Born in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, Lobron moved with his family to Germany at the age of five and was raised in Wiesbaden.

Just two years later, Lobron's continued rapid progress enabled him to attain International Master status and win the West German Championship at Bad Neuenahr.

There were several notable achievements from the outset, including victories at Biel 1981 (with Vlastimil Hort), Ramat Hasharon 1982 and Manila 1982 (with Lev Polugaevsky).

In attempting to reach the latter stages of the (PCA) World Championship, Lobron scored well at the Groningen 1993 qualifying tournament, outperforming many players rated more highly, including Judit Polgár, Veselin Topalov and Evgeny Bareev.

[1] In team chess, Lobron was for many years a stalwart of the Bundesliga and represented Germany at all of the Olympiads between 1980–96, except for the event held at Dubai in 1986.