The Chess Mind

Who? Yes, exactly. But he's a player those of us with a sense of history would have expected to hear about. He recently came (back) to my attention when looking through some old books on Anatoly Karpov's early career. One of Karpov's big early successes came in the European Junior Championship in Groningen 1967-68. In the preliminary group he was satisfied merely to qualify for the final, which he did in a tie for second that included Jan Timman, Gert Ligterink and others, half a point behind our mystery man. Those scores did not carry over into the final, and when it counted it was Karpov who came in first. Timman was two points back and Ligterink three and a half point in arrears. Only half a point back, however, undefeated and in clear second, was Jocha.

Yet this enigmatic figure soon disappears from the databases; quite surprising given his evident talent. Did he quit chess or, worse, meet an untimely end? The answer is googlable, unfortunately, but if any of you know the answer without looking it up, you're invited to post it in the comments, securing for yourself the admiration of your peers as a chess trivia expert par excellence. Should no one post the answer in the next day or two, I'll go ahead and spill the beans myself and say a bit more about this most interesting player.

OK?