Ľubomír Ftáčnik (born October 30, 1957, in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

) is a Slovak

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

grandmaster and a former European Junior Champion.

Chess career

He became European Junior Champion in 1976/77 and was awarded the

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

title shortly after. In 1980, he received the

International Grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a Chess title, title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Chess Championship, World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is hel ...

title and this heralded the start of a successful playing career in national and international competitions. In his native Czechoslovakia (now the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

) he became national champion in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1985. In tournaments, there have been many outright first places, including Esbjerg 1982, Trnava 1983, Alltensteig 1987, Baden-Baden Open 1987, the international invitation tournament in Haninge (Sweden), Vienna 1990 and the Parkroyal Surfers (Australia) 2000. At Cienfuegos (Capablanca Memorial) 1980, Dortmund GM 1981 and Lugano Open 1988, he shared first place, and at Hradec Králové in 1981 he was runner-up. In 1987 he drew a match with Kiril Georgiev, the strong Bulgarian grandmaster. 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 FIDE Onli ...

, he has represented first Czechoslovakia and then Slovakia from 1980 onwards, missing out only in 1998. His major triumph occurred in 1982, when a 67.9% score helped the Czechoslovaks win the silver medal, very much against expectation. His performance with the black pieces overshadowed his results with white, an unusual outcome at such a high level. In recent years he has spent more time travelling abroad and is an occasional visitor to Australia and the USA. In the US he has attended chess summer camps, promoted his book (''Winning The Won Game'' - 2004 Batsford/Chrysalis, co-authored with Danny Kopec) and played in tournaments. In 2006, he finished joint first at the

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

National Open and followed up with an outright win at the

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

Open. He also played the Amsterdam 2006 event and finished a creditable half point off the leaders in what was a very strong field (Tiviakov, Timman, Nijboer, Tukmakov among others). Ftáčnik plays league chess in the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

and has also made occasional appearances in the 4NCL.

Personal life

Ftáčnik has a son, Martin, born 1985. His twin brother, Jan, is a physicist at the Physics Department of the

Comenius University Comenius University Bratislava () is the largest university in Slovakia, with most of its faculties located in Bratislava. It was founded in 1919, shortly after the creation of Czechoslovakia. It is named after Jan Amos Comenius, a 17th-century ...

in Bratislava. His older brother,

Milan Ftáčnik Milan Ftáčnik (30 October 1956 – 13 May 2021) was a Slovak politician, Minister of Education of the Slovak Republic from 1998 to 2002 and Mayor of Bratislava from 2010 to 2014. Prior to this he was also Mayor of Petržalka from 2006 to 20 ...

, was the mayor of Bratislava from 2011 to 2014.

References

* *
OlimpBase – Olympiads and other team event information

External links

*
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1045547
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ftacnik, Lubomir 1957 births Living people Chess Grandmasters Slovak chess players Chess writers Chess Olympiad competitors Chess players from Bratislava Slovak twins