Luis Rentero RIP 22 December 2015

[Mick Norris]

Article in Spanish

Google Translate gives
Luis Rentero Suarez, died this morning at age 83, was a brilliant businessman who ran a chain of supermarkets in the eighties and was the head of two hotels, Linares and another one in Ubeda, although it was known worldwide for creating in 1978 the International Chess Tournament.

The Linares tournament received for its relevance the qualification of 'chess Wimbledon' and reached, until its demise in 2010, a global dimension for the quality of the players involved, including Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov.

Rentero's death, which was also municipal councilor in Linares by the PSOE in 1995, has been received with regret in this city and throughout the province of Jaen the prestige and admiration aroused her figure.

The founder of the competition fought to make it the largest in the world, hence the nickname of 'chess Wimbledon', being considered one of the largest in the world.

Luis Rentero was always very demanding in its objective of maintaining the high level reached by the tournament and called on the board "struggle and blood, because here there is to offer in Linares show."

At age 10 he began his passion for chess and participated in provincial and regional tournaments until 1978, decided to bring an international competition to Linares, who won the first edition in Swedish Jan Eslon.

From there, and with the personal stamp of the employer, the tournament took a huge boost to become the largest in the world, although it was not the one with more budget or handing out more money in prizes.

"The player who comes to Linares knows what is presented. It is a competition that is followed worldwide and here you can not speculate for the world," he said in one of his last interviews.

Friend of the then Soviet Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, world chess two legends in Linares staged spectacular duels, Rentero revealed once Linares tournament and were known in the former Soviet Union as well as Madrid or Barcelona.

"People know to perfection in Russia which means the tournament and the prestige it has. We are ambassadors of Linares province and around the world," he said.

With his death, chess and sports lose a mythical figure in the launch and dissemination of this type since 1987 Linares also hosted qualifiers for the World Cup.

[David Sedgwick]

http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... ntero.html.

Rentero was a controversial figure, but a tireless organiser of great chess tournaments. RIP

[Jonathan Rogers]

Now there was a character, and someone who caused hilarity often without meaning to do so. RIP indeed.

[Tim Harding]

http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... ntero.html.

Rentero was a controversial figure, but a tireless organiser of great chess tournaments. RIP

Looking through some old magazines, I just came across Salov's article in New In Chess 5/1998 concerning the Shirov-Kramnik match which was supposed to be the prelude to a title match for the winner against Kasparov.

Rentero certainly comes very badly out of this (admittedly jaundiced) account of how he promised other people's money (public money in fact) as the prize fund for these matches but it was never forthcoming.

Shirov never got his match with Kasparov and I believe he never got any prize, and Kramnik only got part of his loser's purse?

[NickFaulks]

Shirov never got his match with Kasparov and I believe he never got any prize

As I recall, the prize was the match. The whole thing was just an excuse for Kasparov to play Kramnik, so when the wrong person won and the funding turned out not to exist GK walked away and then played Kramnik anyway. I thought it was hilarious that he lost and then demanded a replay.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Well you would think given his record against Shirov, Gazza would have preferred to play him?

[Tim Harding]

Shirov never got his match with Kasparov and I believe he never got any prize

As I recall, the prize was the match. The whole thing was just an excuse for Kasparov to play Kramnik, so when the wrong person won and the funding turned out not to exist GK walked away and then played Kramnik anyway. I thought it was hilarious that he lost and then demanded a replay.

The prize was the Kasparov match - with a guaranteed purse for the loser of the title match but the money didn't materialise. That was Rentero's fault. Kramnik did get half the loser's promised prize from his Shirov match.

Originally the match was to have been Kramnik v Anand but players who reached a certain stage in FIDE's 1997 knockout world championship were bound by a contract, which Anand honoured. Kramnik hadn't played in that event while Shirov had been knocked out early enough not to be bound by contract. So at Linares 1998 Rentero (presumably with Kasparov's approval) got Shirov to be a substitute. Shirov was playing well in 1998 and got up to 6th in the FIDE rankings.