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Lubomir Kavalek (1943-2021)
January 19, 2021
From Peter Doggers at chess.com:
Lubomir Kavalek
The Czech-American grandmaster, former number-10 in the world, coach, organizer, trainer, commentator, author, columnist, and member of the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame Lubomir (Lubosh) Kavalek died at the age of 77 after a brief but severe illness. The news was confirmed by his wife Irina.
Kavalek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), on August 9, 1943, exactly five months after GM Bobby Fischer. He won his first national championship in 1962 at the age of 19. In the same year, he played one of his most famous games, as Black against Eduard Gufeld, at the World Student Team Championships
Kavalek earned the titles of international master and grandmaster in the same year, 1965. It has been said that he was the most talented among a "golden generation" of Czechoslovakian players that also included GMs Vlastimil Hort, Vlastimil Jansa, and Jan Smejkal.
The year 1968, when Kavalek won his second national championship and his first major tournament (Amsterdam, ahead of GM David Bronstein), was a turning point in his life and a historic year for his country. After eight months of mass protests in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Soviet tanks rolled into Prague in August 1968.
Kavalek, an anti-communist himself, was playing the Akiba Rubinstein Memorial in Poland (where he finished in second place) when it happened. He decided to defect to the West. After two years in Germany, Kavalek moved to the U.S. where his father lived—he had left Czechoslovakia as early as 1948.
When he returned to Czechoslovakia in early 1990 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kavalek would say: "I thought I was in some sort of reversed zombie movie because everyone was smiling all the time." He would return happily to his native country on many occasions, one of the last times being in early 2020 for the Prague Chess Festival.
In his native country, he had studied communication and journalism—which would serve him well later. Having settled in Washington, D.C. with his wife Irena, he studied Slavic literature at George Washington University, and briefly worked at Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. Later he would move to Reston, Virginia.
https://www.chess.com/news/view/lubo...alek-1943-2021
(to be continued)
January 19, 2021
From Peter Doggers at chess.com:
Lubomir Kavalek
The Czech-American grandmaster, former number-10 in the world, coach, organizer, trainer, commentator, author, columnist, and member of the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame Lubomir (Lubosh) Kavalek died at the age of 77 after a brief but severe illness. The news was confirmed by his wife Irina.
Kavalek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), on August 9, 1943, exactly five months after GM Bobby Fischer. He won his first national championship in 1962 at the age of 19. In the same year, he played one of his most famous games, as Black against Eduard Gufeld, at the World Student Team Championships
Kavalek earned the titles of international master and grandmaster in the same year, 1965. It has been said that he was the most talented among a "golden generation" of Czechoslovakian players that also included GMs Vlastimil Hort, Vlastimil Jansa, and Jan Smejkal.
The year 1968, when Kavalek won his second national championship and his first major tournament (Amsterdam, ahead of GM David Bronstein), was a turning point in his life and a historic year for his country. After eight months of mass protests in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Soviet tanks rolled into Prague in August 1968.
Kavalek, an anti-communist himself, was playing the Akiba Rubinstein Memorial in Poland (where he finished in second place) when it happened. He decided to defect to the West. After two years in Germany, Kavalek moved to the U.S. where his father lived—he had left Czechoslovakia as early as 1948.
When he returned to Czechoslovakia in early 1990 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kavalek would say: "I thought I was in some sort of reversed zombie movie because everyone was smiling all the time." He would return happily to his native country on many occasions, one of the last times being in early 2020 for the Prague Chess Festival.
In his native country, he had studied communication and journalism—which would serve him well later. Having settled in Washington, D.C. with his wife Irena, he studied Slavic literature at George Washington University, and briefly worked at Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. Later he would move to Reston, Virginia.
https://www.chess.com/news/view/lubo...alek-1943-2021
(to be continued)
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