Mečislovas Birmanas (Mechislovas Birmanas) (1900 – 1950) 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 disti ...

player who 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 ...

in 1943.

Biography

Mečislovas Birmanas lived in Kaunas and worked as an accountant. He participated in Kaunas chess tournaments, including city chess championships. Before the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Mečislovas Birmanas published a book of poems. In 1942, he participated in the match between Lithuanian and Latvian trade union teams (won against

Leonids Dreibergs Leonīds Dreibergs (also Leonid Dreiberg, 27 October 1908, Riga – 6 April 1969, Saginaw, Michigan) was a Latvian–American chess master. Dreibergs took sixth place at Riga 1930 ( Vladimirs Petrovs won), took ninth at Ķemeri 1939 (Salo Flohr w ...

and drew with

Zigfrīds Solmanis Zigfrīds Aleksandrs Otto Solmanis (July 9, 1913, Riga – September 6, 1984, Jūrmala) was a Latvian chess player. Chess career Zigfrīds Solmanis started to play chess at the age of 6. From him earliest youth participated in various tourn ...

). Mečislovas Birmanas won the

in 1943. In the

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

held in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

, he scored 8½ out of 11 (+7, -1, =3) and shared 1st-3rd places with Romanas Arlauskas and

Leonardas Abramavičius Leonardas Abramavičius (Leonhard Abramavicius) (died 1960 in Kaunas) was a Lithuanian chess player. Biography Abramavičius played for Lithuania in four official and one unofficial Chess Olympiads. * In July 1930, he played at fourth board at ...

, and a month later he won an additional two-round tournament held in Kaunas (2½ out of 4).Bertašius A. Lietuvos sporto žinynas. Vilnius: Lietuvos sporto informacijos centras, 1999. T. 2. P. 150. After the end of the war, Mečislovas Birmanas participated in the Lithuanian SSR championship in 1945, where he scored 6 points out of 10 (+4, =4, -2) and shared 4th-6 places ( Vladas Mikėnas became the champion of the republic). For many years Mečislovas Birmanas had serious health problems. He died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

References

External links

* 1900 births 1950 deaths Sportspeople from Kaunas Lithuanian chess players Soviet chess players {{Lithuania-chess-bio-stub