Rainer Knaak

Rainer Knaak 2007 in Forst (Lausitz)
Association	Germany
Born	March 16, 1953 Pasewalk
title	International Master (1973) Grand Master (1975)
Current  Elo rating	2476 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2565 (January 1979)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Rainer Fritz Albert Knaak (born March 16, 1953 in Pasewalk ) is a German chess player .

Rainer Knaak learned to play chess at the age of five and made rapid progress. In 1966, 1969 and 1970 he was GDR champion in his age group. In 1971 he began studying mathematics , which he completed with a diploma in 1979 . In the meantime he became grandmaster in 1975 and was considered the best player in the GDR alongside Wolfgang Uhlmann . He won the title of GDR champion five times (1974, 1978, 1982, 1983 and 1984) and played for the GDR at the Chess Olympiads in 1972 , 1988 and 1990 .

After reunification, Knaak played in the Bundesliga chess league from 1990 to 1993 at SG Porz , in the 1993/94 season at SC Stadthagen and from 1994 to 2011 at SV Werder Bremen , with whom he became German team champion in 2005 . In 1992 he won the Bad Wörishofen Chess Festival .

He has been a full-time employee at ChessBase since 1994 .

family

Rainer Knaak is the son of Hans Knaak (1928–2016), from whom he learned to play chess. He has been married since 1977 and has two children. His brother Joachim Knaak (* 1951) is also a chess player.

Publications (selection)

• King's Indian pro and contra (together with Lothar Vogt ), Berlin 1992.
• A long chess century: year after year from 1894 to 2000; (together with Burkhard Starke ), Joachim Beyer Verlag, Eltmann 2017, ISBN 978-3-95920-054-7 .

Web links

• Rainer Knaak at the World Chess Federation FIDE (English)
• Literature by and about Rainer Knaak in the catalog of the German National Library
• official homepage
• Replayable chess games by Rainer Knaak on chessgames.com (English)
• Group photo of ChessBase employees with Rainer Knaak, accessed on October 27, 2017