Efim Geller

We are always on the lookout for great Jewish sportsmen (If one considers chess players sportsmen, so let's do that), so we landed on the Wikipedia page of Efim Geller. His photo depicted him in deep thought over a chess board, but we did a double-take. Then we scrolled down and did another. A quick image search led to having our pick of many. Here is a sample:

Geller, who was one of the best players in the world in the 1950s through 70s (he had a winning record against a number of world champions, including Bobby Fischer), had a two-packs-a-day habit. And since it wasn't illegal to smoke at chess tournaments...

That's right! There was no law against smoking at tournaments! The international chess federation did not ban it until 1990. So Geller was free to puff away...

Does this end the argument that chess should be considered a sport? Alas, that will leave us with a much-shorter list of great Jewish sportsmen.