Jan Smejkal (born March 22, 1946) is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

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 disti ...

player and, since 1972, an International Grandmaster. In the 1970s, he was among the world chess elite. He was champion of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

in 1973, 1979 and 1986 and won many international tournaments, including Polanica Zdrój in 1970 and 1972, Smederevska Palanka in 1971, Palma in 1972, Novi Sad in 1976, Vršac in 1977,

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

in 1977,

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

in 1979, Trenčianské Teplice in 1979, and Baden-Baden in 1985. In the 1973

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the ...

tournament he finished fourth, just missing out on qualification for the World Championship

Candidates Tournament The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The wi ...

. Smejkal was born in

Lanškroun Lanškroun (; german: Landskron) is a town in Ústí nad Orlicí District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,300 inhabitants. It lies on the border of the historical lands of Bohemia and Moravia. The historic town centre ...

, Czech Republic.

Notable chess games

*Jan Smejkal vs Vasily Smyslov, Hastings 1968, Modern Defense: King Pawn Fianchetto (B06), 1-0, Sacrificing an exchange in order to attack the Black King *Jan Smejkal vs Florin Gheorghiu, Palma de Mallorca 1972, Nimzo-Indian (E41), 1-0, A combination using the

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

theme *Lev Polugaevsky vs Jan Smejkal, Reykjavik (0.25) 1978, English, Symmetrical (A33), 0–1, Two Rooks more powerful than a Queen *Jan Smejkal vs Predrag Nikolić, Vršac 1981, Queen's Gambit Declined Slav (D11), 1-0, Rooks attacking along the D-file

References

External links

* * 1946 births Living people People from Lanškroun Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Czech chess players {{CzechRepublic-chess-bio-stub