GM Andreas Dueckstein, an Austrian grandmaster generally known as a harmful attacker who defeated world champions Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik and Boris Spassky, died peacefully on August 28 on the age of 97. The information was confirmed by the Austrian chess federation.
Since February 2024, when he was awarded the honorary grandmaster title by FIDE, Dueckstein was the oldest residing grandmaster. He obtained the title together with the Estonian GM Iivo Nei, each for his or her persistently robust ends in the Fifties-70s. Since Dueckstein’s passing, Nei is the oldest residing grandmaster.
Dueckstein was born August 2, 1927, in Budapest, Hungary. As famous by Martin Stichlberger in his good obituary, Dueckstein was a toddler of sports activities academics, and so it was a logical selection to review on the Sports activities College, the place he graduated. In 1949 he moved to Vienna, Austria, the place he received town championship in 1952. Two years later, he turned an Austrian citizen. In 1964, he obtained a doctorate in regulation.
All the time an beginner participant, Dueckstein was a three-time Austrian champion (1954, 1956, 1977) and was very lively for his nation, which he represented in 9 Olympiads between 1956 and 1988 and over 100 worldwide matches. He received two particular person gold medals at Olympiads, at Moscow 1956 and at Good 1974, enjoying the second board in each.
He performed in opposition to seven world champions and defeated three of them. His most well-known win, in opposition to then-reigning champion Botvinnik, was half a yr after the Soviet grandmaster had regained his title in a rematch with GM Vasily Smyslov. The sport was performed on the 1958 Munich Olympiad and was your entire Soviet Union group’s solely loss at this occasion.
Dueckstein himself did not suppose it was such a terrific recreation and all the time favored his win in opposition to GM Ludek Pachman on the similar match extra. It is not that typical for Dueckstein’s aggressive type, nevertheless it exhibits that he wasn’t a foul endgame participant both:
On the age of 12, Dueckstein managed to carry Euwe to a attract a simul. Virtually 20 years later, he defeated the previous world champion on the Clare Benedict Cup, which was additionally in 1958, a number of months earlier than the Olympiad. We see the Poisoned Pawn Najdorf, which suited his type fairly properly:
Later in life, in reality a month after turning 57, Dueckstein added another win in opposition to a former world champion. At an open match held in Zurich in 1984, he defeated Spassky with the black items at a time when Spassky, ten years youthful, was nonetheless sixteenth on this planet. Spassky wasn’t having his greatest day, and his opponent capitalized on it:
Certainly one of Dueckstein’s final superb outcomes was a 3rd place on the 1991 World Seniors in Dangerous Wörishofen, a match received by Smyslov.
Dueckstein was awarded the IM title in 1956 and later scored greater than sufficient grandmaster norms had the trendy guidelines been in place. Nevertheless, at a few of these occasions, he continued enjoying after having carried out at GM stage and his efficiency dropped, thus stopping it from counting as a GM norm in spite of everything—an outdated rule that does not exist anymore.
No less than in the course of the ultimate six months of his life he was capable of benefit from the highest title in chess, one which he actually deserved.
