Walter Niephaus


Walter Niephaus was a German chess master.

Biography

Born in Mörs am Niederrhein, he won Frankfurt City Championship in March 1942, won ahead of Fritz Sämisch and Ludwig Rellstab at Bad Elster in May 1942.
He took 11th at Bad Oeynhausen 1942, and won ahead of Klaus Junge at Leipzig 1942. In that year, he beat Alexander Alekhine in several simultan games.
After World War II, he shared 1st with Tröger at Kirchheim/Teck
1947, tied for 9-10th in Kassel, took 3rd in Riedenburg, finished 1st ahead of Bogoljubow in Heringen, tied for 5-7th in Weidenau, and shared 2nd, behind Rellstab, in Stuttgart. In 1948, he tied for 3rd-5th in Bad Nauheim and 4-5th in Essen, both won by Wolfgang Unzicker.
In 1949, he won in Offenbach, shared 10th in Bad Pyrmont, and tied for 6-8th in Heidelberg. In 1950, he tied for 14-15th in Bad Pyrmont, and took 3rd in Saarbrücken. In 1951, he took 3rd in Augsburg, took 2nd in Saarbrücken, both won by Bogoljubow, and took 9th in Düsseldorf. He tied for 7-9th at Leipzig 1953, shared 1st at Bad Salzuflen 1954, took 4th at Hoechst 1955, shared 10th at Wageningen 1957, and took 15th at Nuremberg 1959.
In 1951, he played four matches; lost to Bogoljubow and Herbert Heinicke, and won against Schifferdecker and O'Kelly de Galway.
Niephaus represented West Germany in 12th Chess Olympiad at Moscow 1956, scoring +5 –2 =3 at first reserve board. He also played for FRG in friendly matches against Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Switzerland and Austria, in the Clare Benedict Cup at Bern 1957 and Lugano 1959, and in the European Chess Team Championship at Oberhausen 1961.