Career
At the peak of his career, Ribli was twice a Candidate for the World Championship, in 1984 and 1986. At London in 1984, he participated in the high profile match between Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics and the Rest of the World, defeating his Soviet counterpart, Rafael Vaganian by a narrow margin. He became a fearsome competitor on the international tournament circuit of the 1970s and 1980s, chalking up victories at Kecskemét 1972 (with Suetin), Budapest 1975 (with Polugaevsky), Mexico 1980, Baden-Baden 1981 (with Miles), Portorož/Ljubljana 1985 (Vidmar Memorial, with Miles and Portisch), Dortmund 1986, Reggio Emilia 1987, and Wijk aan Zee 1989 (with Anand, Sax and Nikolić).
Runner-up results include Amsterdam 1978 (behind Timman), Bled/Portorož 1979 (with Larsen, behind Timman), Wijk aan Zee 1983 (behind Andersson), Bugojno 1984 (behind Timman) and Tilburg 1984 (with Beliavsky, Hübner and Tukmakov, behind Miles).
As a writer on the topic of chess, his analysis and tournament reports have been published in magazine articles around the world. Additionally, he co-authored two books with Gabor Kallai: Winning with the Queen"s Indian (Batsford, 1987) and Winning with the English (Batsford, 1993).
Zoltán Ribli is married to Woman International Master Maria Grosch.