Rainer Knaak

Rainer Knaak ( born March 16, 1953 in Pasewalk ) is a German chess player.

Rainer Knaak learned chess at the age of five years and made rapid progress. 1966, 1969 and 1970 he was East German champion in his age group. In 1971 he took up a study mathematics, graduated in 1979 with a diploma. In the meantime, he was Grand Master in 1975 and was next to Wolfgang Uhlmann as the best player in the GDR. He won the title of the GDR champion five times (1974, 1978, 1982, 1983 and 1984) and played for East Germany at the Chess Olympiads in 1972, 1988 and 1990.

After the reunification Knaak played in the chess Bundesliga at SG Porz, SV Werder Bremen and at SC Hagen. In 1992, he won the Chess Festival Bad Wörishofen.

Since 1994 he is a full time employee at the company ChessBase.

Family

Rainer Knaak is the son of Hans Knaak, from whom he learned to play chess. He has been married since 1977 and has two children. His brother Joachim Knaak ( born 1951 ) is a chess player.

Publications (selection)

• King's Indian pros and cons (together with Lothar Vogt ), Berlin 1992
• A long chess century: year by year from 1894 to 2000; the book to the CD (along with Burkhard Starke), Hollfeld 2002.