Luis Rentero

FIDE is saddened by the death of Luis Rentero at the age of 83.

An Appreciation of Luis Rentero by FIDE Honorary Vice-President, Javier Ochoa.

LUIS RENTERO SUAREZ, THE MAKER OF THE CHESS TOURNAMENT "CIUDAD DE LINARES"

Luis Rentero Suarez (83) was undoubtedly a great name in Chess history. His merits were not on the sporting side but in the organizational side. He succeeded in raising a modest chess tournament that he organized in 1978 in the Andalusian City of Linares up to the be the best chess tournament in the world with the attendance of the main top players fighting for the honor to be the winners of this "Wimbledon" of Chess.

With the exception of Bobby Fischer, with whom even he talked, all the elite chess players of his era attended the famous tournament, including of course the legendaries two "K" Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov.

In the media, he was famous for his fight against the "grand master draws". His policy was not only to invite the best players but also the more combative ones. A quick draw usually was penalised with a no invitation of both players for the next year edition!

Luis Rentero was not only devoted to "his" tournament, he also promoted other important chess competitions such as the Candidates Tournament final (1987) Karpov-Sokolov or the Women’s World Championship Zsuzsa Polgar - Xie Jun ( Jaén 1996).

His collaboration with the Spanish Chess Federation was also very strong. There were a large number of Spanish Championships held in Linares under his responsibility.

A traffic accident in 1998 forced him to relinquish the direction of the Ciudad de Linares tournament. The event continued several years without him. He recovered some years later and still kept the enthusiasm for chess and he promoted two Spanish Youth Championsips in Linares (2007 and 2010) The whole Chess family all over the World mourns the passing of one of its great organizers. Rest in peace.

Javier Ochoa de Echagüen
President of the Spanish Chess Federation