Lubomir Kavalek

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Lubomir Kavalek : biography

09 August 1943 –

Other showings

  • Tilburg 1977 shared third (Karpov 8/11, Miles 7, Kavalek, Hort, Hubner, and Timman 6)
  • Amsterdam 1977 shared third (Miles 10.5/15, Hulak 9.5, Kavalek and Liberzon 9)
  • Amsterdam 1981 shared fourth (Timman 7.5/11, Karpov and Portisch 7, Kavalek, Hort and Smyslov 6.5)

Olympiads and team competitions

Kavalek played in nine Chess Olympiads, representing Czechoslovakia in 1964 and 1966 and the US from 1972 through 1986 except 1980. In his seven appearances on the US team he played top board three times and second board twice, and the team collected one gold and five bronze medals.

From 1969 until 1991 Kavalek was a leading player for the German team in Solingen. During his tenure the team won 10 national championships in 1969, 1971,1972,1973,1974, 1975, 1980, 1981, 1987 and 1988 and the 1976 and 1990 European Club Championships. In the 1977-79 European Club championship, Kavalek scored 5.5/6 on the top board, including two wins over V. Smyslov.

In the Nordic team vs. United States in Reykjavik in 1986, Kavalek on second board defeated Bent Larsen 1.5-0.5.

In the match Moscow vs. Prague in April 1968, Kavalek beat Evgeny Vasyukov 1.5-0.5.

In 1976, Kavalek was the top player on the Washington Plumbers team which won the National Chess League.

Matches

Kavalek won two international matches:

  • In 1969 – won a 10-game match against the Dutch champion Hans Ree in Eersel, the Netherlands, with the score of 7 to 3.
  • In 1978, Kavalek won a match against the world-class Swedish grandmaster Ulf Andersson by the impressive score of 6.5 to 3.5. The match was held in the showroom of a Volvo dealership in Washington, D.C.

Kavalek lost two matches against two of the world’s best players in Solingen, Germany. In 1970 he lost to Bent Larsen with a score 2-6 and in 1977 he was defeated by Boris Spassky 2-4.

Rating

Kavalek ranked among the top 100 players in the world continuously from the end of 1962 until September 1988, peaking at number 10 in 1974, when he achieved his peak Elo rating of 2625 on the FIDE Rating list. He was again rated in the top 10 active players in 1980. By Chessmetrics ratings, he achieved his peak ranking of number 18 in early 1974 with a Chessmetrics rating of 2695. Remarkably, he again reached top-100 status in 1998, and retained it until he retired from active play in 1999 with a rating of 2594, number 95 in the world.

Notable games

Here is a victory by the young Kavalek against Soviet grandmaster Eduard Gufeld. According to Larry Evans, Gufeld’s soccer team had beaten Kavalek’s the day before, and Kavalek vowed to get revenge:

Gufeld–Kavalek, Student Olympiad, Mariánské Lázně 1962 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Bc5 4. c3 f5 5. d4 fxe4 6. Ng5 Bb6 7. d5 e3 8. Ne4 Qh4 9. Qf3 Nf6 10. Nxf6+ gxf6 11. dxc6 exf2+ 12. Kd1 dxc6 13. Be2 Be6 14. Qh5+ Qxh5 15. Bxh5+ Ke7 16. b3 Bd5 17. Ba3+ Ke6 18. Bg4+ f5 19. Bh3 Rhg8 20. Nd2 Bxg2 21. Bxg2 Rxg2 22. Rf1 Rd8 23. Ke2 Rxd2+ 24. Kxd2 e4 25. Bf8 f4 26. b4 Rg5 27. Bc5 Rxc5! 28. bxc5 Bxc5 Now White has two rooks for a bishop, but cannot stop the march of Black’s pawns. 29. Rab1 f3 30. Rb4 Kf5 31. Rd4 Bxd4 32. cxd4 Kf4 0–1 An extraordinary final position. Black, a rook down, still has all eight of his pawns, and White is helpless against them.

Here is one of Kavalek’s most remarkable games, in which he sacrificed a queen for a bishop against the strong Hungarian grandmaster Lajos Portisch:

Portisch–Kavalek, Wijk aan Zee, 1975. ChessGames.com. Retrieved on 2009-04-14. 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 c6 6. Be3 a6 7. Bd3 b5 8. e5 Nfd7 9. f4 0-0 10. Nf3 Nb6 11. b3 N8d7 12. a4 bxc4 13. bxc4 c5 14. a5 cxd4 15. Nxd4 dxe5 16. Nc6 Qe8 17. axb6 exf4 18. Nd5 fxe3 19. Nc7 Bc3+ 20. Kf1 Bb7 21. Nxe8 Bxc6 22. Nc7 Rad8 23. Rc1 Bd2 24. Nd5 Bxd5 25. cxd5 Nxb6 26. Rc5 Nxd5 27. g3 Rd6 28. Kg2 Rfd8 29. Rxd5 Rxd5 30. Bc4 Rf5 31. Qb3 Rf2+ 32. Kh3 Rd6 33. Qb8+ Kg7 34. Qa7 g5 35. Qxe7 g4+ 36. Kxg4 Rg6+ 37. Kh3 Rh6+ 38. Kg4 Rg6+ ½–½