Schmid Lothar Maximilian Lorenz (10.05.1928)

German Grandmaster (1959), the same year he became also a Correspondence Chess Grandmaster. International Arbiter (1974).

Publisher and chess collector. National Master in 1951. The second prize-winner in the German Championships of 1955 and 1959.

Best results: Winner of the international tournaments: Travemunder 1956, Clare Benedict Zurich 1954 and 1964, Göteborg 1956, Malaga 1963, Wilderness 1964, Mar-del-Plata 1970 and 1973, London 1979. Also successful in the following tournaments: Hastings 1951-52, Venice 1953, Zurich 1961, Bamberg 1968 with Tigran Petrosian, Adelaide 1971. Participated in the FIDE Zonal Tournament in Dublin 1957, where he finished fourth, and in the Match USSR-Germany 1960.

In correspondence games, he won the German Championship in 1952, shared the first place in the E. Dickoff Memorial Tournament 1954-56 and came second equal in the World Correspondence Championships 1955-58.

As an Arbiter, he directed the famous World Championship match of 1972 between Bobby Fischer- Boris Spassky, the tumultuous 1978 match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi and the match Anatoly Karpov- Garry Kasparov in 1986. He acted also at the pretenders’ matches in 1971 between Bobby Fischer-Tigran Petrosian and the 1977 match between Viktor Korchnoi-Lev Polugaevsky.

At his residence in Bamberg, Schmidt was the owner of the world’s best private library, having more than 15,000 chess books and also a collection of chess boards and pieces, chess stamps and other chess items.

German record co-holder with Robert Hubner of 11 participations in the Olympiads (1950-1974) with a scoring record of 91½ points out of 138. He was awarded four silver medals for the best individual performance at board 2 in 1950, 1952, 1968 and 1970.

Peak rating: 2550 in 1971.