Lhamsuren Myagmarsuren

Lhamsuren Myagmarsuren (Mongolian: Лхамсүрэнгийн Мягмарсүрэн; often written Lkhamsürengiin Myagmarsüren, or L. Myagmarsuren in the Mongolian style, where Lkhamsüren is his father's name) was a Mongolian chess International Master and a geologist. For more than two decades he was one of the strongest chess players in his country, and he spent over thirty years working in Mongolian geology.

He was born on 17 February 1938 in Buyant sum, Khovd Province, in western Mongolia. He finished the ten-year school in the provincial centre. He began playing in international events in 1957, while still young, and represented Mongolia at the World Student Team Championships seven times between 1957 and 1964 (some sources say eight). From 1965 to 1970 he studied at the Polytechnic Institute of the National University of Mongolia and qualified as a geological exploration and mapping engineer.

His greatest chess result came at the 14th Chess Olympiad in Leipzig in 1960. Playing fourth board for Mongolia, he scored 16.5 points from 20 games (14 wins, 5 draws, 1 loss), a score of 82.5 percent, and won the individual gold medal for his board. It remains one of the proudest moments in Mongolian chess history. He went on to play in ten Olympiads for Mongolia: every one from 1960 to 1974, then 1980 and 1982.

He won the Mongolian championship in 1965 and then three years running in 1980, 1981 and 1982. In 1966 he won the West Asian zonal tournament, and FIDE awarded him the International Master title (FIDE records give 1966; some sources say 1967). The zonal win sent him to the 1967 Interzonal in Sousse, Tunisia, where he played against the world elite and tied for 19th to 20th place. His game there against Bobby Fischer, a King's Indian Attack that ended with a famous queen sacrifice on h7, is one of the best-known games of the era and is still widely studied. After Fischer withdrew from the tournament his results were annulled, but the game has lived on in books and videos.

Other international results included shared 5th to 6th at Dushanbe 1962, 12th at Havana 1967, 16th at Tallinn 1971 and shared 8th to 9th at the Rubinstein Memorial in Polanica Zdrój in 1972. Over his career he faced world champions Mikhail Tal, Vasily Smyslov and Bobby Fischer, and leading contenders including Bent Larsen, Paul Keres, Viktor Korchnoi, Vlastimil Hort, Henrique Mecking, Lajos Portisch, Leonid Stein and Efim Geller. His peak rating was 2380 in July 1971. He named his win over Icelandic grandmaster Friðrik Ólafsson at the Olympiad in Switzerland (Lugano 1968) as the best game of his life, while ChessBase singled out his win over Bent Larsen at Siegen 1970.

Chess was never his only work. From 1970 he worked at the State Geological Fund, where he helped organise decades of Mongolian geological records. He compiled mineral reserve balances, report abstracts, cadastres and summary maps, and wrote catalogues that are still kept in the central geological archive: a catalogue of the locations of fauna, flora, pollen and spore finds in Mongolia (1981), a register of animal and plant remains found in Mongolia from 1935 to 1990 (1984), and a compilation of reports received by the Geological Fund from 1941 to 1976 (1986).

He later moved into field work with the Central Geological Administration, the International Geological Expedition and the Mogoin Gol gold company "EBE". He took part in 1:50,000 scale geological mapping, mineral exploration, hydrogeology and water prospecting in Töv, Selenge, Dundgovi, Zavkhan and Bayankhongor provinces, and in establishing water reserves at Olgoin Govi in Dundgovi and the Doloon Khudag valley in Ulaanbaatar. He finished his career as a control engineer at the Mogoin Gol gold mine in Yöröö and retired in 2003.

He was named an Honoured Athlete of Mongolia in 1996, the first chess player to receive the title (one source gives 1997). In 1999, at FIDE's 75th anniversary congress, his name was entered in the Golden Book of World Chess. His state honours included the Leading Geologist of Mongolia badge, a Government Certificate of Honour, the Order of Democracy and the People's Revolution 60th, 70th and 80th anniversary medals. In 2020 FIDE selected him for a grant supporting veteran chess figures.

He kept playing well into old age. He finished 22nd of 205 at the 2004 World Senior Championship in Halle, played in Ulaanbaatar in 2009, and for years played blitz on the Internet Chess Club under the handle "Shatar", the Mongolian word for chess. Colleagues remembered him as honest, decisive and generous, someone who shared his knowledge with young geologists and taught chess to young players.

Lhamsuren Myagmarsuren died on 26 October 2026, aged 88. His death was announced by Mongolia's National Geological Survey and the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources. He was survived by his wife, the physician M. Dolgorsüren, and by his children and grandchildren.