Albin Planinc (also spelled Planinec) (8 or 18 April 1944 – 20 December 2008)A forgotten genius: Albin Planinc (Planinec) (8 April 1944, Briše - 11 December 2008, Ljubljana)
/ref> was a

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

n chess Grandmaster. He was born in a working-class family in Briše near

Zagorje Hrvatsko Zagorje (; Croatian Zagorje; ''zagorje'' is Croatian for "backland" or "behind the hills") is a cultural region in northern Croatia, traditionally separated from the country's capital Zagreb by the Medvednica Mountain. It compris ...

in the

Central Sava Valley The Central Sava Valley ( sl, Zasavje) is a valley in the Sava Hills and a geographic region along the Sava in central Slovenia, now constituting the Central Sava Statistical Region. The region consists of three municipalities: Zagorje ob Savi, ...

, in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

-occupied Slovenia. Planinc won the Slovenian youth championship in 1962. He also won the full

Slovenian Chess Championship The Slovenian Chess Championship is the national chess championship held in Slovenia. The championship has been played since the 1950s, first as a regional championship in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and after the independence of ...

in 1968 and 1971. His earliest international success occurred at the first

Vidmar Memorial The Milan Vidmar Memorial is a strong closed chess tournament commemorating Milan Vidmar (1885–1962), a leading Slovenian grandmaster. The tournament has been held mostly in a biannual rhythm in several Slovenian cities, i.e.: Ljubljana, Porto ...

at Ljubljana 1969. However, his best result was achieved at the Amsterdam ( IBM tournament) 1973, where he shared first place with

Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian (, ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style, ...

, ahead of

Lubomir Kavalek Lubomir (Lubosh) Kavalek ( cz, Lubomír Kaválek, 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.Hooper & Whyld 1992, p. 19 ...

Boris Spassky Boris Vasilievich Spassky ( rus, Бори́с Васи́льевич Спа́сский, Borís Vasíl'yevich Spásskiy; born January 30, 1937) is a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 ...

and László Szabó. He also tied for 2nd–4th at Čačak 1969, won at Varna 1970, shared 1st at Čačak 1970, took 9th at Vršac (Kostić Memorial,

Henrique Mecking Henrique Costa Mecking (born 23 January 1952), also known as Mequinho, is a Brazilian chess grandmaster who reached his zenith in the 1970s and is still one of the strongest players in Brazil. He was a chess prodigy, drawing comparisons to Bobby ...

won), tied for 2nd–3rd at Skopje 1971, tied for 3rd–5th at Wijk aan Zee 1974 (

Corus chess tournament The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Steel ...

Walter Browne Walter Shawn Browne (10 January 1949 – 24 June 2015) was an Australian-born American chess and poker player. Awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1970, he won the U.S. Chess Championship six times. Early years Browne was born to an Am ...

won), took 6th at Hastings 1974/75 (

Hastings International Chess Congress The Hastings International Chess Congress is an annual chess tournament which takes place in Hastings, England, around the turn of the year. The main event is the Hastings Premier tournament, which was traditionally a 10 to 16 player round-robin t ...

Vlastimil Hort Vlastimil Hort (born 12 January 1944) is a German chess Grandmaster. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the world's strongest players and reached the 1977–78 Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship, but never qualified f ...

won), tied for 2nd–3rd at Štip 1978, and took 12th at Polanica Zdrój 1979 (17th Rubinstein Memorial). Planinc played on fourth board (+9 –1 =5) for Yugoslavia in the 21st

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

at Nice 1974, where he won a team silver medal. He was awarded the GM title in 1972, then became a chess trainer when the strain of playing tournament chess was contributing to his poor mental health (in those days, medication was relatively ineffective). Planinc continued to suffer from severe depression for decades, spending the last years of his life at a mental institution in Ljubljana. In 1993, his last name was changed to Planinec by mistake. In ''The Penguin Encyclopedia of Chess'', Grandmaster

Raymond Keene Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is an English chess grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author. He won the British Chess Championship in 1971, and was the first player from England t ...

said of Planinc, "he specializes in apparently outdated openings into which his imaginative play infuses new life".The Penguin Encyclopedia of Chess, Golombek, 1981, p. 346 Mentally ill in his later years, he died in a home for the disabled in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

, Slovenia.

References

External links

* 1944 births 2008 deaths Chess grandmasters Slovenian chess players Yugoslav chess players People from the Municipality of Zagorje ob Savi 20th-century chess players {{slovenia-chess-bio-stub