Wladimir Naef (born September 3, 1919 in Moscow; † June 16, 2006) was a Swiss chess player and composer.

Chess
Wladimir Naef was one of the founding members of the “Swiss Association of Art Chess Friends”, whose meetings he always attended when he was able. From 1957, as successor to Samuel Isenegger, he ran the study section of the Swiss Chess Newspaper for 23 years. He worked as a composer, primarily of auxiliary checkmate tasks, but also of other types of composition.

Naef also stood out as a strong game player, he won the Zurich Cup in 1952, was in the final of the Coupe Suisse in 1953, which he even won in 1959, played in the Swiss national team from 1953 to 1963, and was 13-time team champion with the chess society Zurich and celebrated many internal club victories.

Private
Wladimir Naef was born in Moscow, but returned to Switzerland with his family in 1920, where he grew up bilingual. This later made him a sought-after translator. In his youth, Naef was a successful tennis and table tennis player. He worked as a mechanical engineer specializing in hydraulics in various industries, but was called into active military service in 1939. At the end of his career, Naef worked as a director. His first wife, who died early, gave birth to Naef four children.

Web links
Compositions by Wladimir Naef on the PDB server

Source: Germain Wikipedia

Others: 8 endgame studies composed by him are selected on Website ARVES