Henri Grob

Henri Grob vs. Willem Muhring (Hastings, 1947-48)

Henri Grob (4 June 1904 – 5? July[1] 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).[2] 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.

  • In 1950, he lost to Carlos Guimard 0,5 : 1,5 in Zurich (SUI – ARG);
  • In 1951, he drew with Eugenio Szabados 1 : 1 in Venice (SUI – ITA);
  • In 1952, he drew with Rudolf Teschner 1 : 1 in Lucerne (SUI – FRG);
  • In 1955, he won against Weichselbaumer 1 : 0 in Zurich (SUI – Saar).[3]

Grob played several matches.

He was Swiss Champion twice, in 1939 and 1951.

Between 1946 and 1972, Grob played 3,614 correspondence chess games. He won 2,703, lost 430, and drew 481 games. All of the games were played against readers of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a leading Swiss newspaper.

Grob married nine times. When once asked if he were married he replied "Fast immer" ("Almost always.")

Notable games

References

  1. ↑ '3 July' according to Gaige, '8 July' according to Golombek, '4 June' according to Mundo del Ajedrez November 1974, p. 318.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-02-21. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
  3. ↑ OlimpBase :: the encyclopaedia of team chess
  4. ↑ Litmanowicz, Władysław & Giżycki, Jerzy (1986, 1987). Szachy od A do Z. Wydawnictwo Sport i Turystyka Warszawa. ISBN 83-217-2481-7 (1. A-M), ISBN 83-217-2745-X (2. N-Z)
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