Unzicker was born in
Pirmasens, a small town near
Kaiserslautern in the province of
Rhineland-Palatinate noted for shoemaking. His father taught him how to play chess at age 10. His brother, four years older, was also a chess player but was killed in World War II. Unzicker began to play tournaments abroad in 1948 as Germany was struggling to rebuild after the war, and achieved the grandmaster title in 1954. He won the
German Championship six times from 1948 to 1963 and tied for first in 1965. From 1950 to 1978 Unzicker played in twelve
Chess Olympiads, and was first board on ten of them. He played nearly 400 times representing Germany's national team. For many years he was legal advisor for the
German Chess Association. His tournament victories include the first place tie (+6−0=9) with
Boris Spassky at the
Chigorin Memorial in
Sochi 1965, first at
Maribor 1967 ahead of
Samuel Reshevsky, first at
Krems, and first at
Amsterdam 1980 tied with
Hans Ree. In 1950, Unzicker shared the prize for best top-board score (+9−1=4) with
Miguel Najdorf for his performance on first board for the
West German team at the
Dubrovnik Chess Olympiad. At the
Tel Aviv 1964 Chess Olympiad 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. Unzicker also shared fourth place (+2−1=15) with
Lajos Portisch in the 1966
Piatigorsky Cup in
Santa Monica, California. Only
Boris Spassky,
Bobby Fischer, and
Bent Larsen finished ahead of Unzicker. Unzicker placed ahead of world champion
Tigran Petrosian,
Samuel Reshevsky,
Miguel Najdorf,
Borislav Ivkov, and
Hein Donner. At
Hastings 1969–70, Unzicker finished second (+4−0=5) after
Lajos Portisch and ahead of
Svetozar Gligorić and former world champion
Vasily Smyslov. Unzicker finished second (+3−2=7) to
Viktor Korchnoi at South Africa 1979. A retired judge, he was still playing chess as first board on the club team "Tarrasch Munich". Unzicker had a classical chess style modelled after the German player and theorist
Siegbert Tarrasch. In 1956 he lost a match to
Paul Keres in which both players chose to begin with the
Ruy Lopez opening in all eight games. In 2005, 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. Wolfgang Unzicker died on 20 April 2006, at the age of 80, during a holiday trip to
Albufeira, Portugal. Notable Games Unzicker-Fisher Buenos Aires, 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.O-O-O O-O 10.Bd3 Nc6 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Qg3 h5 13.e5 dxe5 14.fxe5 Ng4 15.Bxe7 Qxe7 16.Ne4 Qc7 17.h3 Nxe5 18.Nf6+ Kh8 19.Qg5 Nxd3+ 20.Rxd3 gxf6 21.Qxh5+ Kg7 22.Qg4+ 1-0 ==Notes==