Hillar Kärner (27 July 1935 – 19 February 2017) was an Estonian chess player who won the

Estonian Chess Championship The Estonian Chess Championship is played to determine the Estonian champion in chess. The first unofficial championship in Estonia was held in 1903 and was organized by a chess club from Tallinn (then Reval, Russian Empire). After World War I, ...

seven times. He received the

FIDE title 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 ...

of International Master (IM) in 1980.

Biography

Kärner was born in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. In 1953 Hillar Kärner graduated from the

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

in Tallinn. In 1951 he won Estonian school children chess championship. Twice won Estonian rural sports associations chess championships (1965, 1966). In 1964 became a Soviet Master and in 1980 was fulfilled

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

International Master norm in chess tournament in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. In 1980 shared 1st place in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

Cup. In Estonian Chess Championships he has won 7 gold (1970, 1975, 1977, 1983–85, 1987), 3 silver (1968, 1979, 1988) and bronze (1978) medals. Nine times Kärner played for Estonia in Soviet Team Chess Championships (1962-1967, 1972–1985) and once played for Estonian team «Jõud» in Soviet Team Chess Cup (1968). From 1973 to 1989 participated in the traditional international chess tournaments in Tallinn. The best place is shared 7th - 10th (1977). Since the 1960s, Kärner worked in Tallinn's

Excavator Excavators are heavy equipment (construction), heavy construction equipment primarily consisting of a backhoe, boom, dipper (or stick), Bucket (machine part), bucket, and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The modern excavator's ...

factory, later the rural project institute «EKE Projekt» and

Paul Keres Paul Keres (; 7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five ...

House of Chess. Kärner is the author of book - «Kuus aastakümmet Caissa lummuses» («Six decades under the spell of Caissa»), Published by Argo, Tallinn, 2012, ().

Notable games

Hillar Karner vs Paul Keres Tallinn 1967
Victory over Estonia's all-times strongest chess player.
Mikhail Tal vs Hillar Karner Piarnu 1971
Victory over World ex-champion.
Hillar Karner vs Anatoly Karpov Moscow 1972
Victory over next World champion.
Hillar Karner vs Mikhail Tal Tallinn 1983
Another victory over World ex-champion.

References

External links

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player profile at OlimpBase.org (Soviet Team Chess Championship)

player profile at OlimpBase.org (Soviet Team Chess Cup) {{DEFAULTSORT:Karner, Hillar 1935 births 2017 deaths Chess players from Tallinn Estonian chess players Soviet chess players Chess International Masters Burials at Pärnamäe Cemetery