other * Turrialba cheese ...

, Costa Rica. In 1962, he obtained his doctoral degree in Forestry from Yale University. He was Director General of IUCN ( International Union for Conservation of Nature) from 1970 to 1976. Since 1980, Dr. Budowski was instrumental in the development of the University for Peace, not only did he start the Environmental programme but he also served in positions such as Interim Rector and Vice-Rector. In 2008, he was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus for his vision in the relation between peace and the environment. He won the '' Campeón Absoluto de Venezuela'' title 6-0 by beating Julio García (''Campeón Nacional de Venezuela'') in 1951. He also participated in other championships in Costa Rica in the 1950s. He won Costa Rican team championship, playing for Turrialba, in 1965. He represented Venezuela in the Chess Olympiad at Lugano 1968. Dr. Budowski died of natural causes on October 8, 2014 in

San José, Costa Rica San José (; meaning "Saint Joseph") is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica, and the capital of the province of the same name. It is in the center of the country, in the mid-west of the Central Valley, within San José Canton. San ...

References

External links

Dr. Gerardo Budowski's oral biographyGerardo Budowski at 365Chess.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Budowski, Gerardo 1925 births 2014 deaths German emigrants to France French emigrants to Venezuela Venezuelan chess players Costa Rican chess players Sportspeople from Berlin Central University of Venezuela alumni Yale University alumni Costa Rican people of German descent Venezuelan emigrants to Costa Rica People associated with the International Union for Conservation of Nature