Lothar Maximilian Lorenz Schmid (10 May 1928 – 18 May 2013) was a German chessgrandmaster. He was born in Radebeul in Saxony[1][2] into a family who were the co-owners of the
Karl May Press, which published the German Karl May adventure novels.
In 1941, at the age of 13, Schmid won the Dresden chess championship which marked the beginning of his chess career. In 1943, he took second place in Vienna (German Juniors Championship). In June 1947, he tied for first place with Gerhard Pfeiffer in Wiessenfels (SBZ-ch). In April 1948, he tied for second place in Celle when Carl Ahues won. In September 1948, he tied for fourth place at the full German Chess Championship (12th GER-ch) in Essen. The event was won by Wolfgang Unzicker. In May 1949, he took third place in Bad Pyrmont (13th GER-ch). The event was won by Efim Bogoljubow. In August 1949, he tied for first place in Grossröhrsdorf. In October 1955, he was second behind Klaus Darga in Hoechst (third FRG-ch), having won a qualifying event in Nuremberg the same year. In October 1959, he took second place, behind Unzicker, in Nuremberg (5th FRG-ch).
International tournaments and matches
Schmid in 2008
In 1950, he drew a match with Wade in Bamberg, 4–4. In 1951, he won in Travemünde. In 1951–52, he took third place in Hastings (Svetozar Gligorić won). In 1953, he tied for second place behind Esteban Canal in Venice. In 1954, he won in Zürich and at Bad Kissingen. In 1956, he won in Gothenburg. In 1957, he held the fourth place in Dublin; a zonal qualifier tournament won by Luděk Pachman. In 1961, he tied for fourth place in Zürich. In 1963, he tied for second place in Málaga. In 1964, he won the South African Open, held in "The Wilderness". In 1968 in his home town of Bamberg,[3] he tied for second place with Tigran Petrosian who was the world champion at the time, behind Paul Keres, an outcome described by the Oxford Companion to Chess as "Schmid's greatest playing achievement".[3] In 1970, he won the Mar del Plata. In 1971, he finished equal second with two others in Adelaide. In 1979, he tied for third place in Lugano. In 1980, he won the fifth edition of the BBC's The Master Game series, ahead of Viktor Korchnoi and Vlastimil Hort.
He won four individual silver medals (1950, 1952, 1968, 1970) and two team bronze medals (1950, 1964).[4]
Representing his national team, he also competed for the Clare Benedict Cup on twelve occasions. He won nine gold, one silver, and two bronze medals in the period 1957–73.
Schmid was awarded the International Arbiter title in 1975.[1] He was the chief arbiter for the Fischer–Spassky 1972, Karpov–Korchnoi 1978, Kasparov–Karpov 1986 World Championship matches, and for the Fischer–Spassky 1992 'Revenge Match'. All of the matches involved cut-throat battles both on and off the board and required a lot of professionalism to handle. Managing those made Schmid recognized as the world's leading chess arbiter.
Schmid was featured in the 2014 Bobby Fischer biopic Pawn Sacrifice, which depicted the 1972 contest between Fischer and Spassky, played by the actor Brett Watson.
Collector
Among the many rare books he owned was one of only ten copies
that have survived of the first-ever printed chess manual Repetición d'Amores y Arte de Ajedrez, published in Salamanca in 1497.[5]
