Milan Vidmar

For the son of the grandmaster, also a chess player, seeMilan Vidmar Jr.For the canoeist, seeMilan Vidmar (canoeist).

Milan Vidmar(22 June 1885 – 9 October 1962) was aSlovenianelectrical engineer,chess player,chess theorist,and writer. He was among the top dozen chess players in the world from 1910 to 1930 and in 1950, was among the inaugural recipients of the titleInternational GrandmasterfromFIDE.Vidmar was a specialist inpowertransformersandtransmissionofelectric current.

Milan Vidmar
Vidmarc.1935
Born	(1885-06-22)June 22, 1885 Ljubljana,Austria-Hungary
Died	October 9, 1962(1962-10-09)(aged 77)
Alma mater	University of Vienna
Title	Grandmaster(1950)
Children	Milan Jr.

Early life, family, and education

He was born in a middle-class family inLjubljana,Austria-Hungary(now inSlovenia). He began to studymechanical engineeringin 1902, and he graduated in 1907 from theUniversity of Vienna.He got hisdoctor's degreein 1911 from the Technical faculty in Vienna. The study ofelectrical engineeringat the Technical faculty did not begin until 1904, so Vidmar had to take special examinations in the field basics.

Between 1912 and 1913 he worked at the famousGanz Worksin Budapest as the assistant ofOttó Titusz Bláthy,one of the inventors and foremost experts on transformers which in turn became Vidmar's specialisation too.

He was a professor at theUniversity of Ljubljana,a member of theSlovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences,and the founder of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Between 1928 and 1929 he was the 10th chancellor of the University of Ljubljana. In 1948 he established the Institute of Electrotechnics that now bears his name.

Chess career

Vidmar was also a top-class chess player, probably one of the best dozen players in the world from 1910 to 1930, all the while remaining an amateur. He was awarded theGrandmastertitle byFIDEin 1950, when titles were introduced.

His successes include high places at some of the top chess tournaments of his time, e.g. sixth atCarlsbad 1907,third atPrague 1908,first at Gothenburg 1909 (the 7thNordic Chess Championship), second atSan Sebastián 1911withAkiba RubinsteinbehindJosé Raúl Capablanca,first atBudapest1912, second atMannheim 1914,first atViennaandBerlinin 1918, second atKošice1928, third at London 1922, shared first withAlexander AlekhineatHastings 1925/26,third atSemmering1926, fourth atNew York 1927,fourth at London 1927, shared fifth atCarlsbad 1929,tied for 4–7th atBled 1931,tied for 3–6th atStuttgart1939, second behindMax Euweat Budapest 1940, first atBasel1952.

Vidmar represented Yugoslavia in theChess OlympiadsofPrague1931 (board one,8½/16) andStockholm1935 (board one, 8½/14).

Vidmar became anarbiter,earning the title ofInternational Arbiterfrom FIDE, and was chief referee for the1948 World Chess ChampionshipinThe Hague/Moscow.

Major writings

Books on chess:

• Pol stoletja ob šahovnici(Half a century at the chessboard) (Ljubljana 1951)
• Šah(Chess)
• Razgovori o šahu z začetnikom(Conversations on chess with a beginner)
• in German,Goldene Schachzeiten(The Golden Times of Chess)

Others:

• Transformatorji(Transformers)
• Problemi prenosa električne energije(Problems of electric energy transmission)
• Pogovori o elektrotehniki(Talking about electrotechnics)
• Med Evropo in Ameriko(Between Europe and America)
• augmented edition in German,Das Ende des Goldzeitalters(Berlin, 1942)
• Moj pogled na svet(My view of the World)
• Oslovski most(Pons asinorum) (Merkur, Ljubljana 1936)

Family

His younger brother,Josip Vidmar,was an influential Slovenian literary critic and public intellectual; his son,Milan Vidmar Jr.was anInternational Masterof chess.

Tributes

The Slovene Chess Federation organizes an international grandmaster tournament named theMilan Vidmar memorial.

External links

• Milan Vidmarplayer profile and games atChessgames