Stefan Witkowski (27 September 1931 – 24 October 2007) was a Polish

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 ...

player who won the

Polish Chess Championship Individual Polish Chess Championship is the most important Polish chess tournament, aiming at selecting the best chess players in Poland. Based on the results of the tournament (mainly), the Polish Chess Federation selects the national and subseque ...

in 1959. He received the

FIDE title 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 ...

of International Master (IM) in 1977.

Chess career

From 1951 to 1979 Stefan Witkowski played eighteen times in the Polish Chess Championship's finals. In 1954 in Łódź he shared first place with

Bogdan Śliwa Bogdan Śliwa (4 February 1922 in Kraków – 16 May 2003) was a Polish chess master. Śliwa won the championship of Poland six times. In 1946, he won the first Polish Chess Championship after World War II in Sopot (5th POL-ch). In 1948, h ...

, but lost additional match and won the silver medal. In 1959 Witkowski reached the Polish champion title after the victory in additional match with Józef Gromek - 4:0. In 1955 he made his debut on the international stage. Tournament in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

he ended in the middle of the table, but won Grandmaster

Vasja Pirc Vasja Pirc () (December 19, 1907 – June 2, 1980) was a Slovenian chess player. He is best known in competitive chess circles as a strong exponent of the hypermodern defense now generally known as the Pirc Defense. Pirc was champion of Yugosl ...

in his chess opening -

Pirc Defence The Pirc Defence (pronounced ) is a chess opening characterised by the response of Black to 1.e4 with 1...d6 and 2...Nf6, followed by ...g6 and ...Bg7, while allowing White to establish a with pawns on d4 and e4. It is named after the Slovenian ...

. Witkowski represented his country in nineteen matches and more than thirty international tournaments. The best results are achieved in the years: 1976 (

Hradec Králové Hradec Králové (; german: Königgrätz) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 91,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected by law as an ...

- second place ) and 1977 (

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

- third place) where he was awarded the

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 ...

(IM) title in 1977. He was a multiple medalist in Polish Team Chess Championship, including eleven gold. Stefan Witkowski played for Poland in

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 and ...

s:OlimpBase :: Men's Chess Olympiads :: Stefan Witkowski
/ref> * In 1958, at fourth board in the

13th Chess Olympiad The 13th Chess Olympiad (german: Die 13. Schacholympiade), organized by FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. team tournament, as well as several o ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

(+6, =2, -4).

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Witkowski, Stefan 1931 births 2007 deaths Polish chess players Chess Olympiad competitors Chess International Masters 20th-century chess players