Karl Robatsch

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This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

Karl Robatsch (October 14, 1928 Karnten – September 19, 2000) was an Austrian chess player and 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 in 1957 and an Grandmaster in 1961, Robatsch dedicated much of his life to serving Austrian chess, representing the nation at eleven Chess Olympiads and one European Team 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.

Whilst Robatsch played competitively over five decades, the high points of his career all occurred in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was a winner at Madrid in 1961 (with 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, Bent Larsen and level with Borislav Ivkov). He continued to play to a good tournament standard into the late 1990s.

In terms of his playing abilities, he displayed a highly combinative style in his younger days and adopted a more positional approach later in life. His opening play was often punctuated with experimental moves and this led to some lively and historically important games. The system of opening moves commencing 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7, first seen in the 16th century, became a playground that Robatsch returned to time and time again when he had the black pieces. Following preparatory moves such as Nc6 or d6, black characteristically delays the development of the kingside knight in favour of an early challenge in the centre with e5. An alternative configuration, with which he drew with ex-world champion Max Euwe, involved playing an early c5 and d5. Other strategies employed by black are likely to transpose to lines of the Pirc Defence, King's Indian Defence or Modern Benoni. Robatsch duly revived, developed and popularised the system and it became widely known as the 'Robatsch Defence' throughout the 1960s, 70s and even into the 1980s. Although some opening books still reference it this way, a more common designation is Modern Defence. He was also known for his offbeat version of the Centre Counter, or Scandinavian Defence as it is now best known.

Robatsch may have hindered his further development as a chess player, by sharing his love of chess with a parallel career in botany. As an esteemed orchidologist, he was awarded the title of professor for his outstanding research work in the classification of different species and sub-species of orchid.

Karl Robatsch died in 2000, following a long fight with throat and stomach cancer.