Mihai Șubă (; born June 1, 1947) is a Romanian and Spanish
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
player.
FIDE
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...
awarded him the
International Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
title in 1975 and the
International Grandmaster title in 1978.
Born in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
, Romania, Șubă, won the
Romanian Chess Championship The Romanian Chess Championship became a yearly event in 1946, and was held irregularly earlier. A series of national eliminating contests are played to select a 20-player field for the men's final. The women's final consists of 16 players.
Men's w ...
in 1980, 1981, and 1985. Suba began playing chess at 19 years old, making him an anomaly among grandmasters. He attended the
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...
and trained in the university's chess club, where his passion for chess grew quickly. His rate of progress was that of a prodigy: by age 27 he had won several local championships and achieved a FIDE rating of 2460.
Suba first came to wide attention in 1982 when he finished second, after
Zoltán Ribli
Zoltán Ribli (born September 6, 1951 in Mohács) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster and International Arbiter (1995). He was twice a World Championship Candidate and three times Hungarian Champion.
A career in chess
As a youngster, he was twic ...
, at
Băile Herculane
Băile Herculane ( la, Aqua Herculis; german: Herkulesbad; hu, Herkulesfürdő; cz, Herkulovy Lázně, tr, Lazarethane) is a spa town in Romanian Banat, in Caraș-Severin County, situated in the valley of the Cerna River, between the Mehedinț ...
. At the 1982
Las Palmas
Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spain, Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean.
It is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the most populous city in th ...
Interzonal
Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the ...
, he finished third, behind Ribli and former
World Champion
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov ( rus, Васи́лий Васи́льевич Смысло́в, Vasíliy Vasíl'yevich Smyslóv; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, who was World Chess Champion from 1957 to ...
, just missing qualification for the
Candidates Matches
The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The win ...
. Șubă finished first at
Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
1983, and equal first at
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
1985 and
Timișoara
), City of Roses ( ro, Orașul florilor), City of Parks ( ro, Orașul parcurilor)
, image_map = Timisoara jud Timis.svg
, map_caption = Location in Timiș County
, pushpin_map = Romania#Europe
, pushpin_ ...
1987. In August 1988, he sought political asylum in Britain, and he played for England at the 1989
European Team Chess Championship
The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...
, though he started playing for Romania again in 1992. In 2017 he
switched his national federation to Spain.
Șubă is the author of the book ''Dynamic Chess Strategy'' and of the monograph ''The Hedgehog.''
2008 World Senior Championship
Controversy erupted at the 2008
World Senior Chess Championship
The World Senior Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament established in 1991 by FIDE, the World Chess Federation.
Overview
Originally, the minimum age was 60 years for men, and 50 for women.
Since 2014, the Senior Championship is split i ...
when
Larry Kaufman
Lawrence Charles Kaufman (born November 15, 1947) is an American chess and shōgi player. In chess, he was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE for winning the 2008 World Seniors Championship (which he later retroactively shared with Mihai ...
was named the winner on
tiebreaker
In games and sports, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is used to determine a winner from among players or teams that are tied at the end of a contest, or a set of contests.
General operation
In matches
In some situations, the tiebreaker may consi ...
s ahead of Șubă in second place. The
tie-breaking system used, erroneously interpreted as mandatory by FIDE, did not match the one published by the organizer, which was the valid one according to newer regulations and had the strength of a contract.
Subsequently, Șubă and Kaufman were retroactively declared joint winners of the championship at a FIDE Presidential Board meeting in March 2009 (with Kaufman keeping his resultant promotion to grandmaster).
"Presidential Board meeting 1st quarter 2009"
FIDE. 2009-03-09.
References
External links
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1947 births
Living people
Chess grandmasters
World Senior Chess Champions
Chess Olympiad competitors
Romanian chess players
English chess players
Spanish chess players
Chess writers
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