Henri Grob

Henri Grob (4 June 1904 – 5? July 1974) was a Swiss chess master, artist and painter. He pioneered eccentric chess openings, such as 1.g4 (book Angriff g2–g4, Zurich 1942), sometimes known as Grob's Attack.

He was awarded the International Master title in 1950 at its inauguration.

Grob was considered as a leading Swiss player from the 1930s to 1950s and was invited to many prestigious closed tournaments. In 1926, he tied for 10-12th in Meran (Edgar Colle won). In 1932, he tied for 9-12th in Bern (Alexander Alekhine won). In 1934, he tied for 13-14th in Zürich 1934 (Alekhine won). In 1935, he took 3rd, behind Flohr and Koltanowski, in Barcelona, took 3rd in Rosas (Flohr won), and took 10th in Bad Nauheim (Bogoljubow won). In 1936, he took 10th in Dresden (Alekhine won), tied for 3rd-4th in Reus, and took 2nd, behind Erik Lundin, in Ostend.

In 1937, Grob won as first on tie-break, 1st-3rd with Reuben Fine and Paul Keres in Ostend (beating Keres and Fine, both absolute elite players and joint winners of the legendary AVRO tournament in 1938).

In 1939, he took 9th in Stuttgart (Europa Turnier; Bogoljubow won). In 1947, he tied for 2nd-3rd, behind Savielly Tartakower in Baarn, and took 5th in Venice (Tartakower won). In 1947/48 he tied for 2nd-4th, behind László Szabó, in Hastings. In 1948, he took 8th in Venice (Miguel Najdorf won). In 1949/50 he took 4th in Lucerne (Blau won). In 1951, he took 10th in Bad Pyrmont (zonal; Svetozar Gligorić won).

Grob represented Switzerland in Chess Olympiads.

He also played for Switzerland in some friendly matches.

Grob played several matches.

He was Swiss Champion twice, in 1939 and 1951.

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