Zenón Franco (1956 - 2024)

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
10/2/2024 – The Latin American chess community has lost one of its most important figures with the passing of Paraguayan Grandmaster Zenón Franco on Tuesday in Vigo, Spain, at the age of 68. With an illustrious career as a player, author, and coach, Franco left an indelible mark on the chess world. He represented Paraguay and Spain in 11 Chess Olympiads and published 40 chess books. Additionally, he was known for his work as a columnist and trainer, leaving behind a legacy that will endure for years to come.
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A legend of Latin American chess

This Tuesday, 1 October, Paraguayan Grandmaster Zenón Franco passed away in Vigo, Spain, at the age of 68. He had suffered a cardiac arrest 12 days earlier, and his health deteriorated until his passing. His cousin, Ezequiel Gómez Ocampo, informed the ABC Color newspaper that, together with Zenón's wife, they are considering the possibility of repatriating his remains to Paraguay, his homeland.

Zenón Franco was born on 12 May 1956, in Asunción, Paraguay. In 1990, he earned the title of Grandmaster, becoming the only GM from Paraguay until Axel Bachmann achieved the title in 2007. Franco lived for many years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before relocating to Spain in the 1990s, where he lived until his death.

Throughout his career, he participated in 11 Chess Olympiads, beginning in Haifa in 1976 and finishing in Batumi in 2018. In 1998, he represented Spain at the Kalmykia Olympiad in Russia. He won individual gold medals on the top board in Lucerne 1982 and Novi Sad 1990, both times representing Paraguay. In 1981, he won the Pan-American Championship in Argentina and reached a career-high ranking of 66th on the official FIDE list in January 1982.

Franco was not only a prominent player but also a prolific author of chess books. He published 40 titles in Spanish, English, Italian and Russian, many through the prestigious Gambit publishing house. His later works in Spanish were published by his own company, ZenonChess Ediciones. In 2021, his book Miguel Najdorf – El Viejo – Life, Games & Stories, published by Thinkers Publishing, was a runner-up for the Averbakh-Boleslavsky Awards, which honour the best chess books of the year.

Zenón Franco Ocampos

In addition to his work as an author, Zenón Franco was a regular chess columnist. He wrote for numerous chess magazines in Argentina, Italy, and Spain, and published over 700 columns in the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color. His final column, the 724th, was published on 18 September. Since 2022, excerpts from his columns began appearing on our Spanish news site.

Franco was also highly regarded for his coaching work. As a FIDE Senior Trainer, he coached top players such as Francisco Vallejo Pons and David Martínez, the latter also known for his role as captain of the Spanish chess teams. His contributions as a player, author, and trainer will continue to resonate in the world of Latin American chess.

A tribute by David Martínez (in Spanish)

Selected games by GM Zenón Franco

Links

Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.