Lothar Schmid

Lothar Schmid
Schmid at Oberhausen in 1961
Full name	Lothar Maximilian Lorenz Schmid
Country	Germany
Born	(1928-05-10)10 May 1928 Radebeul, Dresden, Germany
Died	18 May 2013(2013-05-18) (aged 85) Bamberg, Germany
Title	Grandmaster (1959) ICCF Grandmaster (1959) International Arbiter (1975)
FIDE rating	Inactive
Peak rating	2550 (January 1971)

Lothar Maximilian Lorenz Schmid (10 May 1928 – 18 May 2013) was a German chess grandmaster. He was born in Radebeul near Dresden into a family who were the co-owners of the Karl May Press, which published the German Karl May adventure novels.

He was best known as the chief arbiter at several World Chess Championship matches, in particular the 1972 encounter between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky at Reykjavík. He was also an avid collector of chess books and paraphernalia. It was reputed that he owned the largest known private chess library in the world, as well as a renowned collection of chess art, chess boards and chess pieces from around the globe.

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 Nuernberg the same year. In October 1959, he took second place, behind Unzicker, in Nuernberg (5th FRG-ch).