Lubomir Kavalek

Lubomir Kavalek
Lubomir Kavalek in 1968
Country	United States Czechoslovakia
Born	(1943-08-09) August 9, 1943 (age 73) Prague, Czechoslovakia
Title	Grandmaster (1965)
FIDE rating	2527 (February 2017) (1999 – retired)
Peak rating	2625 in 1974

Lubomir (Lubosh) Kavalek (Czech: Lubomír Kaválek, born August 9, 1943) is a Czech-American world-class chess player. He was awarded both the International Master and International Grandmaster titles by FIDE in 1965. He won two Czechoslovak and three U.S. championships, and was ranked as the world’s no. 10 player in 1974. He was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2001. Kavalek is also a chess coach, organizer, teacher, commentator, author and award-winning columnist.

Kavalek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). He studied communication and journalism at Charles University. He won the championship of Czechoslovakia in 1962 and 1968. When Soviet tanks rolled into Prague in August 1968, Kavalek was playing in the Akiba Rubinstein Memorial in Poland, in which he finished second. Kavalek, who had always hated Communism, decided to defect to the West rather than return to Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia. He bought several crates of vodka with his winnings, used them to bribe the border guards, and drove to West Germany. "It was the biggest loss ever suffered by Czechoslovakian chess," wrote Andrew Soltis in "The 100 Best Chess Games of the 20th Century, Ranked."

In 1970, on the way to the United States, Kavalek won a strong tournament in Caracas (scoring +10−1=6). He played the first half under the Czechoslovakian flag, the second half under the American flag. He represented the United States before officially setting foot in his new adopted country. Kavalek moved to Washington, D.C., studied Slavic literature at George Washington University and worked at Voice of America (1971–72). In 1973 he became a full-time chess professional. He later became a United States citizen and now lives in Reston, Virginia.