MARK RUBERY CHESS

Wolfgang Unzicker (1925-2006), described by Karpov as the “world champion of amateurs”, passed away at the age of 80. Unlike many of his professional rivals, Unzicker followed a legal career becoming a judge of an administrative court. He became a Grandmaster in 1954, won the German Championship 7 times, and played in 12 Olympiads, on top board in 10 of them. His best results were probably joint 1st with Spassky in the Chigorin Memorial Sochi 1965 and 4th= in the famous 2nd Piatigorsky-cup behind Spassky, Fischer and Larsen.

His longevity across the board saw him cross swords with many of the game’s great masters. He had at least one victory over the likes of Tartakower, Bogoljubov, Gligoric, Keres, Reshevsky, Fischer, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Larsen, Donner, Timman, Ljubojevic, Korchnoi and Tal. He possessed a solid classical style, much like his country man Tarrasch, and in a match with Keres every game played featured the Ruy Lopez.

Unzicker,w - Fischer,r [B98]

Buenos Aires (11) 1960

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 Qc7 9.0–0–0 0–0 10.Bd3 Nc6 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Qg3 h5?