Arturo Pomar Salamanca (born September 1, 1931, Palma de Mallorca) is a Spanish chess Grandmaster (GM).[1]
A chess prodigy (he won the championship of the Balearic Islands at the age of 11),[2] and a pupil of Alexander Alekhine, he became quite famous. He drew a game with his teacher at the age of thirteen, becoming the youngest player ever to draw with a reigning World Champion at a normal time control. His record still stands.[3] The game itself was an exciting "back and forth" affair, with Pomar actually managing to outplay the World Champion in the endgame and reach a winning ending. However, inexact play allowed Alekhine to draw in a game that lasted over 70 moves. During the war years, Pomar also had the opportunity to play Alekhine in some other tournament games, which he lost, and the great Estonian GM Paul Keres at least once; Keres won.
In October 1943, he took 11th in Madrid (Paul Keres won). In 1944, he took 5th in Gijón (Alekhine won). In 1945, he tied for 4-5th in Madrid (Alekhine won); took 4th in Gijón (Antonio Rico won); and shared 3rd in Almeria (F. López Núñez and Alekhine won).[4]
After World War II, he shared sixth place at the 1946 London tournament (Herman Steiner won) and won a short match against Jacques Mieses (1.5 : 0.5) there. He tied for 12-13th at Barcelona 1946 (Miguel Najdorf won); tied for 15-16th at Mar del Plata 1949 (Hector Rossetto won); won at Santa Fe 1949; tied for 2nd-3rd, behind Paul Michel, at Rosario 1949; shared 1st at Paris 1949; tied for 2nd-3rd at Gijon 1950; took 15th at Madrid 1951 (Lodewijk Prins won); took 14th at Bad Pyrmont 1951 (zonal); took 2nd at Hollywood 1952; tied for 1st-2nd at New Orleans 1954 (US Open); won at Gijón 1955;[5] tied for 2nd-3rd at Madrid 1957; won at Santander 1958; shared 1st with Francisco José Pérez at Madrid 1959.
In 1960, he shared first with Svetozar Gligorić, Lajos Portisch and Jan Hein Donner in Madrid (zonal) and tied for 2nd-3rd in play-off there. He tied for 1st-2nd at Torremolinos 1961; tied for 11-12th in Stockholm 1962 (interzonal, Bobby Fischer won); took 5th at Enschede 1963 (zonal, Gligorić won); won at Málaga 1964; took 4th at Málaga 1965 (Antonio Medina won); shared 1st with Alberic O'Kelly de Galway and Klaus Darga at Palma de Mallorca 1965; took 2nd, behind Mikhail Botvinnik, at Amsterdam 1966 (IBM tournament); took 2nd, behind Mikhail Tal at Palma de Mallorca 1966; tied for 10-12th at Beverwijk 1967 (Boris Spassky won); took 8th 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).[6]
He was seven times Spanish Champion (1946, 1950, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962, and 1966), and four times Sub-Champion (1951, 1956, 1964, and 1969).[7]
Pomar played twelve times for Spain in Chess Olympiads:
He won individual bronze medal at Leipzig 1960.[8]
Awarded the IM title in 1950 and GM title in 1962.