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Laszlo Witt
L Witt 
 

Number of games in database: 118
Years covered: 1962 to 1987
Highest rating achieved in database: 2485
Overall record: +33 -33 =52 (50.0%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games in the database.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS
With the White pieces:
 Sicilian (18) 
    B40 B28 B32 B94 B92
 English (5) 
    A10 A17 A16 A11
 Caro-Kann (4) 
    B17 B14 B16
 Pirc (4) 
    B08 B07
With the Black pieces:
 Sicilian (12) 
    B94 B98 B93 B21 B23
 Queen's Pawn Game (5) 
    D02 E10 E00 D00 A46
 King's Indian Attack (5) 
    A07 A08
 Sicilian Najdorf (4) 
    B94 B98 B93 B90
Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   L Witt vs K B McAlpine, 1966 1-0
   R Zuk vs L Witt, 1972 0-1
   L Day vs L Witt, 1969 0-1

NOTABLE TOURNAMENTS: [what is this?]
   Montreal Invitational (1980)
   Quebec Championship (1982)
   Canadian Championship (1969)
   Canadian Championship (1972)
   Canadian Championship (1963)
   Havana Olympiad qual-5 (1966)
   Siegen Olympiad qual-2 (1970)
   Havana Olympiad Final-B (1966)

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   1972 Canadian championship by gauer


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LASZLO WITT
(born Apr-02-1933, died Dec-27-2005, 72 years old) Hungary (federation/nationality Canada)

[what is this?]

An IM, Laszlo, or Leslie, represented Canada as high as 3rd board at 3 Olympiads (1964-66 (the former as captain) and 1970), accumulating 18.5 points in 39 team games, and won the 1962 Canadian Open with a perfect score. He won the Montreal speed chess championship with a score of 6.5/7 in both 1963 and 1965 (the former had a field of 28 players playing September; the latter a field of 25 players attending in November to play at 10 seconds/move)(3) and won the Ontario open at Kingston with a score of 5.5/6 in a field of 62 players in May 1965. In October 1967, he and Jules Therien shared 1st (both scoring 6.5/7) in another Montreal blitz championship.

References / Sources:

(1) http://www.olimpbase.org/, (2) http://www.chess.ca/, (3) http://canbase.fqechecs.qc.ca/hist6...

Wikipedia article: Laszlo Witt

Last updated: 2019-04-02 02:11:52

Try our new games table.

 page 1 of 5; games 1-25 of 118  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. M Schulman vs L Witt  0-1371962Canadian OpenB94 Sicilian, Najdorf
2. L Witt vs Z Vranesic  0-1411963Canadian ChampionshipB95 Sicilian, Najdorf, 6...e6
3. L Witt vs A Patrick  1-0251963Canadian ChampionshipA22 English
4. H Yanofsky vs L Witt  ½-½461963Canadian ChampionshipB29 Sicilian, Nimzovich-Rubinstein
5. R Hirsch vs L Witt  ½-½181963Canadian ChampionshipC01 French, Exchange
6. L Witt vs M Schulman  1-0371963Canadian ChampionshipC47 Four Knights
7. A Kalotay vs L Witt  ½-½141963Canadian ChampionshipA16 English
8. L Joyner vs L Witt  ½-½111963Canadian ChampionshipE66 King's Indian, Fianchetto, Yugoslav Panno
9. L Witt vs W Hoover  1-0301963Canadian ChampionshipB23 Sicilian, Closed
10. P Vaitonis vs L Witt  ½-½301963Canadian ChampionshipD02 Queen's Pawn Game
11. L Witt vs G Fuster  ½-½631963Canadian ChampionshipB32 Sicilian
12. L Witt vs D Allan  1-0411963Canadian ChampionshipA07 King's Indian Attack
13. E Macskasy vs L Witt  ½-½671963Canadian ChampionshipE06 Catalan, Closed, 5.Nf3
14. L Witt vs Yanofsky  0-1651963Canadian ChampionshipB92 Sicilian, Najdorf, Opocensky Variation
15. I Lipnowski vs L Witt  ½-½111963Canadian ChampionshipA08 King's Indian Attack
16. L Witt vs Suttles  ½-½311963Canadian ChampionshipB06 Robatsch
17. L Witt vs M Solmundarson  ½-½311964Tel Aviv Olympiad qual-6B16 Caro-Kann, Bronstein-Larsen Variation
18. L Witt vs E Perez Gosalbes  ½-½301964Tel Aviv Olympiad Final-AB14 Caro-Kann, Panov-Botvinnik Attack
19. L Witt vs W Balcerowski  ½-½321964Tel Aviv Olympiad Final-AB08 Pirc, Classical
20. B Wexler vs L Witt  1-0411964Tel Aviv Olympiad Final-AA06 Reti Opening
21. L Witt vs A Bisguier  ½-½361964Tel Aviv Olympiad Final-AC50 Giuoco Piano
22. L Prins vs L Witt  ½-½421964Tel Aviv Olympiad Final-AD00 Queen's Pawn Game
23. L Witt vs J Flesch  ½-½291964Tel Aviv Olympiad Final-AB42 Sicilian, Kan
24. D Mohrlok vs L Witt  ½-½411964Tel Aviv Olympiad Final-AB12 Caro-Kann Defense
25. L Witt vs Z Milev  ½-½301964Tel Aviv Olympiad Final-AC55 Two Knights Defense
 page 1 of 5; games 1-25 of 118  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Witt wins | Witt loses  

Kibitzer's Corner
Jan-17-06  EmperorAtahualpa: Apparently Laszlo Witt has passed away on December 27, 2005.
Jan-18-06  EmperorAtahualpa: Looking at his first name, I assume he was of Hungarian origin? Or of Hungarian ethnicity at least?
Jan-18-06  sleepkid: ...obituary here: http://members3.boardhost.com/echep...
Jan-18-06  EmperorAtahualpa: Indeed, on the obituare <sleepkid> provided (thanks!), it is written that Lazslo Witt emigrated from Hungary in 1956.

Now I am wondering if his emigration had anything to do with the 1956 Hungarian Revolt?

Jan-18-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  IMlday: Yes, the Budapest revolt resulted in all the Soviet Border Patrol troops being called into Budapest. For a day, the border was open and lots of advnturesome Hungarians emigrated (spontaneously!) to the West. Canada got four major chess-players: Witt, Elod Macskasy, Geza Fuster and young (then) Andy Kalotay. Eventually they all made 60's-1970 Canadian Olympic teams.
Jan-19-06  EmperorAtahualpa: Thank you for that info, Mr. Day. Laszlo Witt must have had an exciting life!
Jan-31-06  fishsanwitt: Thank you for all the kind words about my father, Laszlo (Leslie) Witt.

His obituary is online at the Montreal Gazette site, under 'Remembering' and there is also a guestbook that can be signed.

Sylvia Sankey (nee Witt)

Feb-01-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  IMlday: From my column:
Leslie Witt has died at the age of 73. The International Master from Scarborough had his peak years in the 1960's. The Canadian Open in Ottawa, 1962 was my first rated event. Witt was in impressive form scoring a perfect 9-0 'picket fence'. He had come to Canada after escaping Hungary during the brief revolt of 1956. Settling in Montreal he worked in electronics. Witt won the Quebec Championship many times and played for our Olympic teams at Tel Aviv 1964, Havana 1966 and Siegen 1970. His best score came in Cuba, +7=7-4. FIDE awarded him the IM title in 1969. One memorable event was the CNE Open in Toronto, 1971 where there were a lot of players and only six rounds. American Grandmasters Pal Benko and Robert Byrne shared first at 6-0 while Witt and then World Champion Boris Spassky shared third at 5.5-.5. I was Witt's last round victim. I had also lost to him in the 1969 Canadian Closed where he surprised me with the defence 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6!? 3.d4 Bg7, the Pterodactyl line which later became one of my own favourites. My first draw with him came at the 1972 Canadian Closed where he surprised me again with 1.e4 b6!?. With White he often played quite positionally, but one never knew what weird ideas he would come up with for Black. A game Bohatirchuk-Witt from a mid-sixties Ottawa-Montreal match started 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 d6 4.Nc3 c6 5.Bc4 b5!? 6.Nxb5!? d5 7.Bb3 dxe4 8.Ng5 f5 with crazy complications and an eventual draw. In 1974 there was a match tournament for Olympic qualification between Witt, Vlad Dobrich and Leon Piasetski. Youth prevailed with Piasetski taking the spot. By 1979 Montreal had a new top dog: Kevin Spraggett. He defeated Witt in a match for the championship. From the 1980 Montreal Invitational:
White: L. Witt Black: K. Spraggett
King's Indian Defence
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 O-O 5.d4 d6 6.Nf3 Nbd7 7.O-O e5 8.e3 [Unusual.]
8..Re8 9.Qc2 c6
[Combative compared to 9..exd4 10.exd4 Nb6 equalizing in Bogolubov-Pilnik, 1952.] 10.Rd1 e4 11.Nd2 d5 12.b4!
[Not the superficially appealing 12.cxd5 cxd5 13.Nb5?! because then 13..Re6! is strong.] 12..a6 13.a4 Nf8 14.Ba3 Ne6 15.b5 Ng5 16.bxc6 bxc6 17.Rdb1 Nh3+ 18.Bxh3! [After 18.Kf1 Nxf2!? is an interesting gambit.]
18..Bxh3 19.Rb7 Bc8 20.Rb2 Bf5 21.Rab1 Ng4 22.Bc5 Bh6 23.Nf1! [Again avoiding any gambits.]
23..dxc4 24.Rb6 Qc8 25.a5 Be6 26.Qa4 Qd8 27.Qxc6 Rc8 28.Qa4 Bf8 29.Bxf8 Rxf8 30.Rxa6 [Winning a pawn.]
30..Qf6 31.Rb2 Qf3 32.Qc2 Bf5 33.Rab6 Rfe8 34.a6 Nh6 35.Qe2 Qxe2 36.Rxe2 Re6 37.Reb2 Kg7 38.Nd2 Ra8 39.Rxe6 Bxe6 40.Ra2 Bc8 41.a7 Black resigned.
Feb-13-06  fishsanwitt: Today's Toronto Star (Feb. 13) has an article on my father, Laszlo Witt. I just thought people might be interested.

Thank you.

Sylvia Sankey

Feb-26-06  PhilFeeley: Too bad we don't have any of the Fischer games, especially the win by Witt. It looks like they were all rapid plays.
Feb-26-06  PhilFeeley: That's a pretty good story about the Witt family. Everyone should read it.
Feb-28-06  SickedChess: can someone put the URL link about this player?
Mar-01-06  Resignation Trap: <SickedChess> Here's the URL: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co... .
Mar-31-07  gauer: Laszlo (Leslie) Witt (1933-2005)

International Master 1969. Canadian Open Champion 1962 with a perfect score. Represented Canada at Olympiads (1964, 1966, 1970).

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