Henrique da Costa Mecking

Henrique da Costa Mecking
Association	Brazil
Born	January 23, 1952 Santa Cruz do Sul , Brazil
title	International Master (1967) Grand Master (1972)
Current  Elo rating	2553 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2635 (January 1977)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Henrique da Costa Mecking (born January 23, 1952 in Santa Cruz do Sul , Brazil ) is a Brazilian chess grandmaster and clergyman .

Life

Henrique Mecking's ancestors come from Germany . His paternal grandfather Heinrich Mecking (born June 3, 1881 in Geisenheim ) moved to Brazil in the 1880s.

Mecking, the first chess grandmaster born in Latin America outside of Argentina - he was awarded the title in 1972 - began his chess career as a child prodigy : he learned the game at the age of 6, and won his state championship at the age of 11. In 1965, at the age of 13, he became the Brazilian champion for the first time. He won the Brazilian championship again in 1967, but did not take part in any other national championships. Through a shared victory in the Zone Tournament of Buenos Aires in 1966, Mecking qualified for the Interzonal Sousse in 1967 , where he shared 11th-12th has been. He achieved the same rank at the next interzonal tournament in Palma de Mallorca in 1970 . Three years later, in 1973, when the interzonal tournament was held in Petrópolis , Brazil , he won 12/17 without defeat and advanced into the candidate fights for the World Cup. In 1974 in Augusta / USA held quarter-final competition of the candidates he was defeated by Viktor Korchnoi with 5.5: 7.5. Mecking also succeeded in the new attempt at the candidate fights : he won the Manila interzonal tournament in 1976 with 13/19. But also this time he was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the candidate fights: 1977, in Lucerne , he was defeated by Lev Polugajewski with 5.5: 6.5. At the interzonal tournament Rio de Janeiro in 1979 he got out after two rounds.

At the end of the 1970s, Mecking ended his chess career when doctors diagnosed him with a severe muscle disease ( myasthenia gravis ). After giving up his career, Mecking discovered a new field of activity in theology that opened up to him through his newly awakened religiosity . He also attributes the overcoming of his illness to this. For several years he has been a trained Catholic clergyman .

In 1991 he began to play chess in public again. He lost to Grandmaster Predrag Nikolić in a competition in São Paulo with a score of 2.5: 3.5 (+0 = 5 −1). In 1992 he was defeated by grandmaster Yasser Seirawan , also in a competition in São Paulo, with the same result (+0 = 5 −1). After his return to the chessboard, he participated in the São Paulo zone tournaments in 1993 (20th place), 1995 (4th place), 2003 (3rd place) and 2005 (2nd place after a playoff), in which he competed for the first time since 1976 was able to qualify again for the next stage in the World Cup elimination.

Mecking would be in fourth place in the Brazilian rankings in February 2015, but is listed as inactive because he has not played a rated game since the Pan-American team championship held in Campinas in January 2013 . He achieved his best world rankings in January 1977, when he was fourth in the world rankings with his highest rating of 2635 behind Anatoli Karpow , Viktor Kortschnoi and Tigran Petrosjan , and in January 1978, when he was tied with Lajos Portisch behind Karpow and Kortschnoi and Boris Spasski took third place in the world rankings.

Game example

Mecking – Korchnoi

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

End position after 45th Ra7

In the following game, the 15-year-old Mecking defeated the Soviet grandmaster and later World Cup candidate Korchnoi with the white stones at the interzonal tournament in Sousse in 1967.

Mecking – Kortschnoi 1-0

Sousse, October 29, 1967

King's Indian Defense , E62

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 0–0 5. 0–0 d6 6. c4 Nc6 7. Nc3 Bg4 8. h3 Bxf3 9. Bxf3 Nd7 10. e3 e5 11. d5 Ne7 12. e4 f5 13. Bd2 Nf6 14. b4 Qd7 15. h4 Rf7 16. Qa4 Qxa4 17. Nxa4 fxe4 18. Bg2 b5 19. Nc3 bxc4 20. Rac1 Rb8 21. Nxe4 Nxe4 22. Bxe4 c6 23. dxc6 d5 24. Bg2 e4 25. Bf4 Rxf4 26.gxf4 Nxc6 27. Bxe4 dxe4 28.Rxc4 Nd4 29.Rd1 Nf3 + 30.Kf1 Nxh4 31.Rxe4 Bf8 32. a3 Rb7 33. Ted4 Rb6 34.Rd8 Nf5 35.Ra8 Rb7 36.Rd5 Rf7 37. Ra5 Nd6 38. f5 Nxf5 39. R5xa7 Rxa7 40. Rxa7 Nd4 41. Rd7 Ne6 42. Rb7 Nf4 43. a4 Nd3 44. b5 Nb4 45.Ra7 1: 0

National team

Mecking took part with the Brazilian national team at the Chess Olympiads in 1968 in Lugano , 1974 in Nice , 2002 in Bled and 2004 in Calvià and the Pan-American team championships in 2003 in Rio de Janeiro and 2013 in Campinas.

literature

• Stephen W. Gordon: Henrique Mecking, Latin Chess Genius. Davenport, Iowa, 1993 (English).

Web links

Commons : Henrique Mecking  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Replayable chess games by Henrique da Costa Mecking on chessgames.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ List of Brazilian Masters (Portuguese)
2. ↑ Henrique Mecking's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
3. ↑ Henrique Mecking's results at the Pan American team championships on olimpbase.org (English)