Miroslav Filip (27 October 1928 – 27 April 2009) was a Czech

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 ...

grandmaster. Filip was awarded the title of

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combinatio ...

in 1953, and the Grandmaster title in 1955. Filip represented

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

in 12 consecutive Chess Olympiads from

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1952 to

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1974, playing 194 games with the overall result (+62–28=104).

World Championship candidate

Filip twice qualified for the Candidates Tournament, which is the tournament to choose a world championship challenger. In 1955 Filip placed seventh in the Gothenburg Interzonal, qualifying for the Candidates, which was held in

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the following year. He placed eighth out of ten players. (See World Chess Championship 1957.) In 1962 Filip placed fifth (out of 23 players) in the Stockholm Interzonal. This qualified him for the Candidates tournament in

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, where he tied for last place out of eight players. (See

World Chess Championship 1963 At the World Chess Championship 1963, Tigran Petrosian narrowly qualified to challenge Mikhail Botvinnik for the World Chess Championship, and then won the match to become the ninth World Chess Champion. The cycle is particularly remembered for ...

Three-time Czechoslovak Chess Champion

Filip won the Czechoslovak Chess Championship three times: in 1950 at Gottwaldov, in 1952 at Tatranska Lomnica, and in 1954 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Other results

He played in the European Team Chess Championship twice, winning an individual gold in 1970 for the best score and a bronze in 1977 for the third best score. Tournament results include first place at Prague 1956 and second at Marienbad 1960,

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1961 and Bern 1975. In the early 1980s Filip retired from playing professional chess, but remained active as a chess journalist.

Notable games

The game Tal–Miroslav Filip is one of Filip's most famous chess games. Filip was playing with the black pieces against the Latvian grandmaster and former

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Mikhail Tal at the Candidates Tournament at Curaçao in 1962, part of the 1963 World Championship cycle. :Tal vs. Filip, Candidates Tournament (round 12), Curacao 1962; Sicilian Defence ('' ECO'' B43)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.f4 b5 7.a3 Bb7 8.Qf3 Nf6 9.Bd3 Bc5 10.Nb3 Be7 11.0-0 0-0 12.Bd2 d6 13.g4 d5 14.e5 Nfd7 15.Qh3 g6 16.Nd4 Nc6 17.Nce2 Nxd4 18.Nxd4 Nc5 19.b4 Ne4 20.Be3 Rfe8 21.Rae1 Bf8 22.Nf3 a5 23.f5 exf5 24.gxf5 Rxe5 25.fxg6 hxg6 26.Nxe5 Qxe5 27.c3 axb4 28.Bd4 Bc8 29.Qg2 Qh5 30.Bxe4 dxe4 31.Qxe4 Qg5+ 32.Kh1 Be6 33.Be5 Rd8 34.h4 Qh5 35.Qf4 Rd3 36.Bf6 Qd5+ 37.Kg1 bxc3 38.Re4 Bc5+ 39.Kh2 Qa2+

Death

Miroslav Filip died at 80 years of age in

on 27 April 2009.Miroslav Filip
Find A Grave. Retrieved on 30 October 2013.

References

External links

* : 1,047 games {{DEFAULTSORT:Filip, Miroslav 1928 births 2009 deaths Sportspeople from Prague Chess grandmasters Czech chess players 20th-century chess players