Karl Robatsch
| Karl Robatsch | |
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Karl Robatsch in 1961
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| Full name | Karl Robatsch |
| Country | Austria |
| Born |
October 14, 1929 Klagenfurt, Austria |
| Died | September 19, 2000 (aged 70) |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| Peak rating | 2460 (January 1971) |
Karl Robatsch (October 14, 1929 in Klagenfurt – September 19, 2000) was a leading Austrian chess player and a noted botanist.
He moved to Graz at the age of 17 to become a student and often frequented the Mountainside Café, a popular meeting place for chess players. As he already had a recognisable chess talent, he joined a local club 'SK Gemeinde' (Municipal chess club) and quickly advanced to master standard.
Becoming an International Master (IM) in 1957 and a Grandmaster in 1961, Robatsch dedicated much of his life to serving Austrian chess, representing the nation at eleven Chess Olympiads and one European Team Chess Championship. Up until his last Olympiad in 1994, he played first board on every occasion and returned some impressive results. At the 1960 Leipzig Olympiad, he astounded the chess world by scoring 84.4% and taking the board 1 gold medal, while still only an IM. This was also the year that he became Austrian champion.
While Robatsch played competitively over five decades, the high points of his international tournament career mostly occurred in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was a winner at Madrid in 1961 (with Borislav Milic) and achieved outright or shared second place at Kapfenberg 1955, Varna 1957, Utrecht 1961 and Beverwijk 1962. At Halle in 1963, a zonal qualifying tournament for the world championship, he finished with a creditable tie for third (after Lajos Portisch and Bent Larsen, level with Borislav Ivkov).
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