Echesspedia

German Grandmaster (1954). Graduated in law, he was an administrative judge in Munich. Winner of seven West German Championships from 1948 until 1965.

Best results in international tournaments: Augsburg 1946, Geidelberg 1949, Travemunde 1950, Hastings 1950-51, Lucerne 1951-52, Sochi 1965 (with Boris Spassky), Kremce and Maribor 1967, Amsterdam 1980 and Almada 1988, 1^st. Also finished fourth in the strong Santa Monica tournament in 1966.

Unzicker has participated in 13 Olympiads from 1950-82 where he collected one individual gold medal in 1950 and two team bronze medals in 1950 and 1964.

Chess columnist at the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Anatoly Karpov used to called him ‘the world champion of amateurs’ with at least one victory over Savielly Tartakower, Efim Bogoljubov, Svetozar Gligoric, Paul Keres, Samuel Reshevsky, Robert Fischer, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov, Bent Larsen, Hans Donner, Jan Timman, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, Viktor Korchnoi and Mikhail Tal.

Best ELO: 2545 in 1971.