Sergiu Samarian

Sergiu Samarian at the 1980 Chess Olympiad
Association	Romania (until 1976) Germany (from 1977)
Born	June 10, 1923 Chișinău
Died	June 3, 1991 Heidelberg
Best Elo rating	2290 (January 1976)

Sergiu Samarian (born June 10, 1923 in Chișinău , Romania , † June 3, 1991 in Heidelberg ) was a Romanian chess player , chess writer and national coach of the German Chess Federation .

Life

Samarian grew up in Romania, where he achieved mastery in chess and became a chess coach. In 1966 he fell politically out of favor and was prevented from practicing his profession until 1968. When he ran into problems with the regime again in 1976, he emigrated to the Federal Republic of Germany. Here he worked as a trainer and journalist until the end of his life. In 1991 he died after a long illness.

Tournament chess player

Samarian took part in Romanian championships several times. After moving to Germany, he became a member of the Frankenthal chess club. Here he played in the Bundesliga Southwest, later in the 2nd Bundesliga. Before the introduction of the Elo numbers , his best historical Elo number was 2415. This he reached in February 1953.

Correspondence chess players

In the mid-1950s, Samarian began successfully playing long- distance games. He qualified five times for the semifinals of the World Correspondence Chess Championship. From 1988 he took part in the 3rd European team championship. For these successes he received the title of International Correspondence Chess Master .

Chess coach

Stepanka Vokralova and Sergiu Samarian at the women's zone tournament 1985 in Bad Lauterberg

After his training as a chess trainer in 1952, Samarian worked as a club trainer in Romania. In 1965 he became the state coach of the Romanian Chess Federation. He was given leave of absence from 1966 to 1968 for political reasons, then he resumed this activity. Romania achieved some successes under his leadership, for example the national team qualified for the finals of the European team championship in 1965 in Hamburg , while the women's team came second behind the Soviet Union at the 1966 , 1972 and 1974 Chess Olympiads .

After moving to Germany, he became the national coach of the German Chess Federation for ten years . Here his greatest success was the bronze medal of the German women at the 1978 Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires. His successor as national coach was Klaus Darga in 1989 .

Chess journalist

During his time in Romania, Samarian worked for ten years as the editor of the chess magazine Revista de Șah . He also translated foreign-language chess books, whereby he benefited from his good language skills in Russian, French, English, Spanish and German.

Later in Germany, too, he wrote some chess books, such as the systematic chess training ("The official textbook of the German Chess Federation") or Schnell Schachiege. The masterful gambit game .

Web links

Commons : Sergiu Samarian  - collection of images

• Sergiu Samarian at the International Correspondence Chess Federation ICCF (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sergiu Samarian's historical Elo numbers on chessmetrics.com (English)
2. ↑ Olms, Hombrechtikon / Zurich 1995 (4th edition), ISBN 3-283-00313-0
3. ^ Falken, Niedernhausen 1989, ISBN 3-8068-1038-9