Zoltán Ribli

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Zoltán Ribli, 2008

Zoltán Ribli (born September 6, 1951 in Mohács) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster and three times Hungarian Champion.

His International Master and Grandmaster titles were awarded in 1970 and 1973 respectively. He became a fearsome tournament competitor during the 1970s and 1980s, chalking up victories at Kecskemet 1972 (with Suetin), Budapest 1975 (with Polugaevsky), Mexico 1980, Baden Baden 1981 (with Miles), Portorož/Ljubljana 1985 (Vidmar Memorial, with Miles and Portisch), Dortmund 1986, Reggio Emilia 1987, and Wijk aan Zee 1989 (with Anand, Sax and Nikolic). Runner-up results include Amsterdam 1978 (behind Timman), Bled/Portorož 1979 (with Larsen, behind Timman), Wijk aan Zee 1983 (behind Andersson), Bugojno 1984 (behind Timman) and Tilburg 1984 (with Beliavsky, Hübner and Tukmakov, behind Miles).

Whilst not so active in tournament play in the 1990s and 2000s, Ribli has maintained a very competitive rating (his July 2006 elo rating was 2589) and has shown that he can still win grandmaster events, such as the Hotel Opatija tournament in Kastav, Croatia in 2002.

Aside from regular tournaments, he was a European Junior Champion twice in 1968/69 (joint) and 1970/71, the national champion of Hungary in 1973 (joint), 1974 and 1977 (joint) and a World Championship Candidate in 1983 and 1985. At London 1984, he participated in the high profile match between USSR and the Rest of the World, defeating his Soviet counterpart, Rafael Vaganian by the odd game.

An almost ever-present member of the Hungarian Olympiad team between 1970 and 1994, he was second board when Hungary won the team gold medal in 1978. He also won team silver medals in 1970, 1972 and 1980.

Zoltan Ribli is married to Woman International Master Maria Grosch. He is also a chess writer, with one of his titles Winning with the Queen's Indian for Batsford (co-author Gabor Kallai).