Wolfgang Unzicker

Wolfgang Unzicker, Bad Liebenzell 1995
Association	Germany
Born	June 26, 1925 Pirmasens
Died	April 20, 2006 Albufeira
title	International Master (1950) Grand Master (1954)
Best Elo rating	2545 (July 1971)

Wolfgang Unzicker (born June 26, 1925 in Pirmasens , † April 20, 2006 in Albufeira ) was a German chess master .

Life

Wolfgang Unzicker, 1953

Wolfgang Unzicker was the son of the study professor Eugen Unzicker (1884-1976), who organized chess tournaments in the 1920s and was a teacher at the Theresien-Gymnasium in Munich, which the son also attended until he graduated from high school in 1944. Unzicker learned to play chess from his father in the summer of 1935. He made rapid progress and in 1939 was invited to Fürstenwalde / Spree for a talent inspection led by Willi Schlage , where he met Klaus Junge, among others . Unzicker completed the Reich Labor Service and basic training in the Wehrmacht , but was retired in 1944 because of a weak heart. In 1948 he began to study law at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich .

By profession a lawyer , Wolfgang Unzicker never played chess as a professional. He initially worked as a civil servant in the government of Upper Bavaria , from 1971 as a judge and later as the presiding judge at the Munich Administrative Court . He took a vacation to take part in chess tournaments.

In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of the strongest German players. His amazing memory was striking. In international tournaments he took first places several times, around 1948 in Lucerne, 1949 in Heidelberg, 1950 in Travemünde, 1950/51 in Hastings, 1951/52 in Lucerne, 1954 in the zone tournament in Munich, 1965 in Soci, 1967 in Maribor and 1967 in Krems . In 1966 he finished fourth in the Piatigorsky Cup, one of the historic super tournaments, in Santa Monica, placing himself ahead of the then world champion Tigran Petrosjan , Samuel Reshevsky , Miguel Najdorf , Borislav Ivkov and Johannes Hendrikus Donner . In later years, he was able to preserve its skill level long at a high level, reaching tournament wins in Amsterdam 1980 (IBM-II), Almada 1988, Daugavpils 1990 (shared with Alexei Shirov ) and Amsterdam in 1994. His best Elo -Einzelleistung he scored in a tournament in South Africa 1979, in which he finished second behind the then vice world champion Viktor Korchnoi .

In 1950 he became an international master . He achieved the title of chess grandmaster in 1954 .

Between 1948 and 1965 he won the German championship seven times , namely in 1948 in Essen (West German champions), 1950 in Bad Pyrmont (FRG champions), 1953 in Berlin (FRG champions), 1953 in Leipzig (all German champions), 1959 in Nuremberg, 1963 in Bad Pyrmont and 1965 in Bad Aibling (together with Helmut Pfleger ).

In 1956 he lost a friendship match against Paul Keres in Hamburg with 6: 2 (+0 = 4 −4). This match is remarkable in that all eight games featured the Spanish Opening . In 1958 he became International Referee for Chess Composition for Studies .

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, a double-round rapid chess tournament was organized in his honor as part of the Chess Classics Mainz 2005 , in which he met Anatoli Karpow , Viktor Korchnoi and Boris Spasski again at the end of his career .

Unzicker's best Elo rating was 2545 in July 1971, and before the Elo was introduced, his best historical rating was 2686 in July 1960.

Unzicker died of heart failure while on vacation in Portugal .

National team

László Szabó , Wolfgang Unzicker (standing right) and Lajos Portisch (back left) at the European team championship in chess in 1961 in Oberhausen

Unzicker took part in the Chess Olympiads in 1950 , 1954 , 1956 , 1958 , 1960 , 1962 , 1964 , 1968 , 1970 , 1974 , 1976 , 1978 and 1982 . He was most successful in 1950, when he reached third place with the team and achieved the best individual result on the top board. With the team he came back to third place in 1964. In the final round of the European team championship Unzicker took part in 1957, 1961 , 1965, 1973 and 1977 and achieved the second-best result on the first board in 1961. Unzicker had a total of 386 appearances in the German national team, making him a record player .

societies

Unzicker played for years for Munich SC 1836 , with whom he was German team champion seven times in the 1950s and 1960s. After founding the four-track Bundesliga, he played in the Bundesliga from 1974 to 1976 and in the 1977/78 season. After founding the single-track Bundesliga, he played with the Munich SC 1836 first in the 2nd Bundesliga, after promotion from 1982 to 1987 in the 1st Bundesliga. In the 1987/88 season he played with TB Erlangen in the 1st Bundesliga, from 1988 to 1992 with SC 1868 Bamberg and from 1994 to 2000 with PSV Duisburg . His last club was SK Tarrasch Munich , with whom he played in the Oberliga Bayern in the 2004/05 season.

family

Unzicker had been married to the watercolor painter Freia (* 1938) since 1963 and had three sons. One of them is the specialist book author Alexander Unzicker , son Ferdinand (* 1971) is a doctor of law and chess player (1st and 2nd Bundesliga with Bayern Munich , highest rating 2337 from May to October 2013 and March 2014). Son Stefan (* 1960) was adopted by Wolfgang Unzicker.

Publications

In 1962 he wrote a book Forty Own Games about his early chess career . Together with Jacob Silbermann , he wrote a history of chess in 1975 . In 1975 he published the textbook Knaur's New Chess Book - For Beginners and Advanced Students , in 1985 Chess for Connoisseurs .

In 1994 he prepared a legal opinion on behalf of the German Chess Federation , in which he denied the players' copyright in the games they played. The expert opinion had become necessary because players like Grandmaster Robert Huebner were reluctant to rule that game notations are the property of the tournament organizer.

Awards

In 1954 Unzicker was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf . In 1984 he was awarded the City Medal by the City of Munich. In 1995 he received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon.

literature

• KARL. The cultural chess magazine : Issue 2/2007, focus: Wolfgang Unzicker
• Gerhard Josten (ed.): Wolfgang Unzicker (anthology). Verlag ChessCoach, St. Ingbert 2014, ISBN 978-3-944158-03-7 .

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Unzicker  - Collection of Images

• Literature by and about Wolfgang Unzicker in the catalog of the German National Library
• Pictures and games
• Detailed obituary at Chessbase.de
• Replayable chess games by Wolfgang Unzicker on 365Chess.com (English)
• Match forms and other materials from Wolfgang Unzicker

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hartmut Metz: Wolfgang Unzicker is 80 In: de.chessbase.com. June 26, 2005, accessed October 23, 2019.
2. ^ The international tournament in Heidelberg in 1949 on TeleSchach
3. ^ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 74.
4. ↑ West German championship 1948 in Essen on TeleSchach (cross table and games)
5. ↑ German individual chess championship 1953 in Berlin on TeleSchach (cross table and games)
6. ↑ German individual chess championship 1963 in Bad Pyrmont on TeleSchach (cross table and games)
7. ↑ German individual chess championship 1965 in Bad Aibling on TeleSchach (cross table and games)
8. ↑ International referees for chess composition
9. ↑ Wolfgang Unzicker's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
10. ↑ Wolfgang Unzicker's results at European team championships on olimpbase.org (English)
11. ↑ Obituary on Chessbase
12. ^ Results of SK Tarrasch Munich in the Oberliga Bayern 2004/05 at the German Chess Federation
13. ^ ISBN 3-570-01335-9 .
14. ↑ Is there a copyright on chess games? (PDF file; 71 kB), report from January 22, 1994