Henrique Mecking
Encyclopedia
Henrique Mecking was a leading Brazilian chess
Grandmaster in the 1970s. He was a very strong player at an early age (see sample game below), drawing comparisons to Bobby Fischer
, although he did not achieve the International Grandmaster
title until 1971. His highest FIDE
(International Chess Federation) rating was 2635, achieved in 1977, when he was rated as the third best player on that year's rating list, behind Anatoly Karpov
and Viktor Korchnoi
. He was the first Brazilian to reach the rank of Grandmaster. Despite winning his first national championship at the age of 13, he played in very few tournaments. He won at Vršac
in 1971 and finished third with Robert Byrne (after the co-winners Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi) at Hastings
in 1971/2. In 1975, he twice shared second place behind Ljubomir Ljubojević
, firstly at Las Palmas with Ulf Andersson
and Mikhail Tal
and then at Manila
with Lev Polugaevsky
, Bent Larsen
and Helmut Pfleger
. Mecking played for Brazil in the Chess Olympiad
s of 1968, 1974, 2002 and 2004.
. After unsuccessful attempts to qualify from the Interzonal
s of Sousse
1967 and Palma de Mallorca
1970, he had his first major triumph in 1973, when he won at the Petrópolis
Interzonal (ahead of a very strong field that included such chess luminaries as Paul Keres
, David Bronstein
, et al). From this time until 1979, he was the strongest player born in the West in light of Bobby Fischer
's effective retirement in 1972. He was subsequently eliminated from the Candidates Tournament
in the quarterfinals, through losing his match against Korchnoi.
At his next attempt in 1976, he won the Manila Interzonal (ahead of Vlastimil Hort
, Lev Polugaevsky
, Vitaly Tseshkovsky
, Ljubomir Ljubojević
, Zoltán Ribli
et al), thereby reaching a second successive Candidates match stage, but again lost in the quarterfinals, this time to Polugaevsky. Illness, believed to be myasthenia gravis
, forced his withdrawal from the Interzonal in Rio de Janeiro
1979 after a first round draw with Borislav Ivkov
. Indeed, his illness was so severe that it was widely believed he would soon die. He survived but did not play chess during the 1980s. While he was able to recover and to resume his chess career in 1991 with matches against Predrag Nikolić
and (in 1992) Yasser Seirawan, followed by intermittent tournament appearances, his chance at the world title had passed and he did not reach the Candidates matches again.
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
Grandmaster in the 1970s. He was a very strong player at an early age (see sample game below), drawing comparisons to Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
, although he did not achieve the International Grandmaster
International Grandmaster
The title Grandmaster is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain....
title until 1971. His highest FIDE
Fédération Internationale des Échecs
The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world and acts as the governing body of international chess competition. It is usually referred to as FIDE , its French acronym.FIDE...
(International Chess Federation) rating was 2635, achieved in 1977, when he was rated as the third best player on that year's rating list, behind Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
and Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ; pronounced in the original Russian as "karch NOY"; Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, born March 23, 1931 is a professional chess player, author and currently the oldest active grandmaster on the tournament circuit...
. He was the first Brazilian to reach the rank of Grandmaster. Despite winning his first national championship at the age of 13, he played in very few tournaments. He won at Vršac
Vršac
Vršac is a town and municipality located in Serbia. In 2002 the town's total population was 36,623, while Vršac municipality had 54,369 inhabitants. Vršac is located in the Banat region, in the Vojvodina province of Serbia. It is part of the South Banat District.-Name:The name Vršac is of Serbian...
in 1971 and finished third with Robert Byrne (after the co-winners Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi) at Hastings
Hastings International Chess Congress
The Hastings International Chess Congress is an annual chess congress 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 tournament. In 2004/05 the tournament was played in the...
in 1971/2. In 1975, he twice shared second place behind Ljubomir Ljubojević
Ljubomir Ljubojevic
Ljubomir Ljubojević is a Grandmaster of chess. He was born on November 2, 1950, in Titovo Užice, Yugoslavia . Ljubojević was awarded the International Master title in 1970 and the GM title in 1971. He was Yugoslav champion in 1977 and 1982. He won the 1974 Canadian Open Chess Championship...
, firstly at Las Palmas with Ulf Andersson
Ulf Andersson
Ulf Andersson is a leading Swedish chess player. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1970 and the Grandmaster title in 1972 .-Career:...
and Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
and then at Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
with Lev Polugaevsky
Lev Polugaevsky
Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky was an International Grandmaster of chess and frequent contender for the world chess championship, although he never achieved that title...
, Bent Larsen
Bent Larsen
Jørgen Bent Larsen was a Danish chess Grandmaster and author. Larsen was known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play and he was the first western player to pose a serious challenge to the Soviet Union's dominance of chess...
and Helmut Pfleger
Helmut Pfleger
Helmut Pfleger is a German chess Grandmaster and author. He was one of the most promising chess players in the sixties and seventies. By profession, he is a doctor of medicine.- Chess career :...
. Mecking played for Brazil in the Chess Olympiad
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...
s of 1968, 1974, 2002 and 2004.
World Championship candidate
Mecking was however a regular participant in FIDE events to choose a challenger for the World Chess ChampionshipWorld Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
. After unsuccessful attempts to qualify from the Interzonal
Interzonal
Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle.- Zonal tournaments :...
s of Sousse
Sousse
Sousse is a city in Tunisia. Located 140 km south of the capital Tunis, the city has 173,047 inhabitants . Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which is a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The name may be of Berber origin: similar names are found in Libya and in...
1967 and Palma de Mallorca
Palma de Mallorca
Palma is the major city and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. The names Ciutat de Mallorca and Ciutat were used before the War of the Spanish Succession and are still used by people in Majorca. However, the official name...
1970, he had his first major triumph in 1973, when he won at the Petrópolis
Petrópolis
Petrópolis , also known as The Imperial City of Brazil, is a town in the state of Rio de Janeiro, about 65 km from the city of Rio de Janeiro....
Interzonal (ahead of a very strong field that included such chess luminaries as Paul Keres
Paul Keres
Paul Keres , was an Estonian chess grandmaster, and a renowned chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s....
, David Bronstein
David Bronstein
David Ionovich Bronstein was a Soviet chess grandmaster, who narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics...
, et al). From this time until 1979, he was the strongest player born in the West in light of Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
's effective retirement in 1972. He was subsequently eliminated from the Candidates Tournament
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...
in the quarterfinals, through losing his match against Korchnoi.
At his next attempt in 1976, he won the Manila Interzonal (ahead of Vlastimil Hort
Vlastimil Hort
Vlastimil Hort is a chess Grandmaster of Czech nationality. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the world's strongest players and reached the Candidates stage of competition for the world chess championship, but was never able to compete for the actual title.Hort was born in Kladno,...
, Lev Polugaevsky
Lev Polugaevsky
Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky was an International Grandmaster of chess and frequent contender for the world chess championship, although he never achieved that title...
, Vitaly Tseshkovsky
Vitaly Tseshkovsky
Vitaly Valerianovich Tseshkovsky is a Russian chess Grandmaster and a former champion of the USSR.Tseshkovsky was born in Siberia into a Polish family ....
, Ljubomir Ljubojević
Ljubomir Ljubojevic
Ljubomir Ljubojević is a Grandmaster of chess. He was born on November 2, 1950, in Titovo Užice, Yugoslavia . Ljubojević was awarded the International Master title in 1970 and the GM title in 1971. He was Yugoslav champion in 1977 and 1982. He won the 1974 Canadian Open Chess Championship...
, Zoltán Ribli
Zoltan Ribli
Zoltán Ribli is a Hungarian chess grandmaster and International Arbiter . He was twice a World Championship Candidate and three times Hungarian Champion.-A career in chess:...
et al), thereby reaching a second successive Candidates match stage, but again lost in the quarterfinals, this time to Polugaevsky. Illness, believed to be myasthenia gravis
Myasthenia gravis
Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune neuromuscular disease leading to fluctuating muscle weakness and fatiguability...
, forced his withdrawal from the Interzonal in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
1979 after a first round draw with Borislav Ivkov
Borislav Ivkov
Borislav Ivkov is a Serbian chess Grandmaster. He was the first ever World Junior Champion in 1951. He won the Yugoslav Championship in 1958 , 1963 and 1972. He was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal tournaments, in 1967, 1970, 1973, and 1979...
. Indeed, his illness was so severe that it was widely believed he would soon die. He survived but did not play chess during the 1980s. While he was able to recover and to resume his chess career in 1991 with matches against Predrag Nikolić
Predrag Nikolic
Predrag Nikolić is a Bosnian chess grandmaster.He first competed for the Yugoslav Championship in 1979, taking a share of second place. The following year and again in 1984, he went one step further and became the Yugoslav national champion...
and (in 1992) Yasser Seirawan, followed by intermittent tournament appearances, his chance at the world title had passed and he did not reach the Candidates matches again.
Notable games
- Mecking v. Fischer 1970, Buenos Aires, Grunfeld 1/2-1/2
- Mecking v. Gipslis, Interzonal 1967 A game from Mecking's first Interzonal, played when he was only 15 years old.