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Vladas Mikėnas

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Vladas Mikėnas (17 April 1910 in Tallinn – 3 November 1992 in Vilnius) was a Lithuanian International Master of chess, an Honorary Grandmaster, and a journalist. [1]

Early life

Vladas Mikėnas played for Lithuania at first board in five official and one unofficial Chess Olympiads.

  • In July 1931, he played at the 4th Olympiad in Prague (+7 –5 =6).
  • In July 1933, he played at the 5th Olympiad in Folkestone (+5 –3 =6).
  • In August 1935, he played at the 6th Olympiad in Warsaw (+2 –6 =10).
  • In August/September 1936, he played at unofficial Olympiad in Munich (+5 –7 =8).
  • In July/August 1937, he played at the 7th Olympiad in Stockholm (+7 –3 =8).
  • In August/September 1939, he played at the 8th Olympiad in Buenos Aires (+10 –5 =4).[2]

In 1930, he won the Estonian Championship in Tallinn (3rd EST-ch). In 1931, he tied for 2nd-5th at the first Baltic Championship in Klaipeda. The event was won by Isakas Vistaneckis. In the same year Mikenas emigrated from Estonia to Lithuania. In 1934, he won a match against Povilas Vaitonis (6:2). In 1935, he took 10th in Lodz (Savielly Tartakower won), and won a match against Vistaneckis. In 1936, he won the Lithuanian Championship. In 1937, he won a match against Vaitonis (5.5:4.5). In 1937, he took 10th in Kemeri. In 1938, he won a match against Vaitonis (9:3). In 1939, he took 4th in Kemeri–Riga (Salo Flohr won). In September 1939, he took 3rd in Rosario (Vladimirs Petrovs won).[3]

Soviet citizen

On 28 September 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany had changed the secret terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. They moved Lithuania into the Soviet sphere of influence. Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union on 3 August 1940.

In September/October 1940, Mikėnas tied for 13-16th in Moscow (12th USSR-ch). In 1941, he took 3rd (off contest) in Kutaisi (4th Georgian SSR ch). In February/March 1942, he tied for 3rd-6th in Moscow. In March/April 1942, he tied for 4-7th in Sverdlovsk. In July/August 1942, he tied for 3rd-5th in Kuibyshev. In 1944, he won (off contest) in Tbilisi (5th Georgian SSR ch). In 1944, he won a classification match against Lublinsky (8:6). In 1944, he tied for 5-6th in Moscow (13th USSR-ch). In July 1945, he won in Kaunas (13th LTU-ch). In October/November 1945, he won in Riga (Baltic Chess Championship). In June/July 1946, he took 3rd, behind Yuri Averbakh, and Vistaneckis, in Vilnius (Baltic Rep.-ch). In 1946, he took 2nd (off contest) in Tbilisi (7th Georgian SSR ch). In 1947, he took 2nd (off contest) in Minsk (13th Byelorussian SSR ch). In 1948, he drew a classification match against Rashid Nezhmetdinov (7:7).[4]

He played several times in Lithuanian SSR championships in Vilnius. In 1947, he won the 14th LTU-ch. In 1948, he won the 15th LTU-ch. In 1949, he took 3rd, in 1952, he tied for 2nd-4th, in 1954, he took 2nd, in 1955, he took 3rd, in 1957 took 2nd, in 1958 tied for 2nd-4th, in 1959 took 3rd, in 1960 tied for 3rd-4th, in 1961 won, in 1963 took 2nd, in 1964 won, in 1967 tied for 2nd-3rd, in 1968 tied for 1st-2nd.[5]

Meanwhile, in 1954, he won, ahead of Ratmir Kholmov, Vistaneckis and Viacheslav Ragozin, in Vilnius (Quadrangular). In 1955, he tied for 3rd-6th in Pärnu. The event was won by Paul Keres. In 1959, he took 2nd, behind Boris Spassky, in Riga. In 1960, he took 10th in Parnu (Baltic Rep. ch). In 1964, he tied 2nd-3rd, behind Iivo Nei, in Pärnu (Baltic Rep. ch). In 1965, he won in Palanga (Baltic Rep. ch). In 1971, he won in Lublin.

Mikenas was awarded the International Master title in 1950 (the year the title was instituted). He was awarded the Honorary Grandmaster title in 1987.

He was the arbitrer of the World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Garri Kasparov in 1985.

Contributions

The Mikenas Variation of the Modern Benoni, a sharp attacking line (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f4 Bg7 8.e5 in algebraic notation), is named after him. He also developed the Flohr-Mikenas Variation of the English Opening; the variation runs 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4.

References

  1. ^ http://www.chess.lt/lithuania/lit/htm/asmen/life.htm Vladas Mikėnas
  2. ^ OlimpBase :: the encyclopaedia of team chess
  3. ^ http://www.rogerpaige.mr.uk/index.htm
  4. ^ http://www.geocities.com/al2055perv/index.html RUSBASE (part IV)
  5. ^ http://www.geocities.com/al2055mag/index.html RUSBASE (part III)
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