Vladas Mikėnas

Vladas Mikėnas, 1931
Association	Estonia (until 1931) Lithuania (1931 to 1940) Soviet Union (from 1940)
Born	April 17, 1910 Reval
Died	November 3, 1992 Vilnius
title	International Master (1950) Honorary Grand Master (1987)
Best Elo rating	2410 (July 1971 to January 1975)

Vladas Mikėnas (born April 17, 1910 in Reval , Estonia Governorate , Russian Empire , † November 3, 1992 in Vilnius ) was a Lithuanian chess player .

Close chess

Mikenas began his chess career in Estonia , where she won in 1930 through a competitive victory against John Türn (+5 = 1 -2) the championship . At the age of 21 he settled in Lithuania. From 1931 to 1939 he played at all five Chess Olympiads for his new home (always on the first board), as well as at the unofficial Chess Olympiad in Munich in 1936 .

His best tournament successes were 4th place in Ķemeri 1939, 2nd place in Riga 1959 and the shared first place in Lublin 1971. He qualified ten times for the finals of the Soviet championship , his best result he achieved at the 13th USSR championship in 1944 as he shared 5th and 6th place.

He won the Lithuanian championship twelve times: in 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1961, 1964, 1965 (together with Anicetas Uogelė ) and 1968 (together with Algimantas Butnorius ). In 1945 and 1965 he won the Baltic championship. Playing out of competition, he won the championship of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1946 .

Correspondence chess

From 1963 Mikėnas also played correspondence chess . Here he won the gold medal in the Eberhard Wilhelm Cup with the team from Lithuania.

Honors

In 1950 the World Chess Federation FIDE awarded him the title of International Master , and in 1987 he received the title of Honorary Grandmaster . In 1978 the ICCF awarded him the title of International Correspondence Chess Master.

Second and referee

At times Mikenas worked as Sekundant of Keres , the candidate final between Kasparov and Smyslov in 1984 and in the World Chess Championship 1985 between world champion Karpov and Kasparov , he served as referee .

Mikėnas' last Elo rating was 2405, but he did not play a rated game after 1979. It reached its highest Elo rating of 2410 in July 1971. Before the Elo rating was introduced, its best historical rating was 2669 in December 1945.

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

The Mikenas system in the English opening

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

The Mikenas variant of the Nimzo-Indian Defense

The Mikenas system (also Flohr- Mikenas system) in the English opening is named after him, which is created by the moves 1. c2 – c4 Ng8 – f6 2. Nb1 – c3 e7 – e6 3. e2 – e4 , as well as the Mikenas variant in the Nimzo-Indian defense : 1. d2 – d4 Ng8 – f6 2. c2 – c4 e7 – e6 3. Nb1 – c3 Bf8 – b4 4. Qd1 – d3

family

Vladas Mikėnas was married, his son Alius Mikėnas (* 1955) holds the title of International Correspondence Chess Master .

literature

• Wladimir J. Dworkowitsch (Ed.): Vladas Mikenas. Moscow 1987 (Russian).

Web links

Commons : Vladas Mikėnas  - collection of images

• On the 25th anniversary of Vladas Mikenas' death on chessbase.de
• Article about Mikenas on chess24

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vladas Mikėnas' results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
2. ↑ Vladas Mikėnas' results at unofficial chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
3. ↑ Elo history at olimpbase.org (English)
4. ↑ Vladas Mikėnas' historical Elo numbers at chessmetrics.com (English)