Любомир Кавалек: Жизнь и карьера шахматиста

Czech American chess player (1943–2021)

Lubomir (Lubosh) Kavalek (, August 9, 1943 – January 18, 2021) was a Czech American chess player. He was awarded both the International Master and International Grandmaster titles by FIDE in 1965. He won two Czechoslovak and three U. S. championships, and was ranked as the world's No. 10 player in 1974. He was inducted into the U. S. Chess Hall of Fame in 2001.

Kavalek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). He studied at the University of Žilina. He did not complete his studies and became a chess professional. His official occupation was reporter for the news "Prace" and the newspaper Mladá fronta. He won the championship of Czechoslovakia in 1962 and 1968. When Soviet tanks rolled into Prague in August 1968, Kavalek was playing in the Akiba Rubinstein Memorial in Poland, in which he finished second. Kavalek, who had always hated Communism, decided to defect to the West rather than return to Soviet dominated Czechoslovakia. He bought several crates of vodka with his winnings, used them to bribe the border guards, and drove to West Germany. "It was the biggest loss ever suffered by Czechoslovakian chess," wrote Andrew Soltis in "The 100 Best Chess Games of the 20th Century, Ranked." He later entered Amsterdam on a student visa and in 1970 immigrated to the United States. On his way to America, Kavalek won a strong tournament in Caracas (scoring +10−1=6). Kavalek moved to Washington, D. C., studied Slavic literature at George Washington University and worked at Voice of America (1971–72). In 1973 he became a full time chess professional. He later became a United States citizen. He lived in Reston, Virginia.

Leipzig in 1965 (Pietzsch 10.5/15, Kavalek and Liberzon 10). The last GM norm. Polanica Zdroj in 1968 (Smyslov 11.5/15, Kavalek 10.5)
Montilla Moriles in 1976 (2nd through 4th) (Karpov 7/9, Kavalek 5.5)
Waddinxveen, the Netherlands, in May 1979 (Karpov 4.5/6, Kavalek 3, Hort 2.5, Sosonko 2)

Kavalek played in nine Chess Olympiads, representing Czechoslovakia in 1964 and 1966 and the US from 1972 through 1986 except 1980. In his seven appearances on the US team he played top board three times and second board twice, and the team collected one gold and five bronze medals. In 1976 he was a member of the first U. S. team to win a gold medal since the 1930s. From 1969 until 1991 Kavalek was a leading player for the German team in Solingen. During his tenure the team won 10 national championships in 1969, 1971,1972,1973,1974, 1975, 1980, 1981, 1987 and 1988 and the 1976 and 1990 European Club Championships. In the 1977–79 European Club championship, Kavalek scored 5.5/6 on the top board, including two wins over V. Smyslov. In the Nordic team vs. United States in Reykjavik in 1986, Kavalek on second board defeated Bent Larsen 1.5 0.5. In the match Moscow vs. Prague in April 1968, Kavalek beat Evgeny Vasyukov 1.5 0.5. In 1976, Kavalek was the top player on the Washington Plumbers team that won the National Chess League.

Kavalek ranked among the top 100 players in the world continuously from the end of 1962 until September 1988, peaking at number 10 in 1974, when he achieved his peak Elo rating of 2625 on the FIDE Rating list. By Chessmetrics ratings, he achieved his peak ranking of number 18 in early 1974 with a Chessmetrics rating of 2695.

Kavalek had a notable coaching career, working with Mark Diesen, Robert Byrne, Yasser Seirawan, Eugene Torre and Robert Hübner. Kavalek was also one of Bobby Fischer's seconds in the World Chess Championship 1972 and served as British grandmaster Nigel Short's trainer in the 1990 Interzonal in Manila, and in Short's successful Candidates matches against British grandmaster Jonathan Speelman, Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand, former world champion Anatoly Karpov and Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman, leading up to Short's 1993 world championship match against Garry Kasparov. Short and Kavalek parted company shortly after the beginning of the latter match, which Kasparov won decisively. Short and Kavalek later wrote articles for chess magazines criticizing each other. Kavalek was acting captain and team analyst of the Rest of the World team against the Soviet Union in London in 1984.

Kavalek was the chief organizer of the prestigious Man and his World Chess Challenge in Montreal in 1979. Serving as the Executive Director of the Grandmasters Association, he organized the first World Cup series in 1988–1989.