Klaus Darga

Klaus Viktor Darga (born 24 February 1934) is a German chess grandmaster.[1]

Klaus Darga
Darga in 1963
Full nameKlaus Viktor Darga
CountryGermany
Born24 February 1934 (1934-02-24) (age 86)
Berlin, Germany
TitleGrandmaster (1964)
FIDE rating2453 (February 2021) [inactive]
Peak rating2540 (July 1971)

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 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[2].His best performance is held to be the 1967 Winnipeg tournament, where he also tied for first place with Bent Larsen, whom he beat, ahead of joint Boris Spassky and Paul Keres.

He was awarded the title of International Master in 1957, and Grandmaster in 1964. He played for West Germany in ten Olympiads between 1954 and 1978, and also served as coach of the German national team. He was second reserve for the World team in the 1970 Match of the Century between the Soviet Union and the rest of the world, but did not play any games in the match.

His favourite openings as White were the English Opening and the Ruy Lopez. As Black he often played the Sicilian Defence.

Notable games

Personal life

After his retirement as a chess professional, Darga became a computer programmer for IBM.

References
  1. Fischer, Johannes (24 February 2014). "Klaus Darga wird 80" (in German). ChessBase.
  2. Pedro Méndez Castedo and Luis Méndez Castedo (2019). The Gijón International Chess Tournaments, 1944-1965. McFarland. pp. pags. 171-188.
  • Edward R. Brace (1977), An Illustrated Dictionary of Chess, London: Hamlyn Publishing.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.