Edmar Mednis

Edmar John Mednis ( born March 22, 1937 in Riga as Edmars Mednis; † 13 February 2002 in Queens ) was an American chess player and author of Latvian origin.

Life

In 1944, he left with his parents Latvia, lived for a short time in a German refugee camp and then immigrated to the United States. He attended high school in New York City and later graduated from training as a chemical engineer. In chess, he was regarded at that time as a promising talent.

In 1955 he took part in the World Youth Championships in Antwerp and took there the 2nd place behind Boris Spassky, against whom he scored a draw. This should, however, remain the biggest tournament success of his chess career.

In the following years he participated in several national championships of the United States. His best finish was a shared third place 1961 /62. A year later, he was the first player to win a match against Robert James Fischer at a U.S. Championship. However, this victory was due to the fact that Fischer played in a balanced position against the underrated by him Mednis too risky to profit.

1962 and 1970 he played for the United States at the Chess Olympiad, scoring 12 points from 18 games.

In 1974 he received the title of International Master. In 1978, the award of the Grand Master title was denied by the World Chess Federation FIDE, since he could not produce the required standards. Two years later, he received this item but then.

In 1979, he received a free room for the interzonal tournament in his hometown of Riga, finished there, however, only the 16th place out of 18 participants. He later worked mostly as a trainer and appeared as a chess expert on American television.

He was married to Baiba Mednis and had two children, Sari and Mariss.

Work

Mednis developed a reputation as an author of chess books, many of which were translated into other languages. He was considered an endgame expert and had a regular column Practical Endgames in Chess Life, the magazine of the United States Chess Federation. Material out of which he later processed in his 1978 published book Practical endgame lessons.

His first book, How to Beat Bobby Fischer ( ISBN 0-8129-0469-9 ) was published in 1974. It contains 61 games Fischer's loss, the Mednis (whose overall record against Fischer, however, five defeats and a win and a draw has ) analyzed. The book was translated into Russian in 1981 and 1993 into German.

Appeared in 1975 How Karpov wins (ISBN 0-679-13045-4, German edition in 1982 under the title So Karpov wins ), a collection of games of Anatoly Karpov.

More books by him are:

  • How to beat the Russians (1978, ISBN 0-679-13376-3 )
  • How to play good opening moves (1982, ISBN 0-679-13377-1, German: Games good opening moves )
  • King Power in Chess (1982, ISBN 0-679-13450-6, German: The power of the king in chess)
  • Practical rook endings (1982, ISBN 0-931462-16-9, German: rook endings )
  • From the opening into the endgame (1983, ISBN 0-08-026917-6, German: from the opening to the final )
  • From the middle game into the ending (1987, ISBN 0-08-032037-6, German: from the middlegame to the endgame )
  • Questions & answers on practical endgame play (1987, ISBN 0-931462-69- X)
  • How to beat a superior opponent (1989, ISBN 0-945806-01-9, German: How to Propose superior opponent)
  • How to be a complete tournament player (1991, ISBN 1-85744-018-8, German: How to become a good tournament player )
  • Strategic chess (1993, ISBN 0-945806-11-6, German: Strategic Chess )
  • Practical tips opening (1997, ISBN 1-85744-186-9, German: Practical Eröffnungstips )
  • Practical tips endgame (1997, ISBN 1-85744-213- X, German: Practical Endspieltips )
  • Practical middle game tips (1998, ISBN 1-85744-211-3, German: Practical Mittelspieltips )

Besides his chess books produced Mednis also some instructional videos in English.

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