Roman Shlemovich Pelts a Ukrainian-Canadian chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 master, born in Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

.

In 1959, he founded a chess school in Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

. Seven of his early students became grandmasters: Lev Alburt

Lev Alburt

Lev Osipovich Alburt is a chess Grandmaster and a well-respected chess writer. He was three-time Ukrainian Champion, and after defecting to the United States in 1979, became three-time U.S. Champion.-Career:...

, Sam Palatnik

Sam Palatnik

Semon Alexandrovich Palatnik is a Ukrainian-American chess Grandmaster, born in Odessa.He won four team and individual gold medals at the 20th World Student Team Chess Championship at Teesside 1974, and 21st World Student Team Championship at Caracas 1976.Some of his tournament results include...

, Vladimir Tukmakov

Vladimir Tukmakov

Vladimir Borisovich Tukmakov is a Jewish-Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He gained the Grandmaster title in 1972.His career first blossomed when he helped and then led the USSR to consecutive wins of the World Student Team Championship from 1966 to 1972, bagging nine gold medals along the way.In the...

, Valery Beim, Konstantin Lerner

Konstantin Lerner

Konstantin Zaivelevich Lerner was a Ukrainian chess grandmaster...

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

Anatoly Karpov

Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...

 and Alexander Beliavsky

Alexander Beliavsky

-External links:...

 played.

At the beginning of his career, he took 15th at Minsk 1962 (Anatoly Bannik

Anatoly Bannik

Anatoly Bannik is a Ukrainian Chess Master, who was of Grandmaster strength during his peak years. He is a five-time Ukrainian champion, and qualified for the Soviet Chess Championship final seven times. He was among the top half-dozen Ukrainian players from 1944 to 1966...

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

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

, Poland.

Pelts came to Canada in 1978. After moving to Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

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

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 and continued his school there.
Pelts thrice played for Canada in Chess Olympiads: at Lucerne

Lucerne

Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...

 1982 and Thessalonika 1984 and 1988.

In 1981 Pelts earned the title of FIDE Master.
He was awarded the Canadian Chess Hall of Fame 2001.

Publications

Roman Pelts & Lev Alburt

Lev Alburt

Lev Osipovich Alburt is a chess Grandmaster and a well-respected chess writer. He was three-time Ukrainian Champion, and after defecting to the United States in 1979, became three-time U.S. Champion.-Career:...

, Comprehensive Chess Course - Volume I, 126 pages Roman Pelts & Lev Alburt

Lev Alburt

Lev Osipovich Alburt is a chess Grandmaster and a well-respected chess writer. He was three-time Ukrainian Champion, and after defecting to the United States in 1979, became three-time U.S. Champion.-Career:...

, Comprehensive Chess Course - Volume II, 304 pages Roman Pelts & Lev Alburt

Lev Alburt

Lev Osipovich Alburt is a chess Grandmaster and a well-respected chess writer. He was three-time Ukrainian Champion, and after defecting to the United States in 1979, became three-time U.S. Champion.-Career:...

, Cours complet d'échecs, Éditions Fédération québécoise des échecs, Montréal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, 1989, ISBN 2-9801168-2-3 (translation of the above 2 titles)

See Also

• Chess Academy of Canada, Roman Pelts' Toronto-based chess school.