Tunç Hamarat

Tunc Hamarat (in Turkish: Tunç Hamarat) is the 16th International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) World Champion in 2004. He was born on December 1, 1946 in Istanbul, Turkey. Hamarat attended the Austrian 'St. Georg-Kolleg' high school in Istanbul, and then graduated in Physics from the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) in Ankara. In 1972, he moved to Vienna, Austria for his Master's degree in Physics engineering at the Technical University there. In 1976, he went temporarily back to Izmir, Turkey for military service. He lives since 1972 in Austria and has Austrian citizenship since 1994. Recently, he is working for a telecommunication company in Vienna.

Hamarat won the third title in correspondence chess championship before. During the 16th ICCF World Championship, he had amassed an unassailable 11 out of 15 points with one game remaining. Hamarat was really deadly on the black side of the Sicilian Sveshnikov, beating former CC World Champion Horst Rittner of Germany and Greek International Master Spyros Kofidis with it. His score of 11/15 is remarkable, however more astonishing is a different record: in correspondence chess, Hamarat has not lost a single white game in the last 40 years! In 'over-the-board chess', he was in the finals of the Turkish championships three times. In Vienna, he played in the top league. But his main interest is correspondence chess since 1963, "because I am a perfectionist" he says. In 1997, he won the title of Grandmaster of Correspondence Chess.

Hamarat plays also professionally backgammon. He is the top player in Austria. He won several titles in international backgammon tournaments. Besides, he is also an expert in jazz music, and acts as a jazz DJ in Vienna.

The Austrian mail authority issued a personified postage stamp with his picture in his honor. The Wiener Zeitung, an important newspaper, named him as the 'Viennian of the month'.