Friedrich (Fritz) Sämisch (20 September, 1896-16 August, 1975) was a German chess Grandmaster.

From 1910 to1914 he learned to be a binder. From 1915 he completed military service in the World War I. He injured seriously twice in the front-line and spent more than two years in a hospital. That time he began to learn chess intensively that he had already „explored” in 1910. From 1918 he participated in competitions, finishing second place in Berlin. In the same year he finished third in the Berlin championship, then, in 1919, he tied for 2-4th place in this event.

In 1921 he won the Vienna Tournament (the first-unofficial-Austrian championship), finishing ahead of Euwe, Breyer, Grünfeld and Tartakower. He placed second behind Ehrhardt Post at Hamburg 1921. In 1923, in Copenhagen he tied for second place behind Aron Nimzowitsch. At Baden-Baden 1925 he finished third after Alexander Alekhine and Akiba Rubinstein.

Maybe his most famous game is his loss against Nimzowitsch at Copenhagen 1923, which is also well-known as the Immortal Zugzwang Game. He played a lot of spectacular games; one of these was his win to Grünfeld at Carlsbad 1929, where he won a brilliancy prize. In this competition he also won against Capablanca. The former world champion lost his one piece in the opening, but did not give up the game (as usually Grandmasters do not do in such cases), however his disadvantage was too much against Sämisch.

He represented the German national team at Hamburg 1930 and the unofficial chess Olympiad of Munich 1936, winning bronze medals on both occasions.

During the World War II he was „the Betreuer” for the troops. He had to keep chess demonstrations and play simultaneous games for the German soldiers all over Europe. When they arrived to Spain to a competition in 1944, he asked the British ambassador that he would play a simultaneous game with the British troops in Gibraltar, but this humorous offer was refused. At the closing banquet of the Madrid Tournament he criticized Adolf Hitler. Probably the „Führer” was not happy because of this and Sämisch was under arrest when he returned to the German border, then he was transported to a concentration camp, although, he had already said these kind of things about the German leader. Previously he had declared the following statement in the Luxor cafe in Prague: „Isn’t Hitler a fool? He thinks he can win the war with the Russians!” According to Grandmaster Ludek Pachman, Prague was filled with the Gestapo, and Sämisch must have had to be overheard at least at the next few tables. I asked him to speak quietly. „You don't agree that Hitler is a fool”' was Sämisch's unconcerned retort.

Nowadays Sämisch is remembered mainly for his innovations in the opening theories. His two famous opening contributions, which are named after him: the King’s Indian variation and the Nimzo-Indian variation.

His highest score was 2665 according to Chessmetrics historical rating.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org; https://de.wikipedia.org;

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