Career
In 1959, he founded a chess school in Odessa. Seven of his early students became grandmasters: Lev Alburt, Sam Palatnik, Vladimir Tukmakov, Valery Beim, Konstantin Lerner, Leonid Yurtaev, and Boris Kantsler. He was the official trainer for the 1971 Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics student team on which Anatoly Karpov and Alexander Beliavsky played.
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. In 1981 Pelts earned the title of FIDE Master.
He was inducted into the Canadian Chess Hall of Fame in 2001.
