Alfred Seppelt

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Alfred Seppelt at Chess Day 2004 in Berlin's Ostbahnhof

Alfred Seppelt (born July 12, 1929 in Magdeburg ; † October 21, 2015 in Berlin ) was a German chess official and from 1984 to 2004 president of the Berlin Chess Association .

Life

In 1939, Seppelt moved with his parents from his native Magdeburg to Berlin . His talent for economic and organizational matters was shown early on. A commercial apprenticeship followed and in the next few years he was the owner of several drug stores in Berlin.

Chess activity

Seppelt learned the game of chess from his father after the Second World War . In 1948, at the age of 19, he joined the Wilmersdorf chess group and soon developed into a good player. Seppelt soon switched to BSG 1827 Eckbauer . With this he took part in the finals of the German team championship in 1953 and 1954 . He later played for SVg Lasker Steglitz , for which he also played in the 1st Bundesliga in the 1985/86 season .

Seppelt took part in West Berlin championships a total of 25 times , which he won once in 1960. In 1978 he added another success to this success in the West Berlin individual cup championship. Seppelt achieved his highest Elo rating of 2220 in July 1989.

The Berliner Seppelt took part in several tournaments in the Federal Republic of Germany, such as the German Candidates Tournament in Ingolstadt in 1964.

Working for Berlin chess life

The organizational career was increasingly added to the active chess sport. In 1976 he was promoted to the board of directors of the BSV and, two years later, started a chess sales business. In 1984 he replaced Alfons Henske at the head of the Berlin Chess Association and from then on shaped Berlin chess life.

The events initiated by Seppelt were diverse. In 1983 he launched the American Summer open tournament . It was then the Berlin Summer Open with the largest number of participants at the time, between 480 and 550. The 16th edition in 1998 was the last tournament due to financing and space problems. The politicians chess tournament , which is held in rapid chess mode on one day and took place for the seventeenth time in 2007, is particularly popular .

Through numerous other events, such as simultaneous competitions with Boris Spasski , Robert Huebner , Anatoli Karpow , Michail Tal and Viktor Kortschnoi , he ensured that Berlin chess came into its own again in Germany. As early as 1960, long before he began his career as a functionary, after the Chess Olympiad in Leipzig, Seppelt managed to lure some Soviet grandmasters and the US national team to the western part of Berlin. The USA (with Bobby Fischer ) won on November 10, 1960 against a West Berlin selection 4½: ½, with Seppelt losing to Arthur Bisguier on the fourth board .

Fischer, with whom Seppelt had been loosely connected since 1958, he invited to Berlin in 1972. He only accepted the invitation six years later, when he had already said goodbye to the chess world. Fischer stayed incognito for a week with his mother in Berlin and met with Seppelt. When they both visited the KaDeWe , Fischer was recognized by Arno Nickel , who was demonstrating chess computers there. When Seppelt published an article in the Berliner Morgenpost after Fischer's departure , Fischer was very angry about it.

Seppelt visited East Berlin even before the fall of the Berlin Wall . He met the former BSV President (1974–1976) Heinrich Burger , who was exposed as an agent of the GDR in 1976 and was allowed to leave the country after his imprisonment. In 1988 he attended the GDR – USSR international match and held talks with the chairman of the East Berlin Association of BFA Schach , Gerhard Mietzelfeldt . When the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, they both pushed ahead with the unification of the two Berlin associations. From then on, Seppelt was president of the unified Berlin, since Mietzelfeldt decided not to run.

In 1990 Seppelt was awarded the Cross of Merit on Ribbon .

In 2002, Seppelt, now 72 years old, decided to run again for two years as association president. In contrast to before, this time he was only re-elected against strong opposition in the second ballot. In 2004 he left office and since then has been honorary president of the Berlin Chess Association.

Private

One of his two sons, Hans-Joachim , is a well-known journalist at the RBB and a recognized German doping expert .

Web links

Commons : Alfred Seppelt  - Collection of Images

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Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jan-Daniel Wierzbicki: Berlin M-Class 1960 championship. Berlin Chess Association, July 19, 2007, archived from the original on July 22, 2012 ; accessed on October 28, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Seppelt, Alfred. In: OlimpBase. December 20, 2014, accessed on October 28, 2019 (English, Elo history).
  3. ^ From the German Candidates Tournament. In: Schach-Echo 1964, issue 10, pp. 152 to 154, as well as pp. 171 to 174 in issue 11.
  4. ^ BSV newsletter December 1960.
  5. ↑ BSV bulletin March / April 2008.
  6. ↑ Europa Rochade 5/1990, p. 26.
  7. ↑ Frank Hoppe: Association day of the BSV on March 26, 2002. Berlin Chess Association, July 21, 2005, archived from the original on July 29, 2012 ; accessed on October 28, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Seppelt, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chess official
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 2015
Place of death Berlin