When playing at his peak on the international tournament circuit, he was many times a winner. His victories included:
Hastings 1967–68 (with
Hort and
Stein), Reykjavik 1972 (with
Hort and
Ólafsson), Orense 1973, Torremolinos 1974 (with
Torre),
Lone Pine 1979 (with
Gligorić,
Liberzon, and Hort), Novi Sad 1979, Biel 1982 (with
Nunn) and Lenk 1990. He was always a formidable opponent at the
U.S. Open tournament and finished first in three successive years—1979, 1980 (with
Fedorowicz), and 1981 (with
Christiansen and three others). In his home country, there were few who could rival his dominance of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. He won the
Romanian Championship nine times (1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1973, 1977, and 1987). In 1970 he was equal first with
Victor Ciocâltea, and after a subsequent tie-break match (5-5), the latter was awarded the champion title. Despite these successes, Gheorghiu has seldom been regarded a serious contender for the world chess championship title. Although he regularly participated in the cycle and at other prestigious events, his placings at four
Interzonal Tournaments (world championship qualifiers) confirmed that he was not as strong as the world's elite players at the time, but could nevertheless perform consistently well at a high level. At
Petrópolis 1973 he finished 14th, at
Manila 1976 10–13th,
Riga 1979 5–6th, and at
Moscow 1982, he came 12th. At the Riga Interzonal, he only narrowly failed to qualify for the
Candidates Matches. Overall, he participated in nine Zonal and four Interzonal tournaments. Playing for Romania in team competitions, he amassed 459 games in 64 contests (including friendly matches with other nations), summing up to an overall result of 145 wins, 272 draws, and 42 losses. This included playing in every
Chess Olympiad between 1962 and 1990, usually on first board. Further details are given in the table below. at the World Junior Championship 1961 at Luzern in 1982 Gheorghiu is renowned for his success against the reputedly solid
Nimzo-Indian Defence. The variation comprising an early
f3 for White (which is allied to the Sämisch Variation) became his trademark weapon, improving on the games and development work of
Lajos Portisch and
Gyozo Forintos before him. The system is now referred to as the Gheorghiu Variation in many
chess opening manuals and has been employed by tactical experts such as
Alexei Shirov. ==Notable games==