GM Lothar Schmid

Lothar Schmid was a German chess grandmaster. However, he is better known as the chief arbiter for the 1972 World Chess Championship contested by GMs Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, and won by Fischer. 

Schmid was also the arbiter for the world championship match between GM Anatoly Karpov and GM Viktor Korchnoi in 1978 as well as the 1986 Karpov vs. GM Garry Kasparov match. Schmid’s obituary in The New York Times noted how often he had to step in, in both 1972 and 1978, to save the matches from what was called the players’ “theatrics.”

As a player, Schmid represented West Germany in 11 Chess Olympiads from 1950-74 and won the individual silver medal four times. He earned his GM title in 1959.