Tim Krabbé (born 13 April 1943) is a Dutch

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

and

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

player. Krabbé was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. His writing has appeared in most major periodicals in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Once a competitive cyclist, he is known to Dutch readers for his novel ''De Renner'' (''The Rider''), first published in 1978 and translated into English in 2002, of which ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

's'' Matt Seaton wrote: "Nothing better is ever likely to be written on the subjective experience of cycle-racing". English readers know him primarily for ''The Vanishing'' (Dutch: Spoorloos, literally: "Traceless" or "Without a Trace"), the translation of his 1984 novel ''Het Gouden Ei'' (''

The Golden Egg ''The Golden Egg'' (Dutch: ''Het Gouden Ei''), published as ''The Vanishing'' in English-speaking countries, is a psychological thriller novella written by Dutch author Tim Krabbé, first published in 1984. The plot centers on a man whose obsessi ...

''), which was made into an acclaimed 1988 Dutch film for which Krabbé co-wrote a script. A poorly received American remake was made in 1993. In 1997 he published ''De grot'', translated as ''The Cave'' and published in the U.S. in 2000. In 2009, he wrote the " Boekenweekgeschenk", called ''Een Tafel vol Vlinders''. Krabbé is a strong

player who competed in two

Dutch Chess Championship The Dutch Chess Championship was officially established in 1909, although unofficial champions stretch back to the 1870s. Early years : Official championships The official championship was established in 1909 as a biennial, twelve-player, round-ro ...

s in 1967 and 1971. He maintains a chess website, and is renowned for his writings on the subject, in particular on

chess problem A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by the composer using chess pieces on a chess board, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is to ...

s; for instance, one of his publications is devoted to the

Babson task A Babson task (or simply Babson) is a chess problem with the following properties: #White has only one , or first move, that forces checkmate in the stipulated number of moves. #Black's defences include the promotion of a certain pawn to a queen, ...

. No longer an active player, his peak FIDE rating was 2290.Tim Krabbe at Olimpbase
/ref> His father was the painter

Maarten Krabbé Maarten Krabbé (22 February 1908 – 18 February 2005) was a Dutch painter and art educator. Early life Krabbé is the son of painter Hendrik Maarten Krabbé (1868–1931) and singer Miep Rust (1874–1956). His sisters were Henny Eskens- ...

(1908–2005) and his mother the Jewish film translator Margreet Reiss. He is the brother of actor Jeroen Krabbé and the multimedia artist/designer Mirko Krabbé, and the uncle of Martijn Krabbé, a Dutch media personality.

References

External links

* ** * * * * 1943 births Living people Dutch chess players Dutch Jews Dutch journalists Dutch people of Jewish descent Sportspeople from Amsterdam Writers from Amsterdam Dutch chess writers Dutch male novelists Chess composers Dutch screenwriters Dutch male screenwriters Cycling writers {{netherlands-journalist-stub