Donner, Hein

CHESS PLAYER (THE NETHERLANDS)
BORN 6 Jul 1927, Den Haag, Zuid-Holland - DIED 27 Nov 1988, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland
BIRTH NAME Donner, Jan Hein
CAUSE OF DEATH gastric hemorrhage
GRAVE LOCATION Amsterdam, Noord-Holland: Zorgvlied, Amsteldijk (O-II-449)

Son of the Dutch Minister of Justice. He became an international chess master in 1952 and a grandmaster in 1959. In 1965 he won the Hoogovens tournament and in 1967 the tournament of Venice.

He was well known for his very outspoken chess columns and other writings. He claimed that women couldn't play chess called his fellow grandmaster Lodewijk Prins someone who 'cannot tell a knight from a bishop'.

On 24 Aug 1983 he suffered a heavy stroke that left him unable to walk. He could only type with one finger afterwards and wrote that the stroke had come just in time because people of 56 don't play chess as well as people of 26. In 1987 "De Koning" was published, a book with a selection of his chess columns from 1950 to 1983 (an English edition was published in 2006). In 1988 Donner died of a gastric hemorrhage.

Images

The grave of Hein Donner the Zorgvlied cemetery in Amsterdam.
Picture by Androom (16 Jun 2002)

 

Sources
Jan Hein Donner - Wikipedia


Doré, Gustave

Published: 13 Dec 2009
Last update: 02 May 2022