Alois Nagler

Alois Nagler (* 8 December 1907 in Zurich; † 30 May 1996 in Zurich) was a Swiss chess composer. He also rendered outstanding services to Swiss chess as an official.

Nagler learnt to play chess at the age of 19 from his future wife Angelina. He devoted himself mainly to chess composition and is the author of over 250 chess exercises. A selection of these was published as a book in 1951. From 6 February 1941 to 23 January 1981, he headed the chess section of the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. Prior to this, he had already initiated a chess column in the Zurich weekly magazine In freie Stunden and ran it for several decades.[1] Until 1974, he was the Swiss delegate to the FIDE Commission for Problem Chess.

From 1953 to 1962, Nagler was president of the Zurich Chess Society, which he had joined in 1929. During his term of office, several international tournaments were organised in Zurich, including the 1953 Candidates Tournament. In 1953, he also founded a tournament series named after the chess patron Clare Benedict, the Clare Benedict Cup. From 1965 to 1969, he was Central President of the Swiss Chess Federation and became an honorary member in 1959.

He was appointed International Arbiter in 1954 and served in this capacity at the 1956, 1958 and 1964 Chess Olympiads. He played a key role in the organisation of the 1968 Chess Olympiad in Lugano.

He was an insurance salesman by profession and managed the IT department of the Swiss Life Insurance and Pension Company for several years until his retirement in 1972. He had a daughter and a son.

In 1974, he established the Foundation for the Promotion of Youth Chess in Switzerland (JSS).

In 1998, a tournament was held in his honour in Zurich, in which a Swiss selection (Richard Forster, Werner Hug, Yannick Pelletier, Florian Jenni and Roger Moor) played against an international team of old masters (Viktor Korchnoi, Vasily Smyslov, Bent Larsen, Svetozar Gligorić and Wolfgang Unzicker) in classical chess. The legends won clearly with 31:19.

Source: wikipedia.de