RIP Roman Pelts (1937-2022)

[Hugh Brodie]

Roman Pelts passed away on October 10 at the age of 88.

"In 1959, Pelts founded a chess school in Odessa. Seven of his early students became grandmasters: Lev Alburt, Sam Palatnik, Vladimir Tukmakov, Valeri Beim, Konstantin Lerner, Leonid Yurtaev, and Boris Kantsler. He was the official trainer for the 1971 USSR student team on which Anatoly Karpov and Alexander Beliavsky played.^[2]

At the beginning of his career, he took 15th at Minsk 1962 (Anatoly Bannik won), and played board one on the Soviet national team that won the 1964 Students' World Championship at Kraków, Poland.^{[citation needed]}

Pelts came to Canada in 1978. After moving to Montreal, he established the first Canadian chess school in 1979. He later settled in Toronto and continued his school there. Pelts played for Canada in three Chess Olympiads: at Lucerne 1982 and Thessaloniki 1984 and 1988.^[3]

In 1981 Pelts earned the title of FIDE Master.^[1] He was inducted into the Canadian Chess Hall of Fame in 2001." - Wikipedia.

He started his school in Montreal in 1979 - using space in his brother's ballet school. Shortly after, he rented upstairs space in Westmount (Montreal). Much as he tried to attract students, his lack of French and the unwillingness for students to pay (what seemed to them) a large sum of money for lessons, forced him to face the realities of life in the New World. However, the weekly blitz tournaments I organized there attracted some of the old timers (Laszlo Witt, Jack Gersho, Emil Schlosser, etc.).

A couple of years later he moved to Toronto - adding to his chess teaching income by driving a school bus. I lost track of him in the late 80's - maybe others can add to his story.

Obit: https://steelesmemorialchapel.com/co...e/roman-pelts/

[John Coleman]

small correction... he was 85, not 88. RIP

[Brian Hartman]

I was saddened to see this notice. Roman was a gentleman, and of course, a knowledgeable chess player and teacher. I previously mentioned him over an anecdote from the 1984 Chess Olympiad upon Céline Roos's passing.

I played Roman several times and can attest to his abilities, yet, he left more of an impression on me by his mentorship. I recall analyzing a position with him, where I sacrificed a piece and his first thought was "how can I give this piece back with advantage" - previously, this would never have occurred to me as an initial premise. He told me this line of thinking was taught in his early learning days of chess to every Russian/Ukrainian student. I also previously mentioned his two challenges to me to improve as a player: 1) choose a player whose style you like, or wish to emulate (I chose Boris Spassky), find a collection of their games without annotations, and play over each game...however, do not go to the next move until you are utterly convinced you understand why he played the last. 2) when you play blitz chess only play 10 games per session, and in each game, play as if you were playing the World Champion - else, too much "lazy" blitz will allow poor technique to creep in, which will be severely punished in a tournament game.

The last time I spoke with Roman was nearly 20 years ago at a chess "summit" discussing chess organization. We both smiled and ignored everyone else in the room as we recounted shared stories. I miss those times with Roman, and many others. I somehow picture Roman and Céline continuing our dinner conversation from 1984.

Roman, it was my honor to have known you. Condolences to your family and all that knew you.

Brian

[Ian Findlay]

RIP Roman. A classy individual who was always trying to do the best for chess. Roman played like a strong gm with the white pieces. If you go over his Olympiad results where the captain tried to give Roman as many whites as he could, he would have great results. When he moved to Toronto he taught the Southam brothers. He was able to help them improve dramatically, especially Todd. Todd and David would always give hilarious Roman impersonations meant in a good way. Hopefully Todd and Roman will now be reunited.

[Sid Belzberg]

My heartfelt condolences to Roman's family, indeed, a great loss.

[Hans Jung]

Roman was the best boss I ever had by far. I taught in his school Chess Academy of Canada in the Thornhill Community Center from 1997 to 2001. When I first taught his advanced class I looked forward to it with great anticipation - finally I would get to teach the secrets of the Soviet school of chess. It was a revelation to me when I found that what I was teaching was Morphy's games! I asked Roman and he said "You know Hans, it was Botvinnik that said that Morphy had the last word (the perfect models) on open play". His classes were always meticulously prepared with photocopied handouts of every game and every assignment. The students had tests that were marked and tournaments at the end of every class. Roman was very classy, friendly and the perfect gentleman and appreciated his teachers a great deal. -and he paid particular note to the passions of his individual students and teachers. More than once he asked me to do a blindfold simul for the students. Hans, think of the students - they would love it! (and I did too)
Roman always paid up front and well - better pay than I earned anywhere else. And there were always bonuses and extras. He was the height of professionalism but always had time for a friendly chat.
In 2006 I hadnt seen him in 5 years but when I visited he took me to his storage locker and gave me well over a hundred books, all in new condition, just gave them to me and said give them as prizes at the CYCC and exhibitions. I said Roman I cant afford to pay you for them. His reply - look at how many I have - Im not using them - the children will benefit.
At the 2006 Canadian Open in Kitchener Roman came and gave a simultaneous exhibition of 40 boards and donated cash prizes for first, second, third to beat him. He organized and played the simul himself, didnt lose a game with very few draws and basically motored through the crowd of strong tournament players. He finished just before midnight and then wanted a meeting with the organizers. We all were exhausted but not Roman, he was dancing around with tremendous energy. 69 years old and I asked him what his secret was. Vodka was his reply. I thought Roman would last forever but now I know we are all mere mortals. Rest in peace Roman my friend - it was my great privilege to know you.

[Larry Bevand]

That was beautiful Hans!

I spent a lot of time with Roman over the years. First in Montreal and then in Toronto....over 40 years! After he moved to Toronto I had him come in to Montreal where he gave a 1 week training to our teachers...the training included some of our teachers who were Canadian masters. He came totally prepared...a true professional. We even brought in one of our top students and the student (Anthony Castillo) showed one of his best games and Roman and the masters analyzed the game in front of everyone. It was dynamic and inspirational! He talked me into doing summer day camps (something that had never been done in Canada before and today attract hundreds of kids. The other innovation that he brought was the parent and child team event which unfortunately we did not continue...hmm maybe we should revive this in his name !

While in Montreal Roman made two life long friends...Yves Montmarquette and Louis Morin.

He came from a country at a time where chess was an honoured profession. He had a regular tv show and had privileges that were beyond those of doctors and lawyers in the Ukraine. Coming to Canada, where chess had little respect in those days (and perhaps one could say that of today...to a lesser extent), was a big sacrifice that he made so that his family could have a better future.

Roman, you taught us a great deal and you will always be remembered for your magnificent contribution to chess in this country.

R.I.P

[Aris Marghetis]

Thanks for the wonderful posts. I didn't know Roman personally, and I really appreciate these tributes.

[Hans Jung]

Larry - re: the parent and child team event - thats a great idea. We had a family tournament at the library last Saturday and families including recent immigrants from Iran, India, and China showed up. We decided to allow one representative from each family to play against another team and the others could watch or play informal games on the side. I decided to challenge some of the children and entertain them. One of the families was typically Canadian with father and two sons, all keen players. I offered to play the youngest son by taking my queen off and his eyes lit up and he sat there holding my queen and grinning at me. Right away I realized I was in serious trouble because he knew a lot more than I gave him credit for. His evident pleasure at beating me attracted the Iranian mother and two daughters to come and watch. I set about entertaining them as well and I would have done a much better job of it if I had remembered some of the stories of Kiril the pawn but I managed. The girls (dressed in hijabs) kept giggling and were so cute and eventually both played me. All the families enjoyed the chess camaderie.
I think that with your resources Larry you could do a much better job and a tournament like that would be a real hit and a great dedication to the memory of Roman.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Sorry to hear of passing so many Canadian chess persons this year.

My kid attended the Thornhill chess school ran by Mr Pelts. At the similar time period I started a chess meetup group at the local church. (probably old threads still have those memories :)
On one Sunday, Roman comes to me and gives a bag.
"It's for your club"
"Hmm, errr".
"Those are chess sets and boards"
"Thank your very much!"

The final annual tournament had trophies larger than kids :)

There was always a table in the hallway full of the last weekend tournament results printed from the CFC website with all rating calculations.

He'll be missed a lot.

RIP

[Joshua Guo]

I helped briefly at his Thornhill Chess school about 15 years back, very nice gentlemen.
I remember how professional he was, even though it was only groups of 8-10 year old. It felt like he was lecturing university classes.
He was also very patient. Will be missed!

[Fred Henderson]

I did a lot of work for the man, over the space of several years, tech stuff and ghostwriting for his books and the like. The secret to his success I would say was his revolutionary teaching program for beginners especially children), which existed for many years before it was published in book form with GM Lev Alburt's name on it so that it would sell, he told me once with a smile. It taught the game in stages, one piece at a time, so that it took many chapters before you could play the game. As far as I know that program was used throughout his tenure as director of The Chess Academy of Canada.

A very difficult man to please, he insisted on perfection.

When I took lessons from him in the late 90s, he used this small torn and tattered handbook that was probably a part of the old Soviet System of which he was an integral part. His English was not the best, but he had a way of saying the right thing at the right time, with emphasis and force to drive home the point. And I'm still learning from those lessons.

My most memorable moment: breaking the news to him of Viktor Korchnoi's victory at age 70 in Biel. He was stunned, one of the few times he was at a loss for words. One last great victory of the old Soviet System that he was a part of. Worth noting that early on in his career Pelts earned the title "Honoured Chess Coach of the Soviet Union"

His website is still up. Interesting is the 'Gallery Page', with many historically interesting pictures with guys like Tal, Karpov, and Kasparov. Most of the photos were scanned by me on my mother's rinky-dink little Kodak scanner, the captions I wrote also.

I was please to privy to a lot of inside info about the Soviet sytem, and I remember it all. Perhaps one day...

R.I.P.

https://chessacademycanada.com/index.html

[Fred Henderson]

Pelts' coach on the way up was none other than fellow Odessian Efim Geller, a fact of which he was quite proud. He says that Geller was the best(?) , or maybe the most brilliant, of the Soviet greats, but his search for perfection in the early stages of the game led to frequent time-trouble which prevented him from reaching the top. As an example he gave Geller's nice little plus record playing the black side of the King's Indian against Petrosian.

Pelts hosted Tal for the Montreal '79 Tournament. Quite aghast he was, in dealing with the organizers, that he could not get six dollars a board for Tal to hold a simul.