Klaus Viktor Darga (born 24 February 1934) 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 disti ...
grandmaster.
Chess career
In 1951, Darga became German Junior Champion after winning the national under-20 championship. He also proved his strength as a young chess player by sharing first place in the
World Junior Championship of 1953, with
Oscar Panno
Oscar Roberto Panno (born 17 March 1935 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine chess Grandmaster. Panno was the first top world chess player born in South America.
Panno won the 2nd World Junior Chess Championship in 1953, ahead of such future stron ...
of Argentina who was awarded the title on tiebreak. He won the
West German Chess Championship in 1955 and 1961. He came second in the Gijón international tournament in 1956
.His best performance is held to be the 1967 Winnipeg tournament, where he also tied for first place with
Bent Larsen
Jørgen Bent Larsen (4 March 1935 – 9 September 2010) was a Danish chess grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second strongest non-Soviet player, behind Bobby Fischer, for much of the 196 ...
, whom he beat, ahead of joint
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky ( rus, Бори́с Васи́льевич Спа́сский, Borís Vasíl'yevich Spásskiy; born January 30, 1937) is a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 ...
and
Paul Keres
Paul Keres (; 7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five ...
.
He was awarded the title of
International Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
in 1957, and
Grandmaster in 1964. He played for West Germany in ten
Olympiads
An olympiad ( el, Ὀλυμπιάς, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games.
Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not unti ...
between 1954 and 1978, and also served as
coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Co ...
of the German national team. He was second reserve for the World team in the 1970
Match of the Century between the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and the rest of the world, but did not play any games in the match.
His favourite openings as White were the
English Opening
The English Opening is a chess opening that begins with the move:
:1. c4
A flank opening, it is the fourth most popular and, according to various databases, one of the four most successful of White's twenty possible first moves. White begins th ...
and the
Ruy Lopez
The Ruy Lopez (; ), also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
:1. e4 e5
:2. Nf3 Nc6
:3. Bb5
The Ruy Lopez is named after 16th-century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura. It is one o ...
. As Black he often played the
Sicilian Defence
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves:
:1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. e4, e4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...c5, c5
The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. Ope ...
.
Notable games
Klaus Darga vs Boris Spassky, 1964 Interzonal
Personal life
After his retirement as a chess professional, Darga became a computer programmer for
IBM.
References
* Edward R. Brace (1977), ''An Illustrated Dictionary of Chess'', London: Hamlyn Publishing.
External links
*
*
1934 births
Chess grandmasters
German chess players
Chess coaches
National team coaches
IBM employees
Sportspeople from Berlin
Living people
{{Germany-chess-bio-stub