FM Tibor Weinberger (1932-2025)

FM Tibor Weinberger, of Santa Monica, California, passed away Aug. 28. He was born in 1932 in Budapest to Marton and Erzébet (née Teitelbaum) Weinberger; he was predeceased by his parents, his older sisters Hedvig (Hedi) Weinberger and Edit (Medi) Weinberger, and older brother Meir (Mayerli) Weinberger.

Tibor’s immediate family survived the Holocaust. His father was impressed into the Hungarian army on the Eastern Front and died of tuberculosis shortly after the war. Tibor’s older siblings remained in Budapest during the German occupation in 1944, while he and his younger brother Robert (Robi) went into hiding — first in the Hungarian countryside and then in Budapest.

Photo courtesy of Richard Rison

After the war and a brief stay as a refugee in Szeged, in southern Hungary, he returned to Budapest to complete his secondary and university education, ultimately becoming a mechanical engineer. During this time, Tibor became an avid and accomplished chess player. After escaping Hungary during the 1956 revolution while on compulsory military duty, he was granted asylum in the United States and ultimately moved to California where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Photo courtesy of Richard Rison

Tibor continued in his profession as a mechanical engineer, then later was an income property owner. However, his true passion was chess. He achieved the FIDE Master title and the US Chess senior master title; his U.S. rating was over 2400 in the 1970s. He played in the U.S. Championship in 1968, won multiple California championships, and achieved multiple victories over grandmasters.

Photo courtesy of Richard Rison

Tibor leaves behind his wife of 37 years, Katalin Weinberger; five children, and eight loving grandchildren, as well as his younger brother Robi, who lives in France; nieces, nephews, cousins, and other loved ones around the world.

Editor's note: We are greatly appreciative of Tibor's son, Michael, for writing the above obituary and sharing it with US Chess. To accompany this obituary, we have selected some notable games from his career, lightly annotated below: