HENRIQUE MECKING (born Jan-23-1952, 73 years old) Brazil [what is this?] Henrique da Costa Mecking was born in Santa Cruz do Sul. He learned chess at the age of 6. He won his state championship at the age of 11. In 1965, when just thirteen years old, he won his country's championship, 2.5 points more than 2nd place. For this victory, many chess critics hailed him as "the next Fischer," referring to the fact that Robert James Fischer had won the US championship at fourteen. Mecking also won the Brazil championship in 1965 and 1967, never playing in another Brazilian championship, except for the 2011 edition (in which he placed third). In 1966, he was South American champion (jointly) with Julio Bolbochan, Oscar Panno and Alberto Foguelman. He played in the Sousse Interzonal (1967) at the age of 15 and won the Sousse speed championship. Mecking was awarded the title of International Grandmaster in 1971 (at the age of 19) after winning at Vrsac and taking 3rd at Hastings. South American champion at Sao Paulo, zt 1972, 2,5 points ahead of Oscar Panno and Miguel A Quinteros. He won two Interzonal events, Petropolis Interzonal (1973) (without a loss) and Manila Interzonal (1976) (only losing to Spassky). These and other tournament victories vaulted him to third place on FIDE's world rankings list in 1977, behind only World Champion Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi. In 1979, Mecking was attempting his third consecutive Interzonal victory (Rio de Janerio) when he was forced to withdraw from the tournament, having been stricken with near-fatal illness (myasthenia gravis). It took 12 years for him to recover enough to resume his chess career. He still lives in Brazil and maintains a high rating, although he has not managed to rejoin the world's elite. By 2009, Mecking was Brazil's fifth highest rated player. He took on the then Brazilian number one, Alexandr Hilario Takeda dos Santos Fier, in a match of four classical games in Sao Paulo, Brazil 23rd-27th September 2009. The match was drawn 2 all - Game Collection: Match - Mecking v Hilario Ta Fier - 2009. Wikipedia article: Henrique Mecking

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page 1 of 27; games 1-25 of 652  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. Mecking vs S Benevenga ½-½ 25 1964 Porto Alegre C64 Ruy Lopez, Classical 2. Mecking vs H van Riemsdijk   1-0 32 1964 Rio Grande do Sul Championship D82 Grunfeld, 4.Bf4 3. Mecking vs D van Riemsdijk   ½-½ 42 1964 Rio Grande do Sul Championship D82 Grunfeld, 4.Bf4 4. Mecking vs C Peixoto   1-0 32 1965 BRA-ch sf B41 Sicilian, Kan 5. Mecking vs A M Vieira   1-0 36 1965 BRA-ch sf B95 Sicilian, Najdorf, 6...e6 6. Mecking vs E Stenzel ½-½ 38 1965 BRA-ch sf C97 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Chigorin 7. Mecking vs N Silveira ½-½ 35 1965 BRA-ch sf C89 Ruy Lopez, Marshall 8. Mecking vs J Vilela 1-0 50 1965 BRA-ch sf A95 Dutch, Stonewall 9. S Dobrowolski vs Mecking   ½-½ 30 1965 BRA-ch sf C86 Ruy Lopez, Worrall Attack 10. O Feiges vs Mecking 0-1 37 1965 BRA-ch sf C54 Giuoco Piano 11. J Goizutis vs Mecking   0-1 54 1965 BRA-ch sf C43 Petrov, Modern Attack 12. F Trois vs Mecking   ½-½ 42 1965 BRA-ch sf C78 Ruy Lopez 13. Mecking vs M E de Freitas   ½-½ 32 1965 Brazilian Championship C58 Two Knights 14. C Peixoto vs Mecking ½-½ 22 1965 Brazilian Championship E81 King's Indian, Samisch 15. E Stenzel vs Mecking   0-1 47 1965 Brazilian Championship B84 Sicilian, Scheveningen 16. P Toth vs Mecking   0-1 62 1965 Brazilian Championship A07 King's Indian Attack 17. Mecking vs J de Souza Mendes 0-1 60 1965 Brazilian Championship B06 Robatsch 18. Mecking vs L Tavares da Silva 1-0 51 1965 Brazilian Championship A61 Benoni 19. Mecking vs J B Moreira 1-0 41 1965 Brazilian Championship E81 King's Indian, Samisch 20. Mecking vs F Alves 1-0 34 1965 Brazilian Championship E64 King's Indian, Fianchetto, Yugoslav System 21. Mecking vs M Miranda ½-½ 47 1965 Brazilian Championship E46 Nimzo-Indian 22. Mecking vs E Cotta 1-0 38 1965 Brazilian Championship A39 English, Symmetrical, Main line with d4 23. F Vasconcellos vs Mecking   0-1 37 1965 Brazilian Championship E75 King's Indian, Averbakh, Main line 24. H Camara vs Mecking   0-1 48 1965 Brazilian Championship C97 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Chigorin 25. A C Rocha vs Mecking   0-1 50 1965 Brazilian Championship E76 King's Indian, Four Pawns Attack  page 1 of 27; games 1-25 of 652

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< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 6 OF 10 ·  Later Kibitzing> Feb-09-07    ianD: I popsted an update on Mecking on the Ray Keene home page. Ray Played Henrique Mecking twice losing both games. I wondered what he thought of the great Brazilian player were. I am waiting for Ray to give a fuller account of the two Hastings tournaments that Mecking played in. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/kibi... Feb-09-07    ianD: Great to see him looking so well. It looks like he is enjoying life and chess!! http://www.angloguarulhos.com.br/xa...-(69).jpg Feb-09-07    tanuri: You must have AMAZING, and I mean AMAZING natural raw skill, to come out of Brazil in the 60's, where few people played chess, had no coaches, no good people to play against , and become 3rd best player in the world at some point, and if he didn't get seriously ill, he would have done bigger things! His practice was to set the pieces randomly on board and look for combiantions, lol! Feb-12-07    Delusional Patzer: <ianD> Do you know where I can find all of Mecking's games from the 2006 <2° Festival Scacchistico Internazionale>? Feb-12-07    gmgomes: <Delusional Patzer> try here, find "partidas em pgn" http://www.brasilbase.pro.br/to2006... Feb-13-07    Delusional Patzer: <gmgomes> Thanks! I've used your link and submitted the games to <chessgames.com> so that they can upload them into the database. Apr-15-07    Helios727: In my Karpov book, it does not even show Mecking as playing in the 1973 Interzonal. Was that true, and if so, how did he manage to play in the candidates matches of 1974? Apr-15-07    acirce: They had two Interzonals by then, Karpov played in Leningrad, Mecking won in Petropolis. http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/737... http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/737... Apr-15-07    Helios727: I only recognize two Americans on those 2 lists (Reshevsky and Byrne). Who were the others? Apr-22-07    s4life: <Maatalkko: I had no idea that he was so strong until I read this: http://chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk/Chess/Tr...; Seirawan at #40 is so out of place in that list... but it's understandable as Keene was the maker (he makes no apologies for being a biased source of information) Apr-24-07    Helios727: Who were the other Americans in the 1973 interzonals besides Byrne and Reshevsky? Apr-24-07    Caissanist: Byrne and Reshevsky were the only two, in those days only two Americans qualified from the US championship into the interzonal. Apr-24-07    Dick Brain: <Helios727> There were only two spots available for US players in the '73 interzonals. These were to be the top two finishers of the US championship. Reshevksy, Byrne, and Kavalek tied for first in the '72 championship but Kavalek lost the 3-way playoff. Apr-24-07    veigaman: Chessgames, just a suggestion: I think the name of Henrique Mecking should be added to the menu ADVANCED SEARCH. I think he has all the merit to be there because he was a phenomenal player, charismatic and succesfull. Apr-24-07    Troglodyte: He is there, but I think you need to select the <Longer list of players on homepage> option in your preferences. Apr-25-07    imatos: <tanuri: His practice was to set the pieces randomly on board and look for combiantions, lol!> I would say that's a quite reasonable way to practice chess. It's certainly a method far superior to what many people are erroneously doing (like e.g. studying openings in depth while still having issues with intermediate or even basic-level tactics). Apr-25-07    Helios727: <Dick Brain> If the Americans only got 2 slots why did the Russians get at least 8 ? Apr-25-07    iron maiden: <If the Americans only got 2 slots why did the Russians get at least 8 ?> Two and eight sounds about right for the USA and USSR back then, given their respective strengths as chess powers. At the time, the Soviet Union probably had more players worthy of inclusion than any other five or six countries put together. Apr-25-07    Helios727: <iron maiden>: Wasn't it 4 Americans and 4 Soviets during the 60s? Apr-25-07    keypusher: The Amsterdam interzonal had five Soviets and three Americans. http://xoomer.alice.it/cserica/scac... There was also a limit on the number of players from one country who could qualify. Sousse only had four Soviets and three Americans http://xoomer.alice.it/cserica/scac... And, of course, Stein was prevented from advancing to the Candidates matches by the one-country limit. At Palma there were again four Soviets and three Americans. http://xoomer.alice.it/cserica/scac... Apr-25-07    keypusher: <Two and eight sounds about right for the USA and USSR back then, given their respective strengths as chess powers. > Iron Maiden is quite right about this, of course. There were six Soviets and one American at Leningrad 1973 http://xoomer.alice.it/cserica/scac... ...and six Soviets and two Americans (if Biyiasas counted as an American) at Petropolis. http://xoomer.alice.it/cserica/scac... Apr-25-07    Resignation Trap: <keypusher> Peter Biyiasas was the Canadian zonal representative at Petropolis. Apr-27-07    Caissanist: At the time only a slightly larger number of players (I believe it was four) qualified from the USSR championship than that of the US. However, those participants in the previous round of candidates matches who did not make the finals would be seeded directly into the interzonal--in 1973, that would have included Korchnoi, Geller, and Taimanov. FIDE also seeded a number of players into the interzonal based on their rating/overall results--these probably would probably have been mostly Soviet players. Apr-27-07    MyriadChoices: Am I the only one who would love to see him rejoin the elite, or at least Corus B? Mecking just seems like a cool guy from the days of yore who, with practice at the upper echelon of competition, could still hand down a whipping. Apr-27-07    Jafar219: <MyriadChoices> you are not the only one. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 10) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 6 OF 10 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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