Lhamsuren Myagmarsuren, Mongolian Geologist Who Met Fischer, Dies at 88

Lhamsuren Myagmarsuren, the Mongolian International Master and geologist, died on 26 October at the age of 88, according to ChessBase. Most of the chess world knows him through one game, a loss to Bobby Fischer at the 1967 Interzonal in Sousse. His own record is much broader than that.

A geologist first

Myagmarsuren was born in 1938 in Buyant Sum district, in Chovd Province, western Mongolia. He studied geology at the Polytechnic Institute of the State University of Mongolia. His working life began at the State Geological Fund of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

He later worked at the Central Geological Administration, the International Geological Expedition and Mogoy Gol Gold “EBE” JSC. Along the way he compiled maps, catalogues and databases covering Mongolia’s mineral resources, its fossil sites and the water resources of several regions.

Until 2003 he was chief engineer at the Mogoy Gol gold mine in Yeroo. The Mongolian government named him “Chief Geologist of Mongolia” and gave him numerous other awards.

Four national titles and ten Olympiads

Chess ran alongside all of this. He won the Mongolian championship in 1965, then three years in a row in 1980, 1981 and 1982. From 1960 to 1982 he played at several World Student Team Championships and ten Chess Olympiads.

At the 1960 Olympiad in Leipzig he scored 16.5 points on board four, the best performance on that board, and took individual gold. For a player from a small chess nation, topping a board at an Olympiad is a real distinction.

He rarely played individual international events. That makes his 1967 appearance all the more notable. He won the West Asian Zonal in 1966, which put him in the Interzonal at Sousse, a stage that also held the very top of the world elite.

The Fischer game

At Sousse, Fischer beat him in a brilliant game that is still frequently cited. ChessBase says Myagmarsuren often had to acknowledge the superiority of the professionals there, and this was the best-known example.

Fischer, angered by organisational shortcomings, withdrew from the tournament early. He needed a third attempt, in 1970-72, to become world champion.

Myagmarsuren did sometimes beat opponents who were stronger on paper. ChessBase calls his game against Bent Larsen at the 1970 Olympiad in Siegen perhaps his best. Larsen was then one of the strongest players in the world, which gives that win real weight.

Honours and a long playing career

FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1967. In 1996 he became an “Honoured Master of Sports”.

In 1999, for FIDE’s 75th anniversary, his name went into the “Golden Book of World Chess”. In 2020 FIDE gave him a stipend in recognition of his playing achievements.

He kept playing well into old age. He took part in the World Senior Championships in 2004 and in a tournament in Ulaanbaatar in 2009. After that he is said to have played blitz regularly on the ICC online platform under the name “Shatar”.