Algimantas Butnorius (20 February 1946 – 30 October 2017) was a Lithuanian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

grandmaster and world seniors champion in 2007. From 2014 he represented

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

Chess career

He won the

Lithuanian Chess Championship The first unofficial Lithuanian Chess Championship was held in Kaunas (Temporary capital of Lithuania) in 1921. The Champion's title was granted after victorious or drawn match between previous champion and challenger, mostly a winner of Championshi ...

on ten occasions: in 1967, 1968 (shared with

Vladas Mikėnas Vladas Mikėnas (17 April 1910 – 3 November 1992) was a Lithuanian chess player and journalist. He was awarded the titles of International Master and Honorary Grandmaster by FIDE. Early career Vladas Mikėnas played for Lithuania at first b ...

), 1970, 1972 (shared with Gintautas Piešina), 1973 (shared with Jegor Čiukajevas), 1975, 1976, 1980, 1982 and 1993. In team chess, he represented Lithuania at the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 an ...

s of 2000, 2004, 2006 and in the

European Team Chess Championship The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...

s of 1999 and 2003. He won the

World Senior Chess Championship The World Senior Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament established in 1991 by FIDE, the World Chess Federation. Overview Originally, the minimum age was 60 years for men, and 50 for women. Since 2014, the Senior Championship is split i ...

in 2007. In 2010, he tied for 2nd–4th with

Vitaly Tseshkovsky Vitaly Valeryevich Tseshkovsky (russian: Виталий Валерьевич Цешковский; 25 September 1944, Omsk – 24 December 2011, Krasnodar) was a Russian chess Grandmaster and a former champion of the USSR. Tseshkovsky (Cieszkow ...

and Nikolai Pushkov in the European Seniors' Rapid Championship. Butnorius was awarded the International Master title in 1983 and the Grandmaster title in 2007, as a result of winning the

. Butnorius studied journalism at

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow and ...

, graduating in 1973. In 1975–1989, he hosted a chess program on

LRT televizija LRT televizija, formerly known as LTV 1, is the flagship television channel of Lithuanian National Radio and Television Lithuanian National Radio and Television ( Lithuanian: Lietuvos nacionalinis radijas ir televizija) is a non-profit publi ...

. He also contributed chess-related articles and

chess problems A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by the composer using chess pieces on a chess board, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is to ...

to ''Jaunimo Gretos'', '' Kauno Tiesa'', ''Komunizmo Vėliava'', ''

Lietuvos Aidas ''Lietuvos aidas'' (literally: ''Echo of Lithuania'') is a daily newspaper in Lithuania. It was established on September 6, 1917 by Antanas Smetona, and became the semi-official voice of the newly formed Lithuanian government. When the government ...

'', ''

Kauno Diena ''Kauno diena'' (''Kaunas Daily'') is a Lithuanian daily newspaper, printed in Kaunas. History and profile In 1998, ''Kauno diena'' was bought by Norwegian media giant Orkla Media subsidiary Orkla Press. In December 2006 Orkla sold its media s ...

'', and ''Vakarinis Kaunas''.

Notable games

Viktor Kupreichik vs Algimantas Butnorius, Vitebsk 1970, Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Traxler Counterattack (C57), 1/2-1/2Lajos Portisch vs Algimantas Butnorius, Leningrad 1969, Indian Game: West Indian Defense (E61), 0-1Algimantas Butnorius vs Garry Kasparov, Baku 1978, Neo-Grünfeld Defence: Classical Variation (D78), 1/2-1/2Algimantas Butnorius vs Anatoly S Lutikov, URS-chT 1975, Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation (C41), 1-0

References

External links

* *
Algimantas Butnorius
at

Chessmetrics Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo rating system. Implementation Chessmetrics is a weighted average of past performance. The score considers a player's win percen ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Butnorius, Algimantas 1946 births 2017 deaths Chess grandmasters World Senior Chess Champions Soviet chess players Lithuanian chess players Monegasque chess players Chess Olympiad competitors Sportspeople from Kaunas Vilnius University alumni