Biography
Junge was born into a German Chilean family. His father Otto was a strong chess player who won the Chilean Chess Championship in 1922. In 1928 the parents, together with their five sons, returned to Germany.
On 11–20 August 1939, he, along with Wolfgang Unzicker (14 years old), Edith Keller (17), Rudolf Kunath (15) and Karl Krbavic (17), played in Fürstenwalde (Jugendschachwoche) near Berlin. In 1941, at the age of 17, Klaus Junge was considered one of the strongest players in Germany. In 1941, he won the championship of Hamburg. In May 1941, he won at Bad Elster (qual. GER ch.). In August 1941, he tied for 1st with Paul Felix Schmidt at Bad Oeynhausen (8th German Championship), although he lost a playoff match against Schmidt for the title at Bromberg (+0 –3 =1). In October 1941, he took 4th, behind Alexander Alekhine, Schmidt, and Efim Bogoljubow, at Kraków/Warsaw (the 2nd General Government-ch).
In January 1942, Junge won the Dresden tournament. In 1942, he took 2nd, behind Walter Niephaus, at Leipzig. In April 1942, he took 2nd, behind Carl Carls, at Rostock. In June 1942, he tied for 3rd–4th with Schmidt, behind Alekhine and Paul Keres, at the Salzburg 1942 chess tournament. In September, he took 7th at the Munich (1st European Championship), won by Alekhine. In October 1942, he took 2nd, behind Alekhine, at Warsaw/Lublin/Kraków (the 3rd GG-ch). In December 1942, he tied for 1st with Alekhine at Prague (Duras Jubileé, 60-jährigen Jubiläum). In 1942–43, he played three correspondence tournaments, beating among others Rudolf Teschner, and Emil Joseph Diemer.
Klaus Junge, whose father had been a member of the Nazi Party since 1932, was an adherent of the National Socialist ideology. As a lieutenant, refusing to surrender, he died in combat against Allied troops on April 17, 1945 in the battle of Welle on the Lüneburg Heath, close to Hamburg, three weeks before World War II ended.
In 1946, Regensburg hosted the first Klaus Junge Memorial. The event was won by Fedor Bohatirchuk, ahead of Elmārs Zemgalis, Wolfgang Unzicker, etc.
According to Dr. Robert Hübner, Klaus Junge was the greatest German chess talent in the 20th century.
Read more about this topic: Klaus Junge
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