Lothar Schmid, born on 10 May 1928 in Radebeul, died on 18 May 2013 in Bamberg. After studying law, Lothar Schmid managed the Karl May publishing house in Bamberg together with his brothers from 1951. As a 13-year-old he joined the Radebeul chess club. In 1947, he won the German Youth Championship and moved from Radebeul (Soviet occupation zone) to Bamberg (West Germany) in the same year. In 1954 he won the International Tournament in Zurich and was appointed Grandmaster in 1959. Until the 1970s he was one of the best players in Germany, but as a publisher he always remained an amateur. Between 1950 and 1974 he played for Germany eleven times in Chess Olympiads.
Schmid was also a strong correspondence chess player and was runner-up in the 2nd World Correspondence Chess Championship (1956-1959). He also held the title of correspondence chess grandmaster.
As an arbiter he achieved great fame with his chairing of the 1972 World Championship match Fischer vs. Spassky in Reykjavik. Lothar Schmid was also a chess book collector and owned the most important collection in the world with 50,000 publications.
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