A few days ago, I went round to a neighbour to pick up a parcel that had been left there for me. I happened to mention that it was probably some chess books and was surprised when my neighbour said “Chess? Oh the father of a friend of mine was a good chess player. I think he was even Champion of Mexico!” “Huh? What was his name?” “De Winter I think…he’s a translator”
Intrigued, I went back to my Bat Cave and started to Google him. And indeed, Willy de Winter runs a translation company in Mexico (http://www.traduccionesdewinter.com/servicios.php?lang=es). He was born in 1933 and achieved a career highest rating of 2390 in January 1977. He was awarded an (honorary?) IM title in 2000 although his rating was about 2100 by then. He was Champion of Mexico City in 1968 and Champion of Mexico in 1972. He has published several books on various subjects (mostly non-chess) and seems to have been a major part of Mexican Chess for many years.
His most famous game seems to be from the Lugano Olympiad in 1968 when Mexico took on Russia, with Morelos Castro Aguilar facing the reigning World Champion Petrosian on Board 1 with Black, and De Winter taking on Spassky (the runner-up in 1966) with White on Board 2. The photo above is taken by De Winter during the match so he’s not on it!
Here is the game below. A smooth positional performance by Spassky!
Willy de Winter Gallegos – Boris Spassky
Lugano Olympiad 1968
1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e6 4.g3 Bb4 5.Bg2 0–0 6.Nf3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 d6 8.0–0 Nc6 9.Ba3 Re8 10.Qc2 e5 11.dxe5 dxe5 12.Rfd1 Bd7 13.Nh4 Qc8 14.Bd5+ Kh8 15.Rab1 Nd8
16.Bg2 e4 17.Bf1 Be6 18.e3 g5 19.Ng2 c5 20.Be2 Nf7 21.Qa4 Ne5 22.Qb3 b6 23.Bb2 Qc7 24.Rd2 Bxc4
25.Bxc4 Nf3+ 26.Kh1 Nxd2 27.Qa4 Nxb1 28.Qc2 Red8 29.Qxb1 Rd2 30.Bf1 Rad8 31.Kg1 Rd1 32.Qc2 c4 33.Bc1 Qd7 34.h4 Qd3 35.Qxd3 exd3 36.Ba3 d2 37.Be7 Rxf1+
0–1