Roman Shlemovich Pelts (August 11, 1937 – October 10, 2022) was a Ukrainian-Canadian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

master.

Biography

Pelts was born in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

on August 11, 1937. In 1959, Pelts founded a chess school in Odessa. Seven of his early students became grandmasters:

Lev Alburt Lev Osipovich Alburt (born August 21, 1945) is a chess Grandmaster, writer and coach. He was born in Orenburg, Russia, and became three-time Ukrainian Champion. After defecting to the United States in 1979, he became three-time U.S. Champion ...

, Sam Palatnik,

Vladimir Tukmakov Vladimir Borisovich Tukmakov (, born March 5, 1946 in Odessa) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He gained the Grandmaster title in 1972. Career His career first blossomed when he helped and then led the USSR to consecutive wins of the World St ...

, Valeri Beim,

Konstantin Lerner Konstantin Zaivelevich Lerner ( uk, Костантин Зайвелевич Лернер; 28 February 1950, Odessa, Ukraine, former USSR – 24 September 2011, Herzlia, Israel) was a Ukrainian chess grandmaster (GM). In 1978 and 1982, he w ...

, Leonid Yurtaev, and Boris Kantsler. He was the official trainer for the 1971 USSR student team on which

Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov ( rus, links=no, Анато́лий Евге́ньевич Ка́рпов, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈkarpəf; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet chess grandmaster, former World Ches ...

and

Alexander Beliavsky Alexander Genrikhovich Beliavsky (, ua, Олександр Генріхович Бєлявський, sl, Aleksander Henrikovič Beljavski; also romanized ''Belyavsky''; born December 17, 1953) is a Soviet, Ukrainian and Slovenian chess play ...

played. At the beginning of his career, he took 15th at

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

1962 (

Anatoly Bannik Anatoly Alexandrovich Bannik (December 1921, in Kyiv – 19 January 2013) was a Ukrainians, Ukrainian chess Chess master, Master. He was a five-time Ukrainian champion, and qualified for the Soviet Chess Championship final seven times. He was among ...

won), and played board one on the Soviet national team that won the 1964 Students' World Championship at

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, Poland. Pelts came to Canada in 1978. After moving to

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, he established the first Canadian chess school in 1979. He later settled in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

and continued his school there. Pelts played for Canada in three

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

s: at

Lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...

1982 and

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

1984 and 1988. In 1981 Pelts earned the title of

FIDE 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 an ...

. He was inducted into the Canadian Chess Hall of Fame in 2001. Pelts died in Toronto on October 10, 2022, at the age of 85.

Publications

* Roman Pelts &

, ''Comprehensive Chess Course - Volume I'', 126 pages * Roman Pelts &

, ''Comprehensive Chess Course - Volume II'', 304 pages * Roman Pelts &

, ''Cours complet d'échecs'', Éditions Fédération québécoise des échecs (https://fqechecs.qc.ca/),

Montréal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

, 1989, (translation of the above 2 titles)

Biography

Publications

References

See also