Wolfgang Unzicker
Encyclopedia
Wolfgang Unzicker was one of the strongest German chess
Grandmasters from 1945 to about 1970.
He decided against making chess his profession, choosing law instead.
Unzicker was at times the world's strongest amateur chess player, and World Champion
Anatoly Karpov
called him the "world champion of amateurs".
Unzicker was born in Pirmasens
, a small town near Kaiserslautern
in the province of Rhineland-Palatinate
.
His father taught him how to play chess at age 10.
His brother, four years older, was also a chess player but was killed in World War II.
Unzicker began to play tournaments abroad in 1948 as Germany was struggling to rebuild after the war, and achieved the grandmaster title in 1954.
He won the German Championship
six times from 1948 to 1963 and tied for first in 1965.
From 1950 to 1978 Unzicker played in twelve Chess Olympiad
s, and was first board on ten of them.
He played nearly 400 times representing Germany's national team.
For many years he was legal advisor for the German Chess Association.
His tournament victories include the first place tie (+6 =9) with Boris Spassky
at the Chigorin Memorial
in Sochi
1965, first at Maribor
1967 ahead of Samuel Reshevsky
, first at Krems, and first at Amsterdam
1980 tied with Hans Ree
. In 1950, Unzicker shared the prize for best top-board score (+9 =4 −1) with Miguel Najdorf
for his performance on first board for the West German
team at the Dubrovnik Chess Olympiad
. At the Tel Aviv 1964
Chess Olympiad Unzicker scored 13.5 points playing first board for the West German team that won the bronze medal on the strength of a 3:1 team victory over the Soviet Union. Unzicker also shared fourth place (+2 =14 −1) with Lajos Portisch
in the 1966 Piatigorsky Cup
in Santa Monica, California
. Only Boris Spassky
, Bobby Fischer
, and Bent Larsen
finished ahead of Unzicker. Unzicker placed ahead of world champion Tigran Petrosian
, Samuel Reshevsky
, Miguel Najdorf
, Borislav Ivkov
, and Hein Donner. At Hastings
1969–1970, Unzicker finished second (+4 =5) after Lajos Portisch
and ahead of Svetozar Gligorić
and former world champion Vasily Smyslov
. Unzicker finished second (+3 =7 −2) to Viktor Korchnoi
at South Africa 1979.
Unzicker had a classical chess style modelled after the German player and theorist Siegbert Tarrasch
. In 1956 he lost a match to Paul Keres
in which both players chose to begin with the Ruy Lopez
opening in all eight games.
In 2005, Unzicker celebrated his 80th birthday with his wife Freia, his three sons and their wives and three grandchildren.
A retired judge, he was still playing chess as first board on the club team "Tarrasch Munich".
Wolfgang Unzicker died on April 20, 2006, at the age of 80, during a holiday trip to Albufeira
/Portugal.
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
Grandmasters from 1945 to about 1970.
He decided against making chess his profession, choosing law instead.
Unzicker was at times the world's strongest amateur chess player, and World Champion
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
called him the "world champion of amateurs".
Unzicker was born in Pirmasens
Pirmasens
Pirmasens is a district-free city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France. It is famous for the manufacture of shoes. The surrounding rural district was called Pirmasens from 1818 until 1997, when it was renamed Südwestpfalz....
, a small town near Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern is a city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate forest . The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, and from Luxembourg.Kaiserslautern is home to 99,469 people...
in the province of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
.
His father taught him how to play chess at age 10.
His brother, four years older, was also a chess player but was killed in World War II.
Unzicker began to play tournaments abroad in 1948 as Germany was struggling to rebuild after the war, and achieved the grandmaster title in 1954.
He won the German Championship
German Chess Championship
The German Chess Championship has been played since 1861, and determines the national champion.Prior to 1880 three different federations organized chess activities in Germany: the Westdeutscher Schachbund , the Norddeutscher Schachbund and the Mitteldeutscher Schachbund . Each one organized its...
six times from 1948 to 1963 and tied for first in 1965.
From 1950 to 1978 Unzicker played in twelve Chess Olympiad
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...
s, and was first board on ten of them.
He played nearly 400 times representing Germany's national team.
For many years he was legal advisor for the German Chess Association.
His tournament victories include the first place tie (+6 =9) with Boris Spassky
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...
at the Chigorin Memorial
Chigorin Memorial
The Chigorin Memorial is a chess tournament played in honour of the chess legend Mikhail Chigorin , founder of the Soviet School. The first and most important edition was the one played in 1909 in St. Petersburg. Later on, the tournament was mainly played in the Black Sea resort Sochi. From 1993...
in Sochi
Sochi
Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated just north of Russia's border with the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast. Greater Sochi sprawls for along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains...
1965, first at Maribor
Maribor
Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....
1967 ahead of Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...
, first at Krems, and first at Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
1980 tied with Hans Ree
Hans Ree
Hans Ree is a Dutch Grandmaster of chess and is a columnist and chess writer for the NRC Handelsblad. He contributes to the leading chess magazines New In Chess and ChessCafe.com...
. In 1950, Unzicker shared the prize for best top-board score (+9 =4 −1) with Miguel Najdorf
Miguel Najdorf
Miguel Najdorf was a Polish-born Argentine chess grandmaster of Jewish origin, famous for his Najdorf Variation....
for his performance on first board for the West German
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
team at the Dubrovnik Chess Olympiad
9th Chess Olympiad
The 9th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between August 20 and September 11, 1950, in Dubrovnik, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia .The final results were as follows:-Final :The...
. At the Tel Aviv 1964
16th Chess Olympiad
The 16th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between November 2 and November 25, 1964, in Tel Aviv, Israel.-References:* OlimpBase...
Chess Olympiad Unzicker scored 13.5 points playing first board for the West German team that won the bronze medal on the strength of a 3:1 team victory over the Soviet Union. Unzicker also shared fourth place (+2 =14 −1) with Lajos Portisch
Lajos Portisch
Lajos Portisch is a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, whose positional style earned him the nickname, the "Hungarian Botvinnik"...
in the 1966 Piatigorsky Cup
Piatigorsky Cup
The Piatigorsky Cup was a triennial series of double round-robin grandmaster chess tournaments held in the United States in the 1960s. Sponsored by the Piatigorsky Foundation, only two events were held, in 1963 and 1966. The Piatigorsky Cups were the strongest U.S. chess tournaments since New...
in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
. Only Boris Spassky
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...
, Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
, and Bent Larsen
Bent Larsen
Jørgen Bent Larsen was a Danish chess Grandmaster and author. Larsen was known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play and he was the first western player to pose a serious challenge to the Soviet Union's dominance of chess...
finished ahead of Unzicker. Unzicker placed ahead of world champion Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else...
, Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...
, Miguel Najdorf
Miguel Najdorf
Miguel Najdorf was a Polish-born Argentine chess grandmaster of Jewish origin, famous for his Najdorf Variation....
, Borislav Ivkov
Borislav Ivkov
Borislav Ivkov is a Serbian chess Grandmaster. He was the first ever World Junior Champion in 1951. He won the Yugoslav Championship in 1958 , 1963 and 1972. He was a World championship candidate in 1965, and played in four more Interzonal tournaments, in 1967, 1970, 1973, and 1979...
, and Hein Donner. At Hastings
Hastings International Chess Congress
The Hastings International Chess Congress is an annual chess congress which takes place in Hastings, England, around the turn of the year. The main event is the Hastings Premier tournament, which was traditionally a 10 to 16 player round-robin tournament. In 2004/05 the tournament was played in the...
1969–1970, Unzicker finished second (+4 =5) after Lajos Portisch
Lajos Portisch
Lajos Portisch is a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, whose positional style earned him the nickname, the "Hungarian Botvinnik"...
and ahead of Svetozar Gligorić
Svetozar Gligoric
Svetozar Gligorić is a Serbian chess grandmaster. He won the championship of Yugoslavia a record twelve times, and is considered the best player ever from Serbia...
and former world champion Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, and was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions . Smyslov was twice equal first at the Soviet Championship , and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won...
. Unzicker finished second (+3 =7 −2) to Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ; pronounced in the original Russian as "karch NOY"; Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, born March 23, 1931 is a professional chess player, author and currently the oldest active grandmaster on the tournament circuit...
at South Africa 1979.
Unzicker had a classical chess style modelled after the German player and theorist Siegbert Tarrasch
Siegbert Tarrasch
Siegbert Tarrasch was one of the strongest chess players and most influential chess teachers of the late 19th century and early 20th century....
. In 1956 he lost a match to Paul Keres
Paul Keres
Paul Keres , was an Estonian chess grandmaster, and a renowned chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s....
in which both players chose to begin with the Ruy Lopez
Ruy Lopez
The Ruy Lopez, also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, who made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del...
opening in all eight games.
In 2005, Unzicker celebrated his 80th birthday with his wife Freia, his three sons and their wives and three grandchildren.
A retired judge, he was still playing chess as first board on the club team "Tarrasch Munich".
Wolfgang Unzicker died on April 20, 2006, at the age of 80, during a holiday trip to Albufeira
Albufeira
Albufeira is a Portuguese municipality in the Faro District, Algarve region. Its name came from the Arabic: البحيرة . The city has a population of 13,646. The municipality has a population of 35,281 inhabitants and a total area of 140.6 km²...
/Portugal.