Luděk Pachman

Luděk Pachman
Pachman in 1972
CountryCzechoslovakia
West Germany
BornMay 11, 1924
Bělá pod Bezdězem (now Czech Republic)
DiedMarch 6, 2003 (aged 78)
Passau, Germany
TitleGrandmaster (1954)
Peak rating2520 (January 1976)

Luděk Pachman (German: Ludek Pachmann, May 11, 1924 March 6, 2003) was a Czechoslovak-German chess grandmaster, chess writer, and political activist. In 1972, after being imprisoned and tortured almost to death by the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, he was allowed to emigrate to West Germany. He lived the remainder of his life there, and resumed his chess career with considerable success, including playing in the Interzonal in 1976 and winning the West German Championship in 1978.