Edmar Mednis

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Edmar John Mednis (born March 22, 1937 in Riga as Edmārs Mednis ; † February 13, 2002 in Queens ) was an American chess player and author of Latvian origin.

Life

In 1944 he left Latvia with his parents, lived for a short time in a German refugee camp and then immigrated to the USA. He attended high school in New York City and later trained as a chemical engineer. In chess he was considered a hopeful talent at the time.

In 1955 he took part in the Junior World Championship in Antwerp, where he finished 2nd behind Boris Spasski , against whom he scored a draw. However, this should remain the greatest tournament success of his chess career.

In the following years he took part in several national championships in the USA. His best placement was a tied third place in 1961/62. A year later he became the first player to win a game against Bobby Fischer in a US championship. However, this victory was due to the fact that Fischer, in a balanced position against the underestimated Mednis, played too risky for profit.

In 1962 and 1970 he played for the USA as the second reserve player at the Chess Olympiad and scored 12 points from 18 games.

In 1974 he received the title of International Master . In 1978 the world chess federation FIDE refused to grant him the grandmaster title because he could not demonstrate the required standards. But two years later he received this title.

In 1979 he received a free place for the interzonal tournament in his native Riga, but only finished 16th out of 18 participants. Later he worked mainly as a trainer and appeared as a chess expert on American television.

He was married to Baiba Mednis and had two children, Sari and Mariss.

Mednis' last Elo rating was 2381, his highest rating of 2510 he reached in January 1979.

plant

Mednis built a reputation as an author of chess books , many of which have been translated into other languages. He was considered an endgame expert and had a regular column Practical Endgames in Chess Life , the magazine of the United States Chess Federation . He later used material from this in his 1978 book Practical endgame lessons .

His first book, How to beat Bobby Fischer ( ISBN 0-8129-0469-9 ) was published in 1974. It contains 61 sections loss fisherman who Mednis (including its overall record against Fischer, however, five defeats and one win and one draw) analyzed . The book was translated into Russian in 1981 and into German in 1993.

In 1975 How Karpov wins ( ISBN 0-679-13045-4 , German edition 1982 under the title So wins Karpow ) appeared, a collection of games by Anatoli Karpow .

Other books by him are:

In addition to his chess books, Mednis also produced some instructional videos in English.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edmar Mednis' results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
  2. ↑ Elo history at olimpbase.org (English)
personal data
SURNAME Mednis, Edmar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mednis, Edmars John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chess player and writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 2002
Place of death Queens