Johannes Hendrikus (Hein) Donner was a Dutch chess grandmaster and writer. He was born in The Hague on July 6, 1927, and passed away on November 27, 1988, in Amsterdam. Despite starting his chess career relatively late, Donner became an International Master in 1950, Grandmaster in 1959, and emerged as a dominant figure in Dutch chess.
Donner won the Dutch Championship mountain 1954, 1957, and 1958. He represented the Netherlands twelve times at the Chess Olympiads from 1950 to 1978, obtaining an impressive record overall. Throughout his career, Donner had several notable tournament successes, which included shared first-place finishes in Amsterdam, 1963, and Reykjavík, 1968.
After suffering a stroke in 1983, he was forced to end his chess career. His health condition resulted in aphasia, which impaired his ability to communicate. Despite his health struggles, he learned to operate a computer and continued making significant contributions to NRC Handelsblad, a renowned Dutch newspaper, by writing about his experiences inside a nursing home. His chess games, columns, and articles were compiled in "The King: Chess Pieces," an anthology published after his death. Donner came from a well-known Dutch family; his father was a Minister of Justice and later a Justice at the Dutch Supreme Court.