Photo from Amsterdam, 1969 via Wikimedia Commons
As chess fans may have heard, legendary GM Lubomir “Lubosh” Kavalek passed away this week at the age of 77. GM Kavalek was a fierce attacking player, who was a top 10 player in the world at his rating peak. He was 2 time winner of the Czechoslovak National Championship, and after emigrating to Virginia, went on to become US National Champion 3 times as well.
Unfortunately, I never got the chance to interview GM Kavalek, but Fred Wilson has given me permission to share an excellent long audio interview that he did with GM Kavalek with you all. The interview took place on September 10, 2003. In this conversation, they cover many of the highlights of GM Kavalek’s illustrious career as a player, trainer, and author. They discuss Kavalek’s beginnings in chess, and his work helping in the World Championship matches of Bobby Fischer (against Spassky in 1972), and assisting GM Nigel Short against Kasparov in 1993. In listening to this interview, I was struck by the the wit and personality of GM Kavalek.
You can read on for brief timestamps, but of course you should listen to the entire interview with this chess legend!
Click here to download the Interview
02:45- GM Lubomir Kavalek discusses his beginnings in the chess world,, and his experiences with some of the other great Czech and US players of his generation.
17:00- What chess books influenced Lubosh?
23:30- Working as the second of Nigel Short in the 1990s.
53:00- Question from Alex Baburin. Did chess help him adapt to emigrating?
58:00- What was his most pleasant and worst tournament?
1:02:15- What are his thoughts on quick draws?
1:10:00- How to optimize one’s time preparing for a tournament?
1:11:00- Did he have any plans for a book about his best games?
1:22:00- What was it like to play against Bobby Fischer?
1:24:00- What was GM Kavalek’s role in working with Fischer in the 1972 World Championship Match against GM Boris Spassky?
If you enjoy this interview, you could consider becoming a Perpetual Chess Patreon subscriber in order to access the entire audio archive of Fred Wilson’s great interviews.