Henrique Mecking - World Championship Candidate

World Championship Candidate

Mecking was however a regular participant in FIDE events to choose a challenger for the World Chess Championship. After unsuccessful attempts to qualify from the Interzonals of Sousse 1967 and Palma de Mallorca 1970, he had his first major triumph in 1973, when he won at the Petrópolis Interzonal (ahead of a very strong field that included such chess luminaries as Paul Keres, David Bronstein, et al.). From this time until 1979, he was the strongest player born in the West in light of Bobby Fischer's effective retirement in 1972. He was subsequently eliminated from the Candidates Tournament in the quarterfinals, through losing his match against Korchnoi.

At his next attempt in 1976, he won the Manila Interzonal (ahead of Vlastimil Hort, Lev Polugaevsky, Vitaly Tseshkovsky, Ljubomir Ljubojević, Zoltán Ribli et al.), thereby reaching a second successive Candidates match stage, but again lost in the quarterfinals, this time to Polugaevsky. Illness, believed to be myasthenia gravis, forced his withdrawal from the Interzonal in Rio de Janeiro 1979 after a first round draw with Borislav Ivkov. Indeed, his illness was so severe that it was widely believed he would soon die. He survived but did not play chess during the 1980s. While he was able to recover and to resume his chess career in 1991 with matches against Predrag Nikolić and (in 1992) Yasser Seirawan, followed by intermittent tournament appearances, his chance at the world title had passed and he did not reach the Candidates matches again.