Wednesday, 8 January 2025

Robert Hubner

 Legendary German GM Robert Hubner passed away a few days ago, at the age of 76. One the worlds top players in the 1970's and 80's, he reached a peak ranking of No. 3 in the world in 1981. He did this while essentially remaining a chess amateur, holding a number of academic positions during his playing career.

While known for his chess ability, he was also regarded as somewhat eccentric. His attempts at qualifying for the World Championship match ended with his withdrawal from the matches on 2 occasions, and a loss due to a spin of a roulette wheel when his match against Smyslov was drawn. 

Somewhat of an anti-authoritarian, he retired from active chess when FIDE introduced drug testing to the sport. But even before that he demonstrated this in a famous game against Ken Rogoff, where in protest at being asked to play a significant number of games at the World Student Teams Championship (by his captain), he and Rogoff concocted an interesting draw (https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1543378)

A true original of the chess world, his passing severs another link with the great players of the 1960's and 70's.

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