A German genius: Robert Hübner

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A German genius: Robert Hübner

Hübner in 1983

Robert Hübner, who has died at 76, was widely considered to be the greatest German player since Emanuel Lasker, with three appearances in Candidates matches for the world title. Hübner’s record against world champions was impressive, with wins against Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Karpov and Kasparov. A key feature of his play was determination. By profession a papyrologist and linguist, Hübner compensated for his amateur status by cultivating a fierce will to win, and not just over the chessboard.

Robert Hübner was born in Cologne in 1948. At the age of sixteen, he tied for first place  in the European Junior Championship. At eighteen, Hübner was the joint winner of the West German Championship. In 1971, he received the International Grandmaster title after qualifying for the World Championship Candidates at Palma de Mallorca Interzonal (1970), where he tied for second place, in the wake of a dominating performance by a rampant Bobby Fischer.

Hübner’s subsequent candidates quarter final match against former world champion Tigran Petrosian took place in Seville, Spain. The first six games of the match ended in draws, with Petrosian winning the seventh. With three games remaining in the best-of-ten encounter, Hübner forfeited the match, citing problems with excessive heat and noise. Especially noise. The venue was indeed noisy, but Petrosian suffered from deafness and simply turned down his hearing aid. Hübner’s protests to the organisers fell, as it were, on deaf ears, hence Hübner’s withdrawal, setting a curious pattern, both of weird events at Candidates level and of bad blood with Petrosian.

Hübner also qualified in 1980. By defeating Adorjan and Portisch, he reached the final. This candidates final with Korchnoi was a best-of-sixteen match that took place in Merano. Hübner was ahead by a single point after six rounds, but lost games seven and eight. The following two games were adjourned, after which Hübner asked for a postponement. After some unexplained controversy, he ended up leaving Merano and forfeited the match. By reaching the final, though, he secured a Candidates spot for the third time.

The Merano debacle has never been fully explained, but insiders tell me that Hübner was emotionally poleaxed when he unexpectedly discovered his boyfriend in bed with his manager. Cue complete meltdown, with Korchnoi propelled into his third and final world title tussle with Karpov, also staged in Merano.

In the next cycle, contested in 1983, Hübner played the 62-year-old former world champion, Smyslov. The encounter took place in the Austrian spa and resort city of Velden. After 14 games, the match was tied. On April 20, the match was decided by the spin of a roulette wheel at Casino Velden. The first spin landed on 0 (green), necessitating a second spin. The second spin landed on 3, a red number, making Smyslov the winner. Widespread dissatisfaction with the randomness of this result led to abandonment of this aleatory system of deciding who would challenge for the world title.

As a student of German literature, language, history and culture at Trinity College Cambridge, I often accompanied Hübner on chess trips to Germany. During one such visit, our hosts, tiring of losing to us at chess, took us to a mini golf course, in order to wreak their revenge. At first, Hübner’s shots were all over the place, but, as he got the hang of it, he started to score holes in one, much to the chagrin of our hosts. Hübner emerged on top again— and that was the end of mini golf excursions.

Next evening, we were invited to a bowling alley and of course Hübner was all over the place yet again, hardly competent to let go of the ball and barely able to avoid falling over. However, as he entered into the spirit of the game, Hübner started to fell all the bowling pins with his first stroke and once again he emerged victorious.

I began to believe that Hübner would develop a strategy for winning at any activity in which he became involved. Whereas I was content to win at chess, but happy to lose at mini golf or bowling, Hübner allowed no quarter in anything.

Hübner was a perfectionist, though also a loner. He always struck me as somewhat mournful, not truly appreciative of his own greatness. On one occasion, while breakfasting at Hübner’s family home, a fight broke out (in German naturally) with his father, who doubtless failed to realise my command of German. The conversation ran along these lines:

Hübner Father to Hübner son:

Why are you so miserable this morning?

Son: I see that you have put up that old photo of you in the SS uniform again!

Father: Why not? Hitler’s government was democratically elected.

Son: It was a criminal regime (Verbrecherregierung).

Things went downhill from there in the Hübner household.

It seemed to me that Hübner was burdened with a guilt that was none of his making, leading to a pessimism which either held him back, or spurred him on. I was never quite sure which.

Hübner and I were contemporaries, born in the same year 1948, though he arrived slightly later. In our first three tournaments from 1967 to 1969, I finished ahead of him on every occasion and even notched a plus score against him. Then, in 1970, Hübner suddenly appeared at Interzonal level, qualified for the world championship candidates competition, and became a Grandmaster. It was an astonishing rise to fame.

When choosing a game to represent Hübner’s logical style, I decided not to go for a flashy victory, but a game which I know gave him immense satisfaction, for a number of reasons:

1) it secured Hübner’s undefeated top board gold medal in the 1972 Chess Olympiad, with a percentage of 83.3%;

2) This was the only game lost by Iron Tigran (Petrosian) in his multi-decade representation of the USSR in various Olympiads;

3) After the debacle of their 1971 candidates quarter final, Hübner and Petrosian were on particularly bad terms. Hübner regarded this win as a sweet revenge for what he regarded as that previous injustice.

Petrosian played in ten consecutive Soviet Olympiad teams from 1958 to 1978, winning nine team gold medals, one team silver medal, and six individual gold medals, twice (1966 and 1968) on top board. His overall performance in Olympiads  was +78 =50 −1, the only loss being to Robert Hübner.

1970 Interzonal tournament: Palma de Mallorca

Robert Hübner vs. Tigran Petrosian

20th Olympiad, Skopje, Sep-Oct 1972

Analysis based on comments  by Hübner himself from  The Chess Player

1.e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Bd3 Qc7 6. O-O Nf6 7. Kh1 Normal is 7. Be3.

7… Nc6 8. Nxc6 bxc6 9. f4 d5 10. Nd2 Be7 11. b3 

Better is 11. c4 when White has a slight advantage.

11… c5!

Attempts to take immediate advantage of White’s dark squared weaknesses accomplish nothing: 11… Bb4 12. Bb2 Qa5 13. Rf2, and now both 13… Bxd2 14. Bxf6 and 13… Bc3 14. Bxc3 Qxc3 15. Rf3 are in White’s favour.

12.Bb2 Bb7 13. Qe2 O-O 14. e5 Ne8 

Not 14… Nd7 15. f5! when White has good attacking chances. But now 15. f5 can be met by exf5 16. Rxf5 g6 17. Rf2 Ng7 followed by …Ne6, when White’s attacking prospects have disappeared and he has no compensation for the isolation of his pawn on e5.

15.c4 d4 16. Ne4 Rb8 

16… a5 is also possible.

17.b4 cxb4 

Otherwise White will establish a protected passed b-pawn. e.g. 17… Bxe4 18. Qxe4 g6 19. b5.

18.Bxd4 Rd8 19. Bg1 Qc6 

Threatening 20… Rxd3 21. Qxd3 Qxe4, and thereby preventing 20. f5 which would be followed by Nd6 and an excellent game for White.

20.Rae1 f5 21. exf6 Nxf6 22. Bb1 

Despite his passed pawn, the endgame, after 22. Nxf6+ Rxf6 23. Be4 Qxe4 24. Qxe4 Bxe4 25. Rxe4, is very bad for White: 25… Rd7 26. c5 a5 27. Rc4 Bd8 and White is reduced to passive defence (28. Ra1).

22… Nxe4

If 22… a5, intending to exchange three times on e5 followed by …Rd7, White’s 23. Ng5 wins a pawn at least. So 22… h6 is the only alternative to the text. Then 23. Qc2 forces Black into the exchanges before he has time for …a5 but, as will be seen later, …h6 would turn out to be a useful move.

23.Bxe4 Qxe4 24. Qxe4 Bxe4 25. Rxe4 a5 

25… Kf7 26. c5 a5 27. a3 bxa3 28. Ra4 should also lead to a draw after 27. a3 bxa3 28. Ra4.

26.Rxe6 Bf6 27. Bc5!

If 27. Ra6 Ra8 28. Rxa8 Rxa8, the threat of Black’s b-pawn more than outweighs White’s extra pawn.

27… Rf7?!

27… Rfe8 is without risk, e.g. 28. Ra6 Ra8 (not 28… Rd2 29. Rxa5 Ree2 30. Ra8+ Kf7 31. f5 when White is two pawns up and he has the unpleasant threat of 32. Rf8 mate) 29. Rxa8 Rxa8 30. Rb1 folowed by a3 and a draw.

28.Bd6 Rb7 29. c5 Rc8 30. g4 Kf7 31. Re4 

White still needs his rook on the f-file and so the text is better than 31. Rfe1 h6 when White can no longer play f5. But now 31… h6 can be met by 32. g5. Had Black played 22… h6 [see note to Black’s 22nd] he would be a tempo ahead of the game.

31… Be7 32. Rfe1 Bxd6 33. cxd6 Rd8 34. Rd4 g6 

On 34… Rbd7 35. Red1 g6 36. Rd5 Ke6 37. f5+ gxf5 38. gxf5+ Kf6 etc.

35.Kg2 

35.Red1 Rbd7 36. Rd5 a4, also draws.

35… Rbd7 36. Re5 Rxd6 37. Rxd6 (Rxd6) Black lost on time 1-0

After 38. Rxa5 Rb6 and 39… b3 40. axb3 Rxb3, the ending would be totally drawn. Sadly for Petrosian , his clock flag fell before he was able to reach the haven of the time control at move 40.

Immediately after the game was awarded to Hübner on time, Petrosian tried to query the accuracy of the clock. It seemed to him that the flag had fallen before the hour. For this very reason, the clocks at the Olympiad had all been set at 3.27 instead of 3.30 at the start of each game … For Hübner, thirsting for revenge after his humiliation in Seville, one might say that there was no present like the time!

Robert Hübner: born in Germany on November 6, 1948; died there on January 5, 2025, aged 76.

 

Ray’s 206th book, “  Chess in the Year of the King  ”, written in collaboration with Adam Black, and his 207th, “  Napoleon and Goethe: The Touchstone of Genius  ” (which discusses their relationship with chess) can be ordered from both Amazon and Blackwells. His 208th, the world record for chess books, written jointly with chess playing artist Barry Martin,  Chess through the Looking Glass , is now available from Amazon. 

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