RIP, Robert Hübner (1948-2025).
It was great to hear Hübner’s name come up recently in major chess broadcasts and podcasts…I just wish it had been in a richer context than attempts to recast the hugely disappointing split of the 2024 Blitz World Championship title in a better light! In case you’ve reasonably suppressed your memory of that recent travesty, when former fighting-chess exemplar Magnus Carlsen proposed quitting and splitting the title rather than win over the board, Ian Nepomniachtchi replied, “I can also go to casino,” referencing the infamous decision to decide Hübner’s 1983 Candidates Quarterfinal match against Vasily Smyslov with a spin of the roulette wheel. Smyslov, who was red1, won, though only after the initial spin landed on zero!
At any rate, Hübner was a remarkable man. He not only reached #3 in the world, competing in four Candidates tournaments, but was a diligent, accurate historian (recognized by none other than Edward Winter, a rare honor in the chess world), an exacting analyst who wrote extensively on Fischer, Alekhine and Lasker (not to mention 400+ pages on 25 of his own games), and winner of the Lasker Prize.
Hübner was an enviable polyglot. A native German speaker, who spoke perfect English too, Hübner taught himself Finnish in order to better converse with Finnish friends…and did so well enough to publish translations of works by a famous Finnish satirist. In case that’s not enough, Hübner was accomplished in Ancient Greek, crafting his own translation of The Iliad, and apparently2 found time to be recognized as a papyrologist!
An anecdote shared by “MisterBigDude, Retired FM” serves as an apt way to appreciate Hübner’s widely-respected acumen:
Long ago, I was chatting with Yasser Seirawan, and he used a funny and admiring line about Hübner:
“As Robert Hübner said once: ‘I do not know’.”
Yaz’s point was that Hübner was so highly educated and knowledgeable that there was very little he didn’t know.
PS. I suspect Hübner would insist anyone extolling his virtues also observe that he managed to make not just one, but two one-move blunders in different world championship cycles. First, in his penultimate 1976 Interzonal game against Tigran Petrosian, Hübner overlooked a straightforward, devastating tactic that would win on the spot (I bet you can find it). Then, against Viktor Korchnoi in the 1980 Candidates Final (!), he blundered a simple knight fork!
PPS. Some folks might only know Murray Chandler thanks to his highly successful (and excellent!) chess books for younger players3, including How to Beat Your Dad at Chess and Chess Tactics for Kids. But Chandler was a very strong GM, peaking at #14 in the world in 19874!
PPPS. Two quotes shared by Edward Winter serve well to illustrate Hübner’s exactitude. First, from the ChessBase Monograph CD World Champion Fischer 5:
Most critics deem Fischer’s comments to be entirely devoid of errors, and each and every one of his observations is accepted as gospel truth. I was plagued by the desire to find out whether this reputation is indeed justified. Unfortunately, however, there is only one way of finding out: get down to the hard work of going through all of Fischer’s notes; and so I went through his oeuvre of annotations to find passages that seemed dubious to me.
And from his own Twenty-Five Annotated Games:
There are no exclamation marks, as they serve no useful purpose. The best move should be mentioned in the analysis in any case; an exclamation mark can only serve to indicate the personal excitement of the commentator. I do not want to impose my feelings on the reader, and I leave it up to him when to feel amazed or thrilled, and when not.
See also:
- Fittingly, some would say! ↩︎
- According to Wikipedia ↩︎
- The titles are a bit misleading; the books are perfect for improvers of any age, including adult enjoyers! ↩︎
- Arguably my own best year…as a human being ↩︎
- Good luck finding it; I never have. ↩︎
