Milan Vidmar

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Milan Vidmar 1942.jpg
Milan Vidmar, 1942
Association Yugoslavia Socialist Federal RepublicYugoslavia Yugoslavia
Born June 22, 1885
Laibach
Died October 9, 1962
Ljubljana , People's Republic of Slovenia , Yugoslavia
title Grand Master (1950)
Best Elo rating 2731 (April 1919) ( historical rating )

Milan Vidmar (* 22. June 1885 in Ljubljana , Krain , Austria-Hungary ; † 9. October 1962 ibid, Yugoslavia) was a Slovene engineer of electrical engineering , university teachers and Chess - Grandmaster . Although, unlike many other masters of his time, he remained an amateur all his life, he was among the world's best for several years; According to historical calculations, he was at times the fourth strongest chess player in the world.

His son Milan Vidmar junior was also a strong chess player and competed in some tournaments together with his father, who is then also referred to as Milan Vidmar senior for differentiation .

Life

Milan Vidmar, 1909

Milan Vidmar grew up in Ljubljana (after 1918: Ljubljana). After studying at the Vienna University of Technology and working in industry, Vidmar was appointed professor of transformer technology at the University of Ljubljana after the end of the war in 1919 . In this position, which he held until 1959, he wrote numerous scientific works in Slovene and German. An institute he set up for electrical engineering research still bears his name today.

Although he only played chess as an amateur , he was at times among the world's elite and took fourth place in the unofficial candidates' tournament for the 1927 World Chess Championship in New York . In 1914 at the 19th DSB Congress in Mannheim he was behind Alexander Alekhine in second place when the international tournament was canceled on August 1st due to the beginning of the First World War . Between 1917 and 1923 it was in fourth place in the subsequently calculated world rankings for 21 different months, its highest historical rating was 2731 in April 1919.

Vidmar was known for his fairness. In the tournament of London 1922, he gave up a losing position, although his opponent, the world champion José Raúl Capablanca , not to continue due to a misunderstanding stalemate appeared. Vidmar was also one of the few chess players who had a friendly relationship with his master colleague Aaron Nimzowitsch , who was considered difficult .

He won the IFSB national championship in 1936/37, which is considered the first unofficial European correspondence chess championship. Vidmar took part with the Yugoslav team at the Chess Olympiads in 1931 and 1935 on the top board. In 1950 the world chess federation FIDE awarded him the officially created grandmaster title for his earlier tournament successes. Vidmar's memoirs, published in German in 1961 under the title Goldene Schachzeiten , were only reissued a few years ago. They are considered to be the classic representation of the glamorous epoch of chess history that Vidmar experienced and helped shape. The Milan Vidmar memorial tournament dedicated to him took place for the first time in 1969 and also served as the national championship of Slovenia in 2007, 2009 and 2011.

Works (selection)

  • The Second International Chess Tournament in Karlovy Vary 1911 . Potsdam 1911. (Reprint: Ed.Olms, Zurich 1985, ISBN 3-283-00183-9 )
  • Golden chess times. 4th, revised edition. Joachim Beyer Verlag, Eltmann 2015, ISBN 978-3-95920-009-7 .
  • The end of the gold age: humanity in upheaval . Vieweg, Braunschweig 1941.
  • The transformers. 3. Edition. Birkhäuser, Basel / Stuttgart 1956. (Reprint: Springer, 2014, ISBN 978-3-7643-0393-8 )

Web links

Commons : Milan Vidmar  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The International Tournament Mannheim 1914 (19th DSB Congress) on TeleSchach (cross table and games)
  2. ↑ Milan Vidmar's historical Elo numbers on chessmetrics.com (English)
  3. ↑ Milan Vidmar's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
  4. ↑ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002. Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 74.
personal data
SURNAME Vidmar, Milan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Yugoslav electrical engineer, university professor and chess grandmaster
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Laibach , Carniola , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 1962
Place of death Ljubljana , People's Republic of Slovenia , Yugoslavia