English Chess Forum

Sadly Mihai Suba has passed away in the night.

I’ll say more later…

Mihai Suba (1st June 1947 - 26th October 2025)

Had been ill for a long time, according to reliable accounts.

Adios amigo

https://www.facv.org/fallece-el-gran-maestro-mihai-suba

Mihai Suba (1st June 1947 - 26th October 2025)

The 1990 British was held in Eastbourne shortly after the murder of the local MP, Ian Gow, by the Provisional IRA. Because of this and the number of Irish participants there was a Special Brach (or similar) presence at the event. Suba was participating in the Championship.
I was one of the arbiters on the team for the Championship itself. About an hour before the start of one of the rounds we got the message that Suba had been arrested in the venue. Obviously after the initial doubt the thought was "How does this affect the draw?" Further investigation revealed that someone had been arrested by a plain clothes policeman for shop lifting from the 'canteen'. The story was that this person could indeed have been Suba. As there was nothing we could do we waited to see if Mihai turned up. Fortunately, at the start of play Suba was present and his game started without incident. Later it was established that the thief had been someone off the street who had come in to use the facilities and had been caught by one of the police officers there to 'supervise' the Irish contingent. Apparently the arrested person did bare a passing resemblance to Suba. I can't help thinking how unlucky that shoplifter was to be caught in the way that he was. There cannot be many criminals effectively caught by accident and even fewer who may look like a GM.

He defeated Chris Ward in the last round of that event n a quite superb game.
His best games, many from the 1970s to the mid 1990s, were little short of masterpieces. He beat Timman at the 1982 Interzonal and, when black Vs the GOAT, Kasparov, at the 1984 Olympiad, had a winning position there too.

[Event "BCF-ch"] [Site "Eastbourne ENG"] [Date "1990.08.10"] [EventDate "1990.07.30"] [Round "11"] [Result "0-1"] [White "Christopher G Ward"] [Black "Mihai Suba"] [ECO "A16"] [WhiteElo "?"] [BlackElo "?"] [PlyCount "68"] 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 c5 3.Nf3 e6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Bb4 6.g3 O-O 7.Bg2 d5 8.Qb3 Bxc3+ 9.Qxc3 e5 10.Nb3 d4 11.Qa5 Qe8 12.O-O Nc6 13.Qa4 h6 14.Nc5 a5 15.a3 e4 16.b4 Qe7 17.Nb3 Rd8 18.Bb2 e3 19.f4 Bh3 20.Bxh3 axb4 21.Qb5 bxa3 22.Bc1 Ne4 23.Bg4 d3 24.exd3 Rxd3 25.c5 Nf2 26.Rxf2 exf2 27.Kxf2 Qe4 28.Ra2 Qd5 29.Rd2 Rxd2+ 30.Bxd2 a2 31.Bf3 Qxf3+ 32.Kxf3 a1=Q 33.Qxb7 Qh1+ 34.Ke3 Rb8 0-1

[Event "Las Palmas Interzonal"] [Site "Las Palmas ESP"] [Date "1982.07.23"] [EventDate "1982.07.12"] [Round "9"] [Result "1-0"] [White "Mihai Suba"] [Black "Jan Timman"] [ECO "A20"] [WhiteElo "?"] [BlackElo "?"] [PlyCount "87"] 1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Nc3 Nb6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.d3 Be7 8.O-O O-O 9.a3 a5 10.Be3 Re8 11.Rc1 Bg4 12.Ne4 Nd4 13.Bxd4 exd4 14.Re1 a4 15.Qc2 c6 16.Nc5 Bc8 17.Qd2 Bf8 18.Rc2 g6 19.h4 h6 20.Rb1 Bg7 21.b3 Qe7 22.Nh2 axb3 23.Rxb3 Na4 24.Nxa4 Rxa4 25.Qc1 Be6 26.Rxb7 Qxb7 27.Bxc6 Qa7 28.Bxe8 Rxa3 29.Nf1 Ra1 30.Qf4 Qa5 31.Bxf7+ Bxf7 32.Rc8+ Bf8 33.Qd6 Qa3 34.Rxf8+ Kg7 35.Qxa3 Rxa3 36.Rd8 Ra2 37.Rxd4 Rxe2 38.Ne3 Be6 39.Re4 Re1+ 40.Nf1 Rxe4 41.dxe4 Kf6 42.f4 g5 43.hxg5+ hxg5 44.Kf2 1-0

Alex McFarlane wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 27, 2025 9:59 pm

and even fewer who may look like a GM.

What does a GM typically look like? Are there FIDE guidelines?

J.

Mihai Suba and friends (1st June 1947 - 26th October 2025)

You should notice MS with Jonathan S., Mark D., Bernard C. and Jonathan Manley (thanks JR)

Not sure who that is standing above MS.

Don't chess publishers recognise each other?! (Jonathan Manley)

Suba was a genuine chess lover, would talk to anyone about the game, etc. I played blitz with him in one of those evenings at Eastbourne 1990, and I kept expecting him to get up and say that he really had to be going now, but not a bit of it! His win over Miles in the 1984 Olympiad might be included too.

Jonathan Rogers wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 28, 2025 9:43 am

Don't chess publishers recognise each other?! (Jonathan Manley)

Ooops! We only venture out at night and avoid any limelight.

I learnt a lot of quite deep positional concepts from Mihai, and some subtle stuff about move orders in the opening.

He talked passionately, freely and generously about chess with anyone at hand, irrespective of their playing level.

He drew good games with Black v both Karpov and Kasparov.

I played him 10 times, and the score was 5 : 5 - just a couple of draws.

Game 1 in 'Arkell's Endings' went my way: 109 moves, the last 51 being R+R+ g-pawn v R+R. The game took 11 hours and had to be adjourned to make way for the Watson Farley & Williams GM tournament prize-giving.

Suba's enthusiasm for the game stayed with him despite his declining health and rating. His last game of chess took place 2 years ago in round 4 of Cap Negret Senior (65+). He had to be helped to the board, and had lost his first 3 games. Afterwards we caught sight of each other. There was a glint in his eye: ''I finally opened my account!'' He had drawn with an unrated opponent. He wasn't well enough to complete the tournament.