Wolfgang Uhlmann

This article describes the chess player. For the historian of the same name, see Wolfgang Uhlmann (historian) .

Wolfgang Uhlmann in the German Chess League 2008/09
Association	German Democratic Republic of Germany
Born	March 29, 1935 Dresden
Died	August 24, 2020 Dresden
title	International Master (1956) Grand Master (1959)
Current  Elo rating	2308 (last Elo rating from August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2575 (January 1978)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Wolfgang Uhlmann (born March 29, 1935 in Dresden ; † August 24, 2020 there ) was a German chess grandmaster and chess theorist . Uhlmann was the most successful player in the GDR .

Life and Achievements

Wolfgang Uhlmann, 1970

Wolfgang Uhlmann, whose great chess talent was shown early on through his victory at the all-German youth championship in 1951, initially learned the profession of book printer from 1949 to 1952 and then trained as an industrial clerk . Later he was supported by the state and was able to devote himself exclusively to the sport of chess.

Uhlmann, who won eleven GDR championships (1954, 1955, 1958, 1964, 1968, 1975, 1976, 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1986), was awarded the international championship title in 1956 and the FIDE grandmaster title in 1959 .

Since 1954, the year of his first participation in a zone tournament (in Mariánské Lázně , 13th place), he intervened in the fight for the world championship. At the zone tournament in Wageningen in 1957, he was fifth. In 1960 he was supposed to take part in the zone tournament in Berg en Dal , but was refused entry to the Netherlands. Thereupon the participants from the other states of the Warsaw Pact boycotted the tournament, which was repeated in 1961 in Mariánské Lázně. There Uhlmann made it to the interzonal tournament in Stockholm (1962) with 3rd place , where he shared 9th and 10th place. With a victory at the zone tournament in Raach in 1969, he again made the jump into the interzonal tournament. This time ( Palma de Mallorca, 1970 ) he finished 5th – 6th. Place, which was synonymous with qualifying for the candidate competitions . The 1971 quarter-final match against the Dane Bent Larsen in Las Palmas was lost for Uhlmann with 3.5: 5.5. Despite two other interzonal tournaments (1973 in Leningrad and 1976 in Manila ), this was his only candidate competition.

Wolfgang Uhlmann at the Seniors World Chess Championship in Bad Liebenzell in 1996

Wolfgang Uhlmann, 2005

In the 1960s, Uhlmann had his most successful phase in sport. In 1964 he won together with Lev Polugajewski in Sarajevo and with Vasily Smyslow in Havana . With Borislav Ivkov he won in 1965 before the world champion Tigran Petrosjan in Zagreb . At the turn of the year 1965/1966 he won the traditional tournament of Hastings with Boris Spasski . Together with David Bronstein , he won the Lasker Memorial in Berlin in 1968 .

As a senior he also played chess very well. He participated in several senior world championships. At the 1998 Senior World Chess Championship in Grieskirchen , Uhlmann came second, tied with the winner Vladimir Bagirow . In 1996 in Bad Liebenzell he took fourth place when Alexei Suetin became world champion of the seniors. At the German senior championships he took first place in 2001 and 2006.

Before the Elo rating was introduced, Uhlmann's best historical rating was 2696 in December 1970.

Wolfgang Uhlmann was a member of the chess department of the USV TU Dresden . He died after a fall.

National team

Uhlmann took part with the GDR team in the chess Olympiads in 1956 , 1958 , 1960 , 1962 , 1964 , 1966 , 1968 , 1970 , 1972 , 1988 and 1990 (from 1974 to 1986 the GDR team was allowed to participate in accordance with instructions from the German gymnastics and Sportbundes (DTSB) do not take part in the Chess Olympiads). In 1964 he achieved the best and in 1966 the third best individual result on the top board. At the European team championship in 1970 Uhlmann reached third place with the GDR team and achieved the best result on the first board in front of Tigran Petrosjan. Also in 1970 he was placed in the USSR against the rest of the world on the seventh board of the world selection and was defeated by Mark Taimanow with 1.5: 2.5.

societies

In the time of the GDR, among other things, playing for SG Dresden-Mickten and from 1955 for SC Einheit Dresden , with whom he won the team championship in 1957 , 1958 and 1962 , after reunification Uhlmann moved to SG Porz , with which he was from 1990 to 1992 played in the 1st Bundesliga and also took part in the European Club Cup 1992. In 1992 he moved to Post SV Dresden , for whose predecessor BSG Post Dresden he was already active in the 1970s and 1980s, and in 1994 to Dresdner SC , with whom he played in the 1st Bundesliga until 2000. After that he played with Dresden mostly in the 2nd Bundesliga, but (now under the club name USV TU Dresden ) in the seasons 2008/09 , 2011/12 and 2014/15 also in the 1st Bundesliga. When he last played in the Bundesliga on April 9, 2016, Uhlmann was 81 years and 11 days old, making him the oldest player ever to play in the 1st Bundesliga. Uhlmann played in the Austrian State League A from 1990 to 1993, 1994 to 1996 and 2000 to 2002 for SK VÖEST Linz.

Game example

Fischer – Uhlmann

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

End position after 42 ... Qxg6

In the following game, Uhlmann won the 1960 Buenos Aires tournament with the black pieces against the later world chess champion Bobby Fischer .

Fischer – Uhlmann 0: 1

Buenos Aires, July 2, 1960

French Defense ( Winawer Variation ), C19

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 Ne7 5. a3 Bxc3 + 6. bxc3 c5 7. a4 Nbc6 8. Nf3 Bd7 9. Qd2 Qa5 10. Bd3 c4 11. Be2 f6 12. Ba3 Ng6 13. 0–0 0–0–0 14. Bd6 Sce7 15. Nh4 Tde8 16. Nxg6 hxg6 17. exf6 gxf6 18. h3 Nf5 19. Bh2 g5 20. f4 Nd6 21. Bf3 g4 22. hxg4 f5 23. g5 Re7 24. Bg3 Be8 25. De3 Ne4 26. Bxe4 dxe4 27. Kf2 Teh7 28. Rfb1 Qd5 29. Qc1 Th1 30. Qxh1 e3 + 31. Kg1 Rxh1 + 32. Kxh1 e2 33. Rb5 Bxb5 34. axb5 Qxb5 35. Re1 a5 36. Rxe2 a4 37.Rxe6 a3 38.g6 Qd7 39. Re5 b6 40.Bh4 a2 41. Re1 Qg7 42.Ra1 Qxg6 0: 1

author

Wolfgang Uhlmann was also a major chess author. He was one of the world's best experts on French defense and has published since the 1980s. He also wrote for numerous chess magazines.

Publications

• With Gerhard Schmidt: Open Lines. Sportverlag, Berlin 1981.
• With Gerhard Schmidt: Peasant weaknesses. Sports publishing house, Berlin 1984.
• With Lothar Vogt : Good runners - bad runners. Sportverlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-328-00237-5 .
• My best games. ChessCoach, St. Ingbert 2015, ISBN 978-3-944158-07-5 .
• French defense - played right. 4th edition. Joachim Beyer Verlag, Eltmann 2018, ISBN 978-3-95920-059-2 .
  English translation: French Defense - Properly Played. 2018, ISBN 978-3-95920-972-4 .
  First German-language edition in 1991 under the title A lifetime of French. ISBN 3-89168-018-X .

literature

• Klaus Gallinat, Olaf W. Reimann:  Uhlmann, Wolfgang . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Uhlmann  - Collection of Images

• Literature by and about Wolfgang Uhlmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Replayable chess games by Wolfgang Uhlmann on chessgames.com (English)
• Interview with Uhlmann at ChessBase on his 70th birthday
• Wolfgang Uhlmann at the contemporary witness portal

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (ed.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 2: Maassen - Zylla. KG Saur, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-598-11177-0 .
2. ↑ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002. Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 75.
3. ↑ Martin Gaitzsch: Chess legend Wolfgang Uhlmann is dead. In: tag24.de. August 26, 2020, accessed on August 27, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Wolfgang Uhlmann's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English).
5. ↑ Wolfgang Uhlmann's results at European Team Championships on olimpbase.org (English).
6. ↑ Wolfgang Uhlmann's results at European Club Cups on olimpbase.org (English).