Jan Smejkal

January Smejkal ( born March 22, 1946 in Lanškroun ) is a Czech chess grandmaster. He is known for his lack of time battles and fighting spirit.

Chess career

Jan Smejkal 1970 International Champion, 1972 Grand Master. In the 1970s, he was one of the world's top three times and played in the Interzonal: in Leningrad in 1973, he was fourth in Biel in 1976 and eleventh in Rio de Janeiro in 1979 and eleventh. In Leningrad, he failed to qualify for the Candidates Tournament only just by losing in the last round against Anatoly Karpov.

Over 20 years he was a mainstay of the selection of Czechoslovakia, in 1993 he played for the Czech Republic. Overall Smejkal has ten times played at the Chess Olympiad ( in the years 1968 to 1994), twice on the first board, he played a total of 133 games and won 83.5 points. Smejkal won two Olympic medals: silver in 1970 for his individual performance on the fourth board and silver with the team in 1982.

In the years 1973, 1979 and 1986 Smejkal won the national championship of Czechoslovakia.

Also in many international tournaments he did very well: he has twice won the Rubinstein Memorial in Polanica, 1970 and 1972, He also was the winner or has the first place divided in Stary Smokovec (1970 ), Amsterdam ( 1971), Smederevska. Palanka (1971 ), Palma de Mallorca ( 1972), Luhačovice (1973 ), Novi Sad ( 1976), Belgrade (1976 ), Vršac (1976 ), Leipzig (1976 ), Dortmund ( 1977), Virovitica (1977 ), Teplice ( 1979), Warsaw ( 1979), Bad Wörishofen (1985 ) and Baden -Baden ( 1985).

In 2000 he ended his active career.

With its highest Elo rating of 2615 in January 1976 Smejkal was ranked 11 of the FIDE rankings.

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