Uri Avner

Uri Avner (* 13 January 1941 in Petach Tikva; † 10 June 2014) was an Israeli chess composer

Life
Avner was a strong party chess player nationally, but not at international master level. He won several strong tournaments in Israel, and represented Israel in the three annual World Student Team Chess Championships in 1964, 1965 and 1966. From 1979 to 1988, he participated in three European Men's Chess Club Cups for the Tel-Aviv University Chess Club. His highest Elo rating was 2260 in January 1982, and his highest historical Elo rating was 2455 in January 1968.

Avner particularly stood out as a chess problem writer, creating his first problem at the age of twelve. Five years later, he gave up chess composition for two decades. He later won first place four times at the World Chess Composition Championship WCCT. Avner has been Grandmaster of Chess Composition since 2009 and was President, then Honorary President, of the FIDE Permanent Commission for Chess Composition from 2006 to 2010.

As an author and editor, Avner wrote numerous specialised books on chess composition and contributed to the Israeli chess composition magazine Variantim for a quarter of a century.

Professionally, Avner was a clinical psychologist. He succumbed to a long illness in June 2014.

Source: de.wikipedia.org

About him:

"Condolences to all the friends in Israel and all over the World.
We've lost one of the most remarkable persons, a great man." Darko Šaljić

"Oh.... sad news. Such a talented and versatile composer. Big loss to the problem community and to Israel. Missed his problems in the book on Israel Chess Compositions which I bought recently. Will a collection appear later?" seetharaman kalyan​

"GM Uri Avner passed away on the 10th of June, 2014, at the age of 73, after a long battle with a severe disease. His funeral will take place on June, 12th."

Obituary by Paz Einat:

"Uri was born on January 13, 1941 and was a clinical psychologist in profession. He started composing at an early age (in the last issue of Variantim, is quoted a problem he composed when he was 13!!) and for many years was at the center of Israeli Chess Problem composition. He organized in Israel three congresses and edited initially HAPROBLEMAI and its successor, Variantim, until just 3 years ago. He edited and published several books and booklets. For many years he led the Israeli chess composition society, represented Israel in the WCCC and was certainly the best Israeli composer ever. Uri was always involved in various sub-committees and was the President of the PCCC from 2006 to 2010 during its transition to WFCC. Uri’s contribution to international chess composition was immense: he was involved in WCCT, FIDE Albums, solving events and almost in every aspect of our art. (by Paz Einat, 11-12.06.2014)"