Lev Alburt

Lev Alburt

Alburt in 1980
Personal information
Born	Lev Osipovich Alburt (1945-08-21) August 21, 1945 Orenburg, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Chess career
Country	Soviet Union (until 1979) United States (since 1979)
Title	Grandmaster (1977)
FIDE rating	2539 (July 2026)
Peak rating	2580 (July 1981)
Peak ranking	No. 22 (January 1981)

Lev Osipovich Alburt (born August 21, 1945) is an American 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.

Alburt won the Ukrainian Chess Championship in 1972, 1973 and 1974. He earned the International Master title in 1976, and became a Grandmaster in 1977.

He defected to the United States in 1979, while on a chess team trip (European Champions' Cup) to Germany and upon his arrival to the U.S., staying for several months with his former coach and fellow Ukrainian chess player and chess journalist Michael Faynberg. In 1980, Alburt led the U.S. Chess Olympiad team at Malta.

Alburt won the U.S. Chess Championship in 1984, 1985 and 1990, and the U.S. Open Chess Championship in 1987 and 1989. In 1986, he drew an eight-game match with the British Chess Champion, Jonathan Speelman.

Alburt is the author of numerous best-selling chess books.

He served on the Board of Directors of the United States Chess Federation from 1985 to 1988. At the conclusion of his term, he stated that not once did he ever hear any discussion by the board of how to promote chess or bring new players into the game.¹

Alburt has worked as a chess coach for many years. In 2004, he was awarded the title of FIDE Senior Trainer. In New York City, where he lives, several Wall Street figures and other prominent people have taken chess classes from him, including Carl Icahn, Stephen Friedman, Doug Hirsch, Eliot Spitzer and Ted Field.²

Alburt was the highest-rated American player on the January 1981 FIDE rating list.³

• Alburt, with Eric Schiller (1985). The Alekhine for the Tournament Player. American Chess Promotions. ISBN 0-7134-1596-7.
• Alburt (1989). Test and improve your chess. Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-08-032041-4.
• Alburt, with Alexander Chernin (2001). Pirc Alert!. W W Norton & Co Inc. ISBN 978-1-889323-07-7.
• Alburt (2002). Building Up Your Chess: The Art of Accurate Evaluation and Other Winning Techniques. Newmarket Press. ISBN 978-1-889323-08-4.
• Alburt, with Nikolai Krogius (2005). Just the Facts!: Winning Endgame Knowledge in One Volume (second ed.). Chess Information and Research Center (distributed by W. W. Norton). ISBN 1-889323-15-2.
• Alburt, with Roman Dzindzichashvili and Eugene Perelshteyn (2006). Chess Openings for White, Explained. Chess Information and Research Center. ISBN 978-1-889323-11-4.
• Alburt, with Roman Dzindzichashvili and Eugene Perelshteyn (2009). Chess Openings for Black, Explained. Chess Information and Research Center. ISBN 978-1-889323-18-3.
• Alburt, with Jon Crumiller (2017). Carlsen vs. Karjakin World Chess Championship New York 2016. Chess Information and Research Center. ISBN 978-1-889323-29-9. This book won the 2018 Chess Journalists of America "Book of the Year" award.

The Alburt Variation in Alekhine's Defence is named after him: 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 g6.⁴

In a 1977 tournament in Czechoslovakia, Alburt defeated Vlastimil Hort, who was rated No. 6 in the world at the time, with the black pieces using the Benko Gambit:

In the 1990 U.S. Championship en route to winning the championship a third time, Alburt defeated four-time U.S. champion Yasser Seirawan with the black pieces: