Klaus Darga, who beat Larsen, Portisch and Spassky, turns 90

by André Schulz
2/24/2024 – Klaus Darga was one of the best German players in the 1960s and 1970s. Darga represented Germany in team events multiple times and belonged to the extended world elite before he gave up his career for professional reasons around 1970. He later worked as a national coach for the German Chess Federation. Today he is celebrating his 90th birthday, making him the oldest chess grandmaster in the world.

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Klaus Darga, born on 24 February 1934 in Berlin, was one of the best German chess players in the post-war period. He had already learnt chess as a six-year-old, but only started playing tournaments after the end of the war. His first tournament was the Berlin Youth Championship in 1949, where he shared first place but lost the play-off for the title against Paul Bares. In 1950, he took part in the Berlin Championships and finished in a good seventh place out of 18 participants. The 16-year-old’s combative attitude can be seen in the results of the tournament. Out of 17 games, only two ended in a draw.

In 1951, Klaus Darga played in two German U20 Championships. In Leipzig, he tied for third place with Edmund Budrich behind Wolfgang Uhlmann and Reinhart Fuchs. In Hamburg, he won the title of West German youth champion ahead of Walter Metternich. At the 1952 Berlin Championships, Klaus Darga was ‘best of the rest’ behind Rudolf Teschner (14 points from 16 games) with 11 points.

The following year, Darga took part in the U20 World Championships and won his preliminary group ahead of James Sherwin, Jonathan Penrose and Bent Larsen, among others.

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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.c3 Bc5 10.Nbd2 0-0 11.Bc2 Nxf2 12.Rxf2 f6 13.Nf1 Bxf2+ 14.Kxf2 fxe5 15.Kg1 Qd6 16.Ng5 Bf5 17.Bb3 Ne7 18.Ne3 Rad8 19.Bd2 c5 20.Nxf5 Nxf5 21.Qe2 h6 22.Ne4 Qb6 23.Be3 Rf7 24.Bxc5 Qc6 25.Rd1 Rdd7 26.Qd3 Kh8 27.Bxd5 Qg6 28.Bxf7 Rxd3 29.Bxg6 Rxd1+ 30.Kf2 Nh4 31.Bf7 Rb1 32.Ba3 Rc1 33.Bb3 a5 34.Ng3 Ra1 35.Bd5 Rd1 36.Be4 g6 37.Be7 Rd2+ 38.Ne2 Nf5 39.Bf6+ Kh7 40.Bxe5 Rxb2 41.g4 Ne7 42.h4 Rxa2 43.h5 Ra4 44.Kf3 Rc4 45.Bf6 Rc7 46.Nf4 a4 47.Nd5 Nxd5 48.hxg6+ Kg8 49.Bxd5+ Kf8 1–0
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Darga,K-Larsen,B-1–01953C82World U20-ch02 Preliminaries B3

Darga also had good results against Larsen in later years. In the A final, he shared first place with Oscar Panno. However, the title went to the Argentinian due to the better tiebreak score.

Darga, Panno, Olafsson

In 1954, Darga won the Berlin Championship and was called up to the German national team for the first time. He took part in a national triangular match against the Netherlands and Yugoslavia and played on the first reserve board at the Chess Olympiad in Amsterdam. Darga played eleven times and scored 5½ points at his first Chess Olympiad. The German team with Wolfgang Unzicker and Lothar Schmid came fifth.

Between 1954 and 1978, Klaus Darga took part in a total of ten Chess Olympiads. In 1963, he won the bronze medal with the team in Tel Aviv. In 1958 and 1968, Darga was the fourth-best player at his board in the tournament.

In 1960, Klaus Darga was part of the German selection for an international match in Hamburg against the USSR. The competition was played under the Scheveningen system, meaning that every player from one team played against every player from the other team. The German team lost heavily by a 13-51 score. Klaus Darga drew against Boleslavsky, Geller, Kotov and Keres, lost against Tal and Polugaevsky and won his game against Tolush.

In addition to the Chess Olympiads, Darga played in the German team in many European Championships and the Clare Benedict Internationals.

In the course of his career, Klaus Darga played 224 international matches for the FRG team. In 1970, the German Chess Federation awarded him its Golden Badge of Honour and the Silver Laurel Leaf of the Federal President.

In 1980, Darga was the captain of the FRG national team at the Chess Olympiad in Malta. However, the German team only came 25th.

Klaus Darga won the German Individual Championships twice, in 1955 in Frankfurt-Höchst and in 1961 in Bad Pyrmont. Darga had already been awarded the title of International Master in 1957. In 1964, FIDE awarded him the title of Grandmaster.

Klaus Darga was very successful in international tournaments in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1957, he won a tournament in Madrid, ahead of Pomar, Unzicker and O’Kelly.

Madrid 1957

At a tournament in Tarragona in the same year, he came third behind O’Kelly and Rossolimo. At the 1957/58 Christmas Congress in Hastings, Darga finished fourth. In 1961, he finished second behind Pachman in Graz. At the anniversary tournament in Bled in the same year, Darga took a middle place out of 20 participants. His game against Fischer ended in a draw.

In 1962, Darga finished in a tie for third place at the tournament in Sarajevo. At the big 2nd Capablanca Memorial in Cuba in 1963, Darga finished in 7th place out of 22 participants, leaving Wolfgang Uhlmann and others behind him. In 1963, Klaus Darga qualified for the following Interzonal Tournament in Amsterdam in 1964, finishing in a tie for second place at the Zone Tournament in Enschede.

Klaus Darga following Reshevsky’s encounter | Photo: Dutch National Archive

Although he was able to defeat Portisch and Spassky, among others, he only finished in the middle of the field, as he did at the 3rd major Capablanca Memorial in the same year.

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1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.d4 c5 4.e3 d5 5.Nc3 a6 6.cxd5 exd5 7.Be2 Nc6 8.0-0 c4 9.Ne5 Qc7 10.Nxc6 Qxc6 11.e4 Nxe4 12.Nxe4 dxe4 13.d5 Qg6 14.Re1 Bf5 15.Bh5 Qf6 16.f3 Bc5+ 17.Kh1 Qe5 18.fxe4 Bg6 19.Bf3 0-0 20.g3 b5 21.Qe2 f6 22.Bf4 Qe8 23.Rac1 Bd4 24.b3 cxb3 25.axb3 Be5 26.Rc6 Qb8 27.Qe3 Re8 28.d6 Qa7 29.Qxa7 Rxa7 30.Rc7 Raa8 31.Bxe5 fxe5 32.d7 Rf8 33.Bg4 Rad8 34.Rc8 a5 35.Kg1 1–0
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Darga,K-Portisch,L-1–01964D32Interzonal-0619

  

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1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 b6 4.Bg2 Bb7 5.0-0 Be7 6.Nc3 0-0 7.d4 Bb4 8.Qb3 Bxc3 9.Qxc3 d6 10.b3 Nbd7 11.Bb2 Re8 12.Rad1 Rc8 13.Rfe1 Qe7 14.d5 e5 15.Nh4 Nc5 16.f4 Nfd7 17.e3 a5 18.Qc2 f6 19.a3 Ra8 20.Bc3 Qf7 21.Rf1 exf4 22.exf4 a4 23.b4 Nb3 24.Nf5 Nf8 25.Nd4 Nxd4 26.Bxd4 Qg6 27.Qxg6 hxg6 28.Rfe1 Kf7 29.Kf2 Ba6 30.Bf1 f5 31.Rxe8 Rxe8 32.Re1 Rd8 33.Bd3 Nd7 34.b5 Bb7 35.Bc2 Nc5 36.h4 Nb3 37.Bc3 Bc8 38.Re3 Bd7 39.Re1 Rg8 40.Re3 Nc5 41.Bd4 Ra8 42.Ke1 Ne4 43.Bd1 Re8 44.Bxa4 Nxg3 45.Rxe8 Bxe8 46.Bc2 Nh5 47.Be3 Ke7 48.a4 Kd7 49.a5 bxa5 50.Kd2 Ng3 51.Kc3 g5 52.hxg5 Bh5 53.Kb3 Be2 54.Bd2 a4+ 55.Kb4 a3 56.Bb3 Ne4 57.Be3 g6 58.Kxa3 Nc5 59.Bxc5 dxc5 60.Ka4 Bd3 61.Ka5 Be2 62.b6 cxb6+ 63.Kxb6 Kd6 64.Kb7 Bd3 65.Kc8 Be2 66.Kb7 Bd3 67.Ka6 Bf1 68.Ka5 Bd3 69.Ka4 Bf1 70.Ka3 Be2 71.Kb2 Ke7 72.Kc3 Kd6 73.Bc2 Ke7 74.Bd3 Bd1 75.Kd2 Bb3 76.Be2 Kd6 77.Kc3 Ba4 78.Bd3 Bd1 79.Kd2 Bb3 80.Kc1 Ke7 81.Kb2 Bd1 82.Bc2 Be2 83.Kc3 Kd6 84.Ba4 Ke7 85.Bb5 Kd8 86.d6 Bf3 87.Kb3 Bd1+ 88.Ka3 Bc2 89.Bc6 Bd1 90.Ba4 Be2 91.Bb5 Bd1 92.Bc6 Be2 93.Ka4 Bxc4 94.Ka5 Be2 95.Bb5 c4 96.Ba4 1–0
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Darga,K-Spassky,B-1–01964E18Interzonal-061

In 1965, he finished a tournament in Palma de Mallorca in a tie for first place with Pomar and O’Kelly.

Photo: Dutch National Archive

In 1964 and 1967, Klaus Darga played in the Hoogovens tournaments in Wijk aan Zee with good results.

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1.c4 g6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 b6 7.Bd3 Bb7 8.Nh3 c5 9.d5 e6 10.Qd2 exd5 11.cxd5 Ba6 12.Bxa6 Nxa6 13.0-0 Nc7 14.Bh6 b5 15.Bxg7 Kxg7 16.a3 Nd7 17.f4 a5 18.Ng5 b4 19.Ne2 h6 20.Nf3 f5 21.exf5 gxf5 22.Ng3 Kg6 23.Qd3 h5 24.Rae1 Nb6 25.Nxf5 Rxf5 26.g3 1–0
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Darga,K-Ree,H-1–01967E82Hoogovens2

In 1967, together with Bent Larsen, he won the well-attended tournament in Winnipeg, perhaps his greatest success. At the end of the 1960s/beginning of the 1970s, Darga’s tournament appearances became less frequent.

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1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d6 3.g3 Bg4 4.Bg2 Nbd7 5.c4 c6 6.0-0 e5 7.Nc3 Be7 8.h3 Bh5 9.d5 0-0 10.Nh4 Rc8 11.Nf5 Nb6 12.c5 Nbxd5 13.cxd6 Bxd6 14.Nxd6 Qxd6 15.g4 Bg6 16.e4 Rfd8 17.exd5 Nxd5 18.Ne4 Qb4 19.Qe2 Rc7 20.a3 Qe7 21.Re1 Rcd7 22.Bd2 f6 23.Rac1 Qf7 24.Qc4 Kh8 25.Nc5 Rd6 26.Ne4 R6d7 27.Nc5 Rd6 28.b4 h6 29.Ne4 Re6 30.Qb3 b6 31.Rcd1 f5 32.gxf5 Bxf5 33.Ng3 Rf8 34.Qf3 Rf6 35.Nxf5 Rxf5 36.Qg3 Rf6 37.Qxe5 Rg6 38.f4 Nxf4 39.Bxf4 Qxf4 40.Qxf4 Rxf4 41.Rf1 Rc4 42.Rc1 Rxc1 43.Rxc1 Rg3 44.Rxc6 Rxa3 45.b5 Kg8 46.Rc7 h5 47.h4 Ra4 48.Bf1 Kf8 49.Be2 g6 50.Kf2 Rxh4 51.Rxa7 Ke8 52.Rg7 Rf4+ 53.Ke3 Rf6 54.Rxg6 1–0
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Darga,K-Stein,L-1–01969A53IBM10

In 1970, Darga was called up to the world team for the USSR versus the Rest of the World competition, but did not play.

Darga had studied Mechanical Engineering and eventually accepted an offer from IBM to work there as a programmer. In the 1980s and 1990s, he played in team competitions for VfL Sindelfingen, including in the Bundesliga. He played his last tournament match in October 2000 in the Württemberg Oberliga.

From 1989 to 1997, Darga succeeded Sergiu Samarian as national coach for the German Chess Federation.


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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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