As a youth, he was considered a chess prodigy having begun playing at the age of eight and by 17 he was the top junior player in Hungary.
Witt was part of a talented group of young Hungarian players that included Levente Lengyel, Gyozo Forintos, Istvan Bilek, Egon Varnusz and Lajos Portisch.
In 1956, Witt emigrated to Canada following the failed Hungarian Revolution. He was competing in a tournament in Vienna, Austria at that time. Witt's wife Viola and young daughter Sylvia fled Hungary and joined him in an Austrian refugee camp; by early 1957 the Witts, a Jewish family, had reached Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Viola had a relative. The Witts made their new home in Montreal. Witt made his career in the electronics industry.
Witt was one of four very strong Hungarian chess players who emigrated to Canada around that time: Geza Fuster, Dr. Elod Macskasy and Andrew Kalotay.
The latter, Andrew Kalotay. is a Hungarian-born finance professor. In 1968, he received a PhD in statistics from the University of Toronto.
He represented Canada as alternate in the 1966 Olympiad and accumulated 4 points in 10 team games. He apparently abandoned OTB chess in favor of problem composing. He composed mostly helpmates and one of his best known works was in collaboration with Pal Benko.
Witt represented Canada at the Chess Olympiad in 1964 at Tel Aviv on the second reserve board and scored 4-6; 1966 at Havana on board 3 where he scored 10.5-7.5 and 1970 at Siegen on 4th board where he scored 4-7.
Witt won the Canadian Open Championship in 1962 with a perfect score.
He competed in the Canadian Championship three times. He placed 7th at Winnipeg 1963 (Zonal) with 8.5-6.5.
In the 1969 Canadian Championship he tied for 4-5th with 11.5-5.5 and earned the IM title.
At Toronto 1972 (also a Zonal), he placed 6th with 9.5-7.5.
Witt moved to Toronto in the early 1980s, and lived there the rest of his life. He gradually withdrew from serious chess competition, with his last strong event in 1987.
In later years, he enjoyed playing backgammon and painting in water colors, where he was considered a gifted amateur by his teachers.
In the following game played in the 1969 Canadian Championship Witt absolutely crushes his opponent, Lawrence Day. The tournament ended in a tie between Duncan Suttles and Zvonko Vranesic; Suttle won the playoff.
International Master Lawrence Alexander Day was born in Kitchener Ontario on February 1, 1949. He participated in the 1967 World Junior Championship and won the Canadian championship in 1991. He is a member of the Canadian Chess Hall of Fame.
Lawrence Day–Laszlo Witt0–1B77Canadian ChampionshipPointe-Claire CAN08.1969Stockfish 15.1
Sicilian Dragon: Yugoslav Attack 1.e4 c5 2.f3 g6 3.d4 g7 4.c3 cxd4 5.xd4 c6 6.e3 d6 7.c4 f6 8.f3 0-0 9.d2 a6 10.0-0-0 a5 11.b3 b5 11...xb3+ 12.cxb3 b5 13.b1 d7 14.h4 b4 15.ce2 a5 16.h5 a4 17.hxg6 axb3 18.gxh7+ White had what proved to be a winning attack. Jakovenko,D
(2564)-Evdokimov,A (2432) Krasnoyarsk 2003 12.h6 12.h4 c4 13.xc4 bxc4 14.b1 e8 15.g4 d7 16.h5 White has the beginnnings of a dangerous attack.
Velikanov,A (2067)-Yee,M (2142) Las Vegas 2008 12...xh6 12...b4 is not
quite satisfactory. 13.d5 xb3+ 14.cxb3 xd5 15.exd5 a5 16.xg7 xg7 17.c6 White is better. Djurasevic,B-Arnlind,E Munich 1958 12...b7 also
proved unsatisfactory. 13.h4 xb3+ 14.axb3 c8 15.h5 e5 16.xg7 xg7 17.de2 White has the better position. Thorsteinsson,B (2219)-Olafsson,D (2304)
Reykjavik ISL 2004 12...d7 is solid. 13.h4 xb3+ 14.cxb3 b4 15.ce2 a5 16.h5 xh6 17.xh6 a4 with equal chances. Crosa,M (2242)-Ricardi,P (2488)
Buenos Aires 2000 13.xh6 e5 This drives the N back and gains time for a
Q-side attack. The backward d-Pawn is not an issue because it is only a
potential target that white will find difficut to exploit. 14.de2 b4 15.d5 This is wrong because after the exchange on d5 white's possibilities are
severly limited. 15.a4 This move is better. xb3+ 16.axb3 e6 with
about equal chances. 15...xb3+ 16.axb3 xd5 17.exd5 After this white's
position is devoid of counterplay. Somewhat better was capturing with the R
when at least he can hopefully put pressur eon the d-Pawn. c7 This
threatens to win with ...Bf5 and so forces white to withdraw the Q. Note that
white has quickly managed to reduce his attacking chances to zero. 18.d2 a5 19.g4 This is little kre than a gesture and it's as far as white "attack"
gets. b6 20.b1 a4 21.bxa4 xa4 22.b3 a5 23.b2 a6 24.g3 a8 25.e4 This allows black a mate in 13 moves, but it was too late to save the game
anyway. 25.a1 b7 26.e4 a7 27.xa5 xa5 and the game is over. 25...a2+ A nice touch. 26.c1 26.xa2 a5+ 27.b2 a3+ 28.b1 d3 and mate cannot be prevented. 26...c8 26...a5 27.f2 c8 28.f6+ h8 29.e4 a3+ 30.d2 cxc2+ 31.e1 xf2 32.b1 fe2+ 33.d1 xb3+ 34.xb3 a1+ 35.b1 xb1# 27.g2 a5 28.dg1 a1+ 29.d2 xc2+
Prettier than mating in 2! 29...xd5+ 30.e3 d4# 30.xc2 30.e3 b6+ 31.c5 xc5+ 32.e4 d4# 30...a2# 0–1
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