[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: Trivia Time: What happened to A. Jocha?

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
Trivia Time: What happened to A. Jocha?
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1205302197.shtml


   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?