Helmut Pfleger (born August 6, 1943) is a German

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

grandmaster and author. He was one of the most promising chess players in the 1960s and 1970s. From 1977 until 2005, Pfleger hosted a series of chess programs on German public TV, including '' Chess of the Grandmasters'', often together with grandmaster

Vlastimil Hort Vlastimil Hort (born 12 January 1944) is a German chess Grandmaster. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the world's strongest players and reached the 1977–78 Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship, but never qualified ...

. By profession, he is a doctor of medicine.

Chess career

In 1960 he won the German Junior Championship, in 1961 was fourth in the

World Junior Chess Championship The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament (players must have been under 20 years old on 1 January in the year of competition) organized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE). The idea was the brainchild of William Rits ...

. In 1965 he tied for 1st with

Wolfgang Unzicker Wolfgang Unzicker (26 June 1925 – 20 April 2006) was one of the strongest German chess Grandmasters from 1945 to about 1970. He decided against making chess his profession, choosing law instead. Unzicker was at times the world's strongest amat ...

in the

German Chess Championship The German Chess Championship has been played since 1861, and determines the national champion. Prior to 1880, three different federations organized chess activities in Germany: the ''Westdeutscher Schachbund'' (WDSB), the ''Norddeutscher Schachbund ...

Bad Aibling Bad Aibling () is a spa town and former district seat in Bavaria on the river Mangfall, located some southeast of Munich. It features a luxury health resort with a peat pulp bath and mineral spa. History Bad Aibling and its surrounding ...

, but lost an additional match to him there. He took 1st at

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,0 ...

1973, tied for 1st–2nd at

Polanica-Zdrój Polanica-Zdrój (german: link=no, Altheide-Bad) is a spa town in Kłodzko County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It lies approximately south-west of Kłodzko, and south-west of the regional capital, Wrocław. As at 2021, ...

1971, tied for 1st–2nd at

Montilla Montilla () is a town and municipality of Spain, located in the autonomous community of Andalusia. , the town had a population of 23,209, which makes it the fourth most populated municipality of the Province of Córdoba. It lies 32 miles south o ...

1973, tied for 2nd–3rd at Montilla 1974, tied for 2nd–5th at

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

1975, tied for 2nd–3rd at

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

1982, was 4th at

Royan Royan (; in the Saintongeais dialect; oc, Roian) is a commune and town in the south-west of France, in the department of Charente-Maritime in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Its inhabitants are known as ''Royannais'' and ''Royannaises''. Capi ...

1988. Pfleger played for Germany in the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 an ...

s of 1964, 1968, 1972, 1974, 1978, 1980 and 1982. At the

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

Olympiad of 1964, he was awarded the gold medal for best performance on fourth board and a bronze medal for his contribution to the team's overall performance. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1975. On the April 2009 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2477, although he has been virtually inactive since 1990.

Notable games

Helmut Pfleger vs Anatoli Karpov, Hastings 1971, Queen's Indian Defense: Classical, Main Line (E19), ½–½

Helmut Pfleger vs Mikhail Tal, Tallinn 1973, Modern Defense: Queen Pawn Fianchetto (B06), ½–½

Helmut Pfleger vs Bent Larsen, Manila 1974, English Opening: Great Snake Variation (A10), 1-0

John Nunn vs Helmut Pfleger, Plovdiv ETC 1983, Pirc Defense: General (B07), ½–½

Bibliography

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References

External links

*
Helmut Pfleger at 365Chess.com

Rating data for Helmut Pfleger

Chessmetrics Player Profile: Helmut Pfleger

ChessBase.com – Chess News – Happy Birthday Helmut Pfleger!
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pfleger, Helmut 1943 births Living people People from Teplice Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors German chess players German chess writers German people of German Bohemian descent German male non-fiction writers Sudeten German people