Tunç Hamarat
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| Tunç Hamarat | ||
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| Tunç Hamarat | ||
| Full name | Tunç Hamarat | |
| Country | Austria | |
| Born | December 1, 1946 Istanbul, Turkey |
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| Title | Grandmaster | |
Tunç Hamarat (born 1946 in Istanbul, Turkey) is a Turkish chess player living in Austria and the 16th International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) World Champion in 2004.
Born on December 1, 1946 in Istanbul, Hamarat attended the Austrian St. Georgs-Kolleg high school in Istanbul, and then graduated in Physics from the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) in Ankara. In 1972, he moved to Vienna, Austria for his Master's degree in Physics Engineering at the Vienna University of Technology there. In 1976, he went temporarily back to İzmir, Turkey for military service. Since 1972 he has been living in Austria and has been an Austrian citizen since 1994. Recently, he is working for a telecommunication company in Vienna.
During the 16th ICCF World Championship, he had amassed an unassailable 11 points out of 15 games with one game remaining. Hamarat was really deadly on the black side of the Sicilian Sveshnikov, beating former CC World Champion Horst Rittner of Germany and Greek International Master Spyros Kofidis with it. His score of 11/15 is remarkable, however more astonishing is a different record: in correspondence chess, Hamarat is supposed to not have lost a single white game in over 40 years. However, this claim formally seems to need modification, as in correspondence chess games date from their year of initiation, and Hamarat has in the meantime lost games playing with the white pieces against Edgar Prang (started in 2001) and Hans Marcus Elwert (started in 2002), though he apparently resigned these only after he became World Champion in January 2004. Still, a record of strictly speaking about 38 years remains impressive! In 'over-the-board chess', he played in the finals of the Turkish championships three times. In Vienna, he played in the top league. But since 1963 his main interest has been correspondence chess, "because I am a perfectionist", he says. In 1997, he won the title of International Grandmaster of Correspondence Chess.
Hamarat also plays backgammon professionally . He is the top player in Austria. He won several titles in international backgammon tournaments. Besides, he is also an expert in jazz music, and acts as a jazz DJ in Vienna.
The Austrian mail authority issued a personified postage stamp with his picture in his honor. The Wiener Zeitung, an important newspaper, named him as the 'Viennese of the month'.
Preceded by Gert Jan Timmerman |
World Correspondence Chess Champion 1999–2004 |
Succeeded by Ivar Bern |
