Efim Bogoljubow
Russian chess player (1889–1952)
Efim Dimitrijewitsch Bogoljubow (April 14, 1889 – June 18, 1952) was a Russian-born German chess grandmaster.
Early career
Bogoljubow learned how to play chess at 15 years old, and developed a serious interest at the age of 18. His father was a priest. Originally he wanted to become a priest too, and studied theology in Kiev, but he decided otherwise and enrolled in the Polytechnical Institute to study agriculture. He did not finish his studies and instead focused on chess.
In 1911, Bogoljubow tied for first place in the Kiev championships, and finished 9–10th in the Saint Petersburg (All-Russian Amateur) Tournament, won by Stepan Levitsky. In 1912, he took second place, behind Karel Hromádka, in Vilna (Vilnius) (Hauptturnier). In 1913/14, Bogoljubow finished eighth in Saint Petersburg (All Russian Masters' Tournament – eighth Russian championship; Alexander Alekhine and Aron Nimzowitsch came joint first).
World War I: Interned in Germany
In July/August 1914, Bogoljubow played in the Mannheim tournament (the 19th DSB Congress), and tied for 8–9th in that event, which was interrupted by World War I. After the declaration of war against Russia, eleven "Russian players" (Alekhine, Bogoljubow, Fedor Bogatyrchuk, Alexander Flamberg, N. Koppelman, Boris Maliutin, Ilya Rabinovich, Peter Romanovsky, Peter Petrovich Saburov, Alexey Selezniev, Samuil Weinstein) from the Mannheim tournament were interned by Germany. In September 1914, four of the internees (Alekhine, Bogatyrchuk, Saburov, and Koppelman) were allowed to return home via Switzerland.
“Efim Bogoljubow” enters the record as russian chess player (1889–1952). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Efim, Bogoljubow and Russian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q57310. VIAF identifies the subject as 25484566. The Library of Congress control number is nr88012529. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1889, 1952, 1911 and 1912.
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This entry incorporates text from “Efim Bogoljubow” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.