Zoltán Ribli (born September 6, 1951 in
Mohács) is a Hungarian
chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
grandmaster and
International Arbiter (1995). He was twice a
World Championship
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 ...
Candidate
A candidate, or nominee, is a prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position. For example, one can be a candidate for membership in a group (sociology), group or election to an offic ...
and three times
Hungarian Champion.
A career in chess
As a youngster, he was twice the
European Junior Champion, in 1968/69 (shared) and 1970/71. In domestic competition, he has been three times the national champion of Hungary, sharing the honours in 1973, 1974 and 1977.
Ribli's
International Master and Grandmaster titles were awarded in 1970 and 1973, respectively.
At the peak of his career, Ribli was twice a candidate for the World Championship, in
1984 and
1986. At London in 1984, he participated in the high-profile match between
USSR and the Rest of the World, defeating his Soviet counterpart,
Rafael Vaganian by a narrow margin.
In 1983, Ribli defeated Torre (+3-1=6) in the quarter-final Candidates Match, but lost to
Vasily Smyslov (+1-3=7) in the semi-final. Smyslov played against
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...
in the final, which Smyslov lost.
Ribli became a fearsome competitor on the international tournament circuit of the 1970s and 1980s, chalking up victories at
Kecskemét 1972 (with
Suetin),
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
1975 (with
Polugaevsky),
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
1980,
Baden-Baden 1981 (with
Miles),
Portorož/
Ljubljana
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, name = Ljubljana
, official_name =
, settlement_type = Capital city
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, total_widt ...
1985 (
Vidmar Memorial, with Miles and
Portisch),
Dortmund 1986,
Reggio Emilia
Reggio nell'Emilia (; ), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until Unification of Italy, 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 172,51 ...
1987, and
Wijk aan Zee 1989 (with
Anand,
Sax and
Nikolić). Runner-up results include
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
1978 (behind
Timman),
Bled/
Portorož 1979 (with
Larsen, behind Timman),
Wijk aan Zee 1983 (behind
Andersson),
Bugojno 1984 (behind Timman) and
Tilburg
Tilburg () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. With a population of 22 ...
1984 (with
Beliavsky,
Hübner and
Tukmakov, behind Miles).
Whilst not so active in tournament play during the 1990s and 2000s, he nevertheless maintained a competitive rating (his July 2006
Elo rating was 2589) and has shown that he can still win grandmaster events, such as the Hotel
Opatija tournament in
Kastav,
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
in 2002.
An almost ever-present member of the Hungarian
Olympiad team between 1970 and 1994, Ribli was playing second board when Hungary won the team gold medal in 1978. He also won team silver medals in 1970, 1972 and 1980.
As a writer on the topic of chess, his analysis and tournament reports have been published in magazine articles around the world. Additionally, he co-authored two books with
Gabor Kallai: ''Winning with the Queen's Indian'' (
Batsford
Batsford is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cotswold (district), Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. The village is about north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. There is a falconry centre close to the village ...
, 1987) and ''Winning with the English'' (Batsford, 1993). Ribli has also been coaching Austrian national teams.
Zoltán Ribli is married to
Woman International Master Mária Grosch.
Relatives of Chessplayers
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Notes
References
*
Olimpbase - Olympiads and other Team event information
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ribli, Zoltan
1951 births
Living people
Chess Grandmasters
Chess Olympiad competitors
Hungarian chess players
Hungarian chess writers
Chess arbiters
People from Mohács