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Grandmaster Eduard Gufeld has died at the age of 66 at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He suffered a massive stroke two weeks ago which left him in a coma. A legendary chess writer and journalist, Gufeld wrote prodigiously about chess - more than one hundred books, not to mention his articles which are impossible to count. Contradictions and mysteries always accompanied his name. In the latter years Gufeld was sometimes too harshly criticized by reviewers for repetitions in his books, but we should not forget that his initial articles were usually very good. As Grandmaster Bagirov told me, Gufeld «bought furniture for his entire flat» for the fees that he received for annotations in various magazines to the Bagirov-Gufeld game! But the game deserved it. I always liked Gufeld's introduction to his Sicilian Dragon monograph (1982) - a simply great article in my opinion. Besides, we should not forget that during his best years Gufeld, a player of romantic attacking style, was a dangerous opponent even for world champions - in his CV were wins against such players as Smyslov, Tal and Spassky. Even in the 1990s Gufeld still maintained serious chess strength. Once I played against him (Alushta Open, 1993), and lost a quite interesting game. The impulsive Grandmaster even told everybody who was around after the game that it was «his new Joconde!». Still, his «old Joconde» was better, I believe that we can repeat it again and again. V.Bagirov - E.Gufeld, USSR Championship sf, Kirovabad 1973: 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.e4 Nf6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 Nc6 7.Nge2 Rb8 8.Qd2 a6 9.Bh6 b5 10.h4 e5 11.Bxg7 Kxg7 12.h5 Kh8 13.Nd5 bxc4 14.hxg6 fxg6 15.Qh6 Nh5 16.g4 Rxb2 17.gxh5 g5 18.Rg1 g4 19.0-0-0 Rxa2 20.Nef4 exf4 21.Nxf4 Rxf4 22.Qxf4 c3 23.Bc4 Ra3 24.fxg4 Nb4 25.Kb1 Be6 26.Bxe6 Nd3 27.Qf7 Qb8+ 28.Bb3 Rxb3+ 29.Kc2 Nb4+ 30.Kxb3 Nd5+ 31.Kc2 Qb2+ 32.Kd3 Qb5+ 0-1.
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Eduard Gufeld 1936-2002