1. Wolfgang Unzicker was one of the strongest German chess Grandmasters from 1945 to about 1970.
17 Facts About Wolfgang Unzicker
1. 2.
Wolfgang Unzicker decided against making chess his profession, choosing law instead.
3.
Wolfgang Unzicker was born in Pirmasens, a small town near Kaiserslautern in the province of Rhineland-Palatinate noted for shoemaking.
4.
Wolfgang Unzicker's father taught him how to play chess at age 10.
5.
Wolfgang Unzicker's brother, four years older, was a chess player but was killed in World War II.
6.
Wolfgang Unzicker began to play tournaments abroad in 1948 as Germany was struggling to rebuild after the war, and achieved the grandmaster title in 1954.
7.
Wolfgang Unzicker won the German Championship six times from 1948 to 1963 and tied for first in 1965.
8.
From 1950 to 1978 Wolfgang Unzicker played in twelve Chess Olympiads, and was first board on ten of them.
9.
Wolfgang Unzicker played nearly 400 times representing Germany's national team.
10.
In 1950, Wolfgang Unzicker shared the prize for best top-board score with Miguel Najdorf for his performance on first board for the West German team at the Dubrovnik Chess Olympiad.
11.
At the Tel Aviv 1964 Chess Olympiad Wolfgang Unzicker scored 13.5 points playing first board for the West German team that won the bronze medal on the strength of a 3:1 team victory over the Soviet Union.
12.
Wolfgang Unzicker shared fourth place with Lajos Portisch in the 1966 Piatigorsky Cup in Santa Monica, California.
13.
Wolfgang Unzicker placed ahead of world champion Tigran Petrosian, Samuel Reshevsky, Miguel Najdorf, Borislav Ivkov, and Hein Donner.
14.
Wolfgang Unzicker finished second to Viktor Korchnoi at South Africa 1979.
15.
Wolfgang Unzicker had a classical chess style modelled after the German player and theorist Siegbert Tarrasch.
16.
In 2005, Wolfgang Unzicker celebrated his 80th birthday with his wife Freia, his three sons and their wives and three grandchildren, and a tournament with Karpov, Korchnoi and Spassky took place in his honor.
17.
Wolfgang Unzicker died on April 20,2006, at the age of 80, during a holiday trip to Albufeira, Portugal.