Israeli Chess Championship

David Ben-Gurion at the closing ceremony of the first Israeli Chess Championship, 1951.

The Israeli Chess Championship is a chess event held every year in Israel.

History

From 1951 to 1971, the men's and women's championships were held every two years, eventually becoming an annual event. The 1998 Championship was held 8–24 November in Ramat Aviv. The single-elimination tournament, 32 players in the men's section and 16 in the women's, used an unusual time control of 100 minutes for 30 moves + 30 seconds per move. GM Eran Liss won the men's final over GM Victor Mikhalevski. After tying their 2-game match with one victory apiece, they then tied an active chess playoff with one win and two draws each. In a 5-minute blitz playoff, Liss won 2–0. Irina Yudasina won the women's final over Ella Pitem with one win and one draw.

Winners

# Year Men's Champion 1 1936 Moshe Czerniak 2 1937 Yosef Porat 3 1938 Moshe Czerniak 4 1940 Yosef Porat 5 1945 Izak Aloni 6 1951 Menachem Oren 7 1953 Yosef Porat 8 1955 Moshe Czerniak 9 1957 Yosef Porat 10 1959 Yosef Porat 11 1961 Izak Aloni 12 1963 Yosef Porat 13 1965 Izak Aloni 14 1967 Shimon Kagan 15 1969 Shimon Kagan 16 1971 Uzi Geller 17 1974 Vladimir Liberzon 18 1976 Nathan Birnboim 19 1978 Roman Dzindzichashvili 20 1980 Nathan Birnboim 21 1982 Yehuda Gruenfeld 22 1984 Alon Greenfeld 23 1986 Nathan Birnboim 24 1988 Gad Rechlis 25 1990 Yehuda Gruenfeld 26 1992 Ilya Smirin 27 1994 Leonid Yudasin 28 1996 Lev Psakhis 29 1998 Eran Liss 30 2000 Boris Avrukh Alik Gershon 31 2002 Ilya Smirin 32 2004 Sergey Erenburg 33 2006 Maxim Rodshtein 34 2008 Boris Avrukh 35 2010 Vitali Golod 36 2013 Tamir Nabaty 37 2014 Victor Mikhalevski 38 2016 Tamir Nabaty 39 2018 Alon Greenfeld

# Year Women's Champion 1 1955 Ora Nodel Yaron 2 1957 Rivka Lichtenfeld 3 1959 Genia Gevenda 4 1961 Clara Friedman 5 1963 Clara Friedman 6 1965 Clara Friedman 7 1967 Sima Rabinovitz Forman 8 1969 Frida Rabinovitz Schahar 9 1971 Lidia Gal 10 1974 Olga Podrazhanskaya 11 1976 Olga Podrazhanskaya 12 1978 Ljuba Kristol 13 1980 Lena Glaz 14 1982 Ljuba Kristol Olga Podrazhanskaya 15 1984 Ljuba Kristol 16 1986 Shlomit Vardi 17 1988 Ljuba Kristol 18 1990 Ljuba Kristol 19 1992 Masha Klinova 20 1994 Ludmila Tsifanskaya 21 1996 Ludmila Tsifanskaya 22 1998 Irina Yudasina 23 2000 Ela Pitam 24 2002 Irina Botvinnik 25 2004 Bella Igla 26 2006 Bela Atnilov 27 2008 Olga Vasiliev 28 2010 Masha Klinova 29 2013 Olga Vasiliev 30 2014 Olga Vasiliev 31 2016 Michal Lahav 32 2018 Yuliya Shvayger

# Year Junior Champion 1 1951 Raaphi Persitz 2 1954 Giora Peli 3 1958 Yedael Stepak 4 1959 Yehuda Oppenheim 5 1960 Israel Gat 6 1961 Daniel Mor 7 1962 Israel Gelfer 8 1963 Yaacov Bleiman 9 1964 Yaacov Bleiman 10 1965 Amikam Balshan 11 1966 Abraham Neyman 12 1967 Nathan Birnboim 13 1968 Nathan Birnboim On Neyman 14 1969 Yoel Temanlis 15 1970 Arie Lev 16 1971 Chagai Scheinwald 17 1972 Chagai Scheinwald 18 1973 David Bernstein 19 1974 Yehuda Gruenfeld 20 1975 Nir Greenberg 21 1976 Ehud Lahav 22 1977 Michael Pasman 23 1978 Alon Greenfeld 24 1979 Alon Greenfeld 25 1980 Dan Lapan 26 1981 Ran Shabtai 27 1982 Moshe Pyernik 28 1983 Ofer Brook 29 1984 Ronen Lev 30 1985 Ilan Manor 31 1986 Danny Barash 32 1987 Ronen Lev 33 1988 Ilan Manor 34 1989 Eran Liss 35 1990 Dan Zoler 36 1991 Victor Mikhalevski 37 1992 Victor Mikhalevski 38 1993 Eran Liss 39 1994 Michael Oratovsky 40 1995 Alik Vydeslaver 41 1996 Boris Avrukh 42 1997 Dimitri Tyomkin 43 1998 Alexander Rabinovich 44 1999 Michael Roiz 45 2000 Alik Gershon 46 2001 Evgeny Postny 47 2002 Sergey Erenburg 48 2003 Sergey Erenburg 49 2004 Baruch Sternberg 50 2005 Gaby Livshits 51 2006 Maxim Rodshtein 52 2007 Sasha Kaplan 53 2008 Gil Popilsky 54 2012 Asaf Givon 55 2014 Asaf Givon 56 2015 Nimrod Veinberg 57 2017 Avital Borochovsky 58 2018 Johnatan Bakalchuk 59 2019 Yair Parkhov 60 2020 Erez Kupervaser

Bibliography

• Whyld, Ken (1986), Chess: The Records, Guinness Books, p. 104, ISBN 0-85112-455-0 (results through 1982)
• Crowther, Mark (30 November 1998), THE WEEK IN CHESS 212, London Chess Center
• Wolsza, Tadeusz (2007), Arcymistrzowie, mistrzowie, amatorzy. Słownik biograficzny szachistów polskich, vol. 5, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo DiG, ISBN 83-7181-495-X