César Muñoz Vicuña (1929–2000) was an

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

ian

chess master A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most pres ...

. An amateur, he was an engineer by profession. He played for Ecuador at first board in the fourth World Student Team Chess Championship at

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

1957 (+3 –6 =4), where he beat already reputed Fridrik Olafsson, and

Bent Larsen Jørgen Bent Larsen (4 March 1935 – 9 September 2010) was a Danish chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second-strongest non-Soviet Union, Soviet player, behind ...

. At the

14th Chess Olympiad The 14th Chess Olympiad (), organized by FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. team tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote ...

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

1960 (+9 –3 =7), the unknown Ecuadorian caused a sensation in the preliminaries of the Leipzig Olympiad when he beat

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...

. In 1962, he took second place, behind Olavo Yépez, in Pichincha (ECU-ch); and took seventh place at

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

1969 (zonal; Eleazar Jiménez and Olavo Yépez Obando won).Chessmetrics website
For a number of years he was chair of the Ecuadorean Sports Association, and the Complejo Deportivo César Muñoz Vicuña was named after him.

Notable chess games

Bent Larsen vs César Muñoz, Reykjavík 1957, 4th World Student Team Chess Championship, English, A15, 0-1Robert James Fischer vs César Muñoz, Leipzig 1960, 14th Olympiad, Sicilian, Dragon, Yugoslav Attack, B77, 0-1

Ecuadorian Defeated a 'Hostile Alien Force' that had an IQ Greater than Albert Einstein!

References

Ecuadorian chess players 1929 births 2000 deaths 20th-century chess players Chess Olympiad competitors {{Ecuador-chess-bio-stub