Chess Career
Uhlmann's father taught him the game at the age of eleven at their home in Dresden and he progressed to the title of German Youth Champion in 1951. By 1956 he was an International Master and by 1959, a Grandmaster.
He quickly established himself as the dominant force in East German chess, winning the GDR (German Democratic Republic, or East German) national championship on eleven occasions from 1954 to 1986. The number eleven repeated again, when as the GDR's most outstanding player at the Chess Olympiads of 1956–90, he made eleven appearances, mostly on top board. At the 1964 event in Tel Aviv, he scored 83.3 percent, earning him the individual board one gold medal. An individual bronze medal followed in 1966 at Havana.
His most promising attempt at World Championship qualification occurred at the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal of 1970, where he tied for fifth and sixth place and reached the Candidates Matches held the following year. But his quarter-final match with Bent Larsen in Las Palmas ended in disappointment, a 5½–3½ victory for Larsen, and Uhlmann was not able to come so close again.
It was during the 1960s that Uhlmann made a lasting impression on the international tournament scene. He shared victory (with Polugaevsky) at Sarajevo 1964, tied for first (with Smyslov) at Havana 1964, tied for first (with Ivkov, and ahead of World Champion Petrosian) at Zagreb 1965, tied for first (with Spassky) at Hastings 1965/66, tied for first (with Bronstein) at Szombathely 1966, tied for first (with Liberzon) at Zinnowitz 1967 and tied for first (with Bronstein) at the Berlin 'Lasker Memorial' in 1968. At Raach in 1969, a zonal tournament, he finished two points clear of the field (which included Lajos Portisch).
Into the 1970s and 1980s, there was further success. He tied for first (with Bronstein and Hort) at Hastings 1975/76, placed second (behind Karpov) at Skopje 1976, finished first at Vrbas 1977, tied for first (with Farago and Knaak) at Halle 1978 and was an outright winner at Halle 1981.
In 2012, and at the age of 77, Uhlmann was a member of the "old Hands" team (a group of aging previous top players) facing the "Snowdrops" (extremely talanted young females) in a display match. Uhlmann demonstrated a very vivid style of chess, reminiscent of his glory days. Especially the game Kashlinskaya-Uhlmann was considered the most beautiful of the event – the multiple East German Champion, it was said, played it like the young Mihail Tal.
Read more about this topic: Wolfgang Uhlmann
Famous quotes containing the words chess and/or career:
“There is a parallel between the twos and the tens. Tens are trying to test their abilities again, sizing up and experimenting to discover how to fit in. They don’t mean everything they do and say. They are just testing. . . . Take a good deal of your daughter’s behavior with a grain of salt. Try to handle the really outrageous as matter-of-factly as you would a mistake in grammar or spelling.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“I restore myself when I’m alone. A career is born in public—talent in privacy.”
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)