Joaquim Durão
Joaquim Manuel Durão Leal ( born October 25, 1930 in Lisbon ) is a Portuguese chess master and functionary.
He learned chess at the age of 11 years, his first serious tournament game he played in 1947 Later he won 13 times the national championship of Portugal:. . 1955, 1956, 1958-1962, 1964, 1965, 1970, 1972 and 1973 He is a Portuguese record holder. He was a player of Sporting Lisbon and Benfica.
He participated in several area tournaments: 1957 in Dublin, he was ranked 14, 1960 in Madrid, ranked 15, 1962 in Torremolinos, ranked 10, 1963 in Enschede on 13th, 1966 in The Hague, ranked 15, 1969 in Praia da Rocha number 14 and 1975 in Caorle reaching number 1 in addition, he starred in numerous international tournaments and traveled to over 80 countries. In Germany, he won a tournament in Detmold with 5.5 points out of 7 games in April 1966.
Between 1958 and 1982 he took part in ten Chess Olympiads, four times (1958, 1960, 1966 and 1974 ), he played on top board. Overall, he scored 78 points out of 151 games. Among his best performances include a win over the large Czech champion Jan Smejkal at the Olympic Games 1972 in Skopje. It is the only Portuguese chess player he was up against the U.S. Grandmaster Bobby Fischer at the Chess Olympiad 1966 in Havana.
In 1975 he was awarded as the first player in his country the title of International Master. His best historical Elo rating of 2447, he reached in June 1979. Since 1985 he is also International Referee.
In the Senior World Championships in 1991 in Bad Wörishofen he came in at number 9, 1994 in Biel at No. 15, 1999 Glad Bach on 60th Place
He was several times President of the Portuguese Chess Federation Federação Portuguesa de Xadrez. 1968-1973, 1988-1997 and 2005-2007 From 1996 to 2001 he was also vice president of the Portuguese Sports Association Assembleia Geral da Confederação do Desporto de Portugal. He also works for the worker Sportbund Confédération Sportive Internationale du Travail.
From 1982 to 1996 he belonged to the Executive Committee of the World Chess Federation FIDE in the last two years as its vice president. In the FIDE presidential election in 2006, he supported Bessel Kok Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov against incumbent.
For his contributions to the game of chess, he was awarded by President Jorge Sampaio with the Ordem do Mérito Comendador.