Arturo Pomar

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Arturo Pomar
Pomar in 1972
Full nameArturo Pomar Salamanca
CountrySpain
Born(1931-09-01)1 September 1931
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Died26 May 2016(2016-05-26) (aged 84)
Barcelona, Spain
TitleGrandmaster

Arturo Pomar Salamanca (1 September 1931 – 26 May 2016) was a Spanish chess player. He was the first Spanish player to be awarded the title of grandmaster (GM), and was a seven-time national champion.[1][2]

Biography

The prodigy

Arturo Pomar (Baarn, 1947)

Pomar was born in Palma de Mallorca and was known in his youth as Arturito.[3][4] Hailed as a chess prodigy,[5] he was runner-up at the Championship of the Balearic Isles when he was 10 years old, and won the title the following year.[6] World Champion Alexander Alekhine spent time in Spain and Portugal after World War II and took an interest in the young Pomar, even giving him a series of special chess lessons.[7] A part of Alekhine's 1946 book ‘’Legado!’’ was devoted to him.[8]

Pomar played his first international tournament at Madrid in October 1943. Narrowly avoiding last place, he defeated

endgame
and reaching a theoretically won position. However, inexact play allowed Alekhine to draw in a game that lasted over 70 moves. Alekhine won the event and Pomar finished fifth.

Pomar's precocity invited comparison with previous prodigies like Paul Morphy, José Raúl Capablanca and Sammy Reshevsky.[3][10][11] In his home country, he became quite famous, appearing in radio interviews and on film.,[6] but as his career progressed, he never quite fulfilled his early promise.[5][11][12]

Spain's first grandmaster

Pomar's best results in international competition probably occurred at the Madrid Zonal of 1960, where he shared first place with Svetozar Gligorić, Jan Hein Donner and Lajos Portisch; at Torremolinos 1961 (first with Gligoric); Malaga 1964 (first, ahead of Portisch); Palma de Mallorca 1966 (second, after Mikhail Tal, ahead of Portisch); and at Malaga 1971 (first).[5] His success in 1960 qualified him for a place at the Stockholm Interzonal tournament of 1962, where he finished 11th= (Fischer won). This was as close as he got to mounting a challenge for the world title.[6]

He was awarded the

International Master title in 1950 and became Spain's first Grandmaster in 1962.[1][2]

Pomar was Spanish champion seven times (1946, 1950, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962, and 1966),[1] and Sub-Champion four times (1951, 1956, 1964, and 1969), a record not surpassed until 2010, by Miguel Illescas.[13]

A prolific tournament player

Close to the end of the war, he tied for fourth/fifth place at Madrid 1945 (Alekhine won); took fourth place at Gijón 1945 (Antonio Rico won); and shared third place at Almería 1945 (F. López Núñez and Alekhine won).

There followed many international appearances. His further results included sixth place at London 1946 (

US Open); won at Gijón 1955;[14] tied for second/third at Madrid 1957; won at Santander 1958; shared first with Francisco José Pérez
at Madrid 1959.

Pomar finished in fifth place at the Enschede Zonal 1963 (Gligorić won); he took fourth at Málaga 1965 (

Alberic O'Kelly de Galway and Klaus Darga at Palma de Mallorca 1965; took second, behind Mikhail Botvinnik, at Amsterdam 1966 (IBM tournament); tied for 10–12th at Beverwijk 1967 (Boris Spassky won); took eighth at Palma de Mallorca 1968 (Viktor Korchnoi won); took 13th at Palma de Mallorca (Bent Larsen won); won at Málaga 1971, tied for 12–14th at Madrid 1973 (Anatoly Karpov
won). He won at Alicante 1975 and ceased playing in serious events around 1985.

A team player

He played for Spain at twelve consecutive Chess Olympiads, and won the individual bronze medal at Leipzig.[15]

Full results:

A career setback

Pomar suffered at least two nervous breakdowns while attending tournaments.[12] At Marianske Lazne in 1965, he completed nine of his fifteen games to finish with a share of last place.[16] At Dundee 1967, he withdrew with fewer than half of his games completed, and his score was cancelled.[17][18] Although he made a good recovery, his later play and results were affected by the experience.[11][12]

Later life

In later life, he was many times a guest of honour, especially at the Chess Olympiad of Calvia, held in 2004 on his birth island. In 2016, FIDE recognized his contribution to chess history with a special prize, following a proposal of the ACP[4]

He died in Barcelona, on 26 May 2016, after a long illness.[2]

Bibliography

Pomar wrote several instructional books in Spanish.

  • Mis cincuenta partidas con maestros (1945)
  • Temas de ajedrez (1956)
  • Las pequeñas ventajas en el final (1958)
  • Ajedrez (1962)
  • El arte de ver la ventaja (1968)
  • Ajedrez elemental (with Vasily Panov) (1971)

Notable chess games

References

  1. ^ a b c "Arturo Pomar Salamanca (1931)". Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2007-08-14.. ajedrez.pastranec.net
  2. ^ a b c Leontxo Garcỉa,Muere Arturo Pomar - El legendario ajedrecista, heptacampeón de España, tenía 84 años El Pais, May 27, 2016 (in Spanish)
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7067-0135-7
    .
  4. ^ a b "Pomar obituary". FIDE. Archived from the original on 2016-10-11. Retrieved 2016-06-01.
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-19-217540-8
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 0709146973
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0-7134-2963-3
    .
  8. ISBN 0-7134-6214-0
    .
  9. ^ Mendez,Pedro, Mendez, Luis. The Gijón International Chess Tournaments. Mcfarland.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ISBN 0-394-48777-X
    .
  11. ^
    ISBN 978-0-9516-3550-6
    .
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-0-1404-6452-8
    .
  13. ^ "Report of Illescas' achievement". Chessbase. 13 September 2010. Retrieved 2016-06-01.
  14. ^ Torneo Cerrado Internacional Archived October 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Ajedrezastur.com. Retrieved on 2012-11-07.
  15. ^ Encyclopedia of Team Chess. OlimpBase (2011-01-01). Retrieved on 2012-11-07.
  16. ISBN 978-0-7864-7573-5
    .
  17. ^ The Times, July 17, 1967 p. 3
  18. ^ Di Felice, p. 375

External links

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