Lubomir (Lubosh) Kavalek (Czech: Lubomír Kaválek, August 9, 1943 – January 18, 2021)[1] was a Czech-American chess player.

[3] Kavalek was also a chess coach, organizer, teacher, commentator, author and award-winning columnist.

[6] Kavalek was born in Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now the Czech Republic).

His official occupation was reporter for the news "Prace" and the newspaper Mladá fronta.

When Soviet tanks rolled into Prague in August 1968, Kavalek was playing in the Akiba Rubinstein Memorial in Poland, in which he finished second.

Kavalek, who had always hated Communism, decided to defect to the West rather than return to Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia.

He bought several crates of vodka with his winnings, used them to bribe the border guards, and drove to West Germany.

On his way to America, Kavalek won a strong tournament in Caracas (scoring +10−1=6).

He represented the United States before officially setting foot in his new adopted country.

[27] Because of these results, Kavalek moved in 1974 to number 10 in the world on the official FIDE rating list at 2625.

In 1979, Kavalek played in the double-round Man and his World Chess Challenge in Montreal, which he also organized.

[53] In the 1977–79 European Club championship, Kavalek scored 5.5/6 on the top board, including two wins over V.

[54] In the Nordic team vs. United States in Reykjavik in 1986, Kavalek on second board defeated Bent Larsen 1.5-0.5.

In the match Moscow vs. Prague in April 1968, Kavalek beat Evgeny Vasyukov 1.5-0.5.

In 1976, Kavalek was the top player on the Washington Plumbers team that won the National Chess League.

Kavalek ranked among the top 100 players in the world continuously from the end of 1962 until September 1988, peaking at number 10 in 1974, when he achieved his peak Elo rating of 2625 on the FIDE Rating list.

Kavalek was also one of Bobby Fischer's seconds in the World Chess Championship 1972[3][62][63] and served as British grandmaster Nigel Short's trainer in the 1990 Interzonal in Manila, and in Short's successful Candidates matches against British grandmaster Jonathan Speelman, Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand, former world champion Anatoly Karpov and Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman, leading up to Short's 1993 world championship match against Garry Kasparov.

Short and Kavalek later wrote articles for chess magazines criticizing each other.

[68] He was the chess columnist for The Washington Post from 1986 to 2010, his last column running on January 4, 2010.

[70] He was a member of the jury to select the best and most important games in Chess Informant (1989–1993).

"[79] GM Nigel Short: "Saddened to learn of the death of my former trainer, the Czechoslovakian & US Champion, Lubosh Kavalek.

What he lacked in originality, he compensated for in assembling material and organising work (a particular weakness of mine) - and for that I am eternally grateful.

"[81] Here is a victory by the young Kavalek against Soviet grandmaster Eduard Gufeld.

28. bxc5 Bxc5 Now White has two rooks for a bishop, but cannot stop the march of Black's pawns.

Here is one of Kavalek's most remarkable games, in which he sacrificed a queen for a bishop against the strong Hungarian grandmaster Lajos Portisch: Portisch–Kavalek, Wijk aan Zee, 1975[75] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3.