GM Zenon Franco Ocampos

[Simon Rogers]

The sad news has been reported that the Paraguayan Grandmaster, Zenon Franco Ocampos has died on 1st October 2024, at the age of 68, in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Zenon was born on 12th May 1956 in Asuncion, Paraguay.
In the 1982 Chess Olympiad at Lucerne, Switzerland, he won the gold medal on board one by scoring 11 out of 13.
He then became a Grandmaster in 1990.
In the 1990 Chess Olympiad at Novi Sad, he shared first place on board one with 9 points out of 12 games.
Zenon achieved a peak rating of 2542 back in July 2004.
He wrote several books on chess for Gambit Publications under the name Zenon Franco.
RIP

[Nick Ivell]

I don't know any of his games, but I have his book on Spassky. RIP

[Nick Burrows]

Draws with Karpov, Korchnoi, Leko & Topalov from a quick scan of Chessgames.com

[Philip Adams]

This news came as a great shock. For over a decade I’ve collaborated with Zenón in translating many of his books from Spanish to English for various publishers. His most recent books have been self-published. I was expecting to receive the proofs of his latest book (about Tony Miles) at any moment.

There is now an obituary at Chessbase <https://en.chessbase.com/post/zenon-franco-obituary> and there are many generous appreciations in the Spanish and South American chess media.

Zenón loved chess and loved analysing, teaching and writing about chess.

[Nick Ivell]

I had not even realised that the Spassky book (well worth a read) was originally written in Spanish.