tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post2928309609073604163..comments2023-12-28T02:11:22.501+00:00Comments on The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog: Past imperfect IITom Chivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09850710685193416732noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-58270092836624875612015-07-08T12:30:21.171+01:002015-07-08T12:30:21.171+01:00Wolfgang Pietzch actually became a GM at a time wh...Wolfgang Pietzch actually became a GM at a time when the title was still quite an exclusive one (far more so than today) He is almost forgotten now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-71814077110722949202015-07-08T10:39:19.986+01:002015-07-08T10:39:19.986+01:00I did a check as to where Uhlmann played in the ea...I did a check as to where Uhlmann played in the early 1960s. He doesn't appear to have played in a NATO country until Hastings in 1965-66. <br /><br />I had to look up the names of other GDR players on the Olimpbase site. One of them Pietzsch played in a tournament at Dortmund in 1961, but after that only Eastern or neutral venues. Cuba, for the Capablanca Memorial, seems to have been a favoured destination.<br /><br />RdCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-69631397740729519542015-07-08T10:10:18.232+01:002015-07-08T10:10:18.232+01:00The article I linked to via Google Books says that...The article I linked to via Google Books says that the policy ceased to be in any way workable after the IOC recognised the GDr in tie for the 1968 Olympics. (Prior to that there was an all-German team, which seems to have been the case in other sports too.) Shortly after that the West German government changed its approach to the GDR anyway.<br /><br />What the article doesn't do in any particular detail is go through examples of the policy being implemented, or not being implemented, in sport <i>after</i> the immediate aftermath of the Wall going up, i.e. 1961-2. It <i>does</i> give an example or two of events being transferred from NATO countries because the visas restrictions meant they couldn't be properly organised there. Oddly though I note that the 1966 Women's Olympiad was held in Oberhausen, West Germany - and an East German team competed, <a href="http://www.olimpbase.org/1966w/1966fa.html" rel="nofollow">coming third</a>.ejhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-63787572054473586792015-07-08T08:51:06.251+01:002015-07-08T08:51:06.251+01:00I wonder when the policy was quietly dropped. Uhlm...I wonder when the policy was quietly dropped. Uhlmann for one, reappears in Western events not so long after. Perhaps it was realised that if you denied visas to GDR residents, you were helping to enforce their own government's policy of no travel to the West introduced by the Berlin Wall and not overturned until 1989. <br /><br />RdCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com