Robert Hubner
- October 7, 2025
Four-time Candidate Tournament participant (1971, 1980, 1983, 1991)
Ranking: highest world number three in 1981
Highest FIDE Elo Rating: 2640
Tournament career: winner of seven super-tournaments:
winner of Linares International Chess Tournament 1985, Tilburg International Chess Tournament 1985, Munich 1979 Chess Tournament, Biel Chess Festival 1984
and a few others…
Chess Olympiads: silver team medal
What he deserved it for:
It hasn’t even been a year since this chess legend left this world. Robert Hubner was, believe it or not, the last Candidate Tournament participant from Germany until 2026, when Bluebaum will emulate him. Specifically, he played in the candidate matches four times, and his best result was a final appearance in 1980, where he lost to Korchnoi.
He shared victory with Ljubojević at the prestigious tournament in Linares and also won other major tournaments in Biel, Tilburg, and Munich. In the early eighties, he was consistently in the top 5 and ranked as high as third in the world.
Hubner was one of those known for his mild and gentlemanly demeanor. Therefore, he was popular as a second, which he did for Nigel Short during his World Championship match in 1993.
Why he isn’t higher:
Hubner was a perfectionist, and at certain moments, he reportedly lacked decisiveness on the chessboard. Motivation or even simple luck could also have been an issue. It is generally known that Hubner ended his participation in some World Championship cycles in a really peculiar way. Twice he did not finish his candidate matches and withdrew prematurely, and once he was eliminated from the cycle based on a roulette wheel spin.
Best games:
Robert Hubner vs Raymond Keene
Vienna 1972
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Miroslav Janeček graduated in English Philology at Palacký University Olomouc. Currently he works in Prague as a content editor for a large marketing company. His roots are in Opava - the historic and cultural centre of the Czech part of Silesia. That city is also the home of Slezan Opava, the chess club where Miroslav started to play chess, later went on to work as a youth coach and which he to this day proudly represents. As an aspiring chess publicist, he is the main author of articles on ChessDB.cz. In his free time, in addition to chess and writing, he also devotes himself to racket sports, history, and literature.