Milan Vidmar

[Jack Maguire]

David Sands's piece in 'The WashingtonTimes' on memorial tournaments ultimately features the great Slovene GM, Milan Vidmar.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...-on-in-memori/

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Milan Vidmar

Milan Vidmar

June 29, 2016

How many young chess players today know his name?

In my early days, I was an avid reader of Chess Review and read of Vidmar in an obituary piece in 1962 there by Hans Kmoch.

Kmoch (1894-1973) was a chess journalist and an author, who was a fine writer. His pieces were warm, intelligent and always instructive. After the war, he settled in New York City and wrote for Chess Review. I have appended a slightly condensed version of the obit below.

From Hans Kmoch in Chess Review, December 1962, pages 367-369:

And Now Vidmar

The bell has tolled for another prominent old-timer actually the last survivor of those famous masters who were of Austro-Hungarian origin and had started their careers before the monarchy had fallen apart. Professor Dr. Milan Vidmar aged 77, has died. Only a short time ago he was reported to be in perfect shape, full of vigor. Apparently, his smooth life has smoothly come to an end.

Chessmaster Vidmar had two things in common with Morphy; one was his birthday of June 22; the other his playing chess only for pleasure. For the rest the two men were entirely different.

Vidmar was born in 1885, a year after Morphy had died. He was born in Laibach, then capital of the Austrian province of Krain. Today, Laibach is the capital of the Yugoslav state of Slovenia of which one of Vidmar’s brothers is (or at least was) President. The official, Slovene name of the place is Ljubljana – such a hard one for English readers that we prefer to use the German Laibach.

Laibach is, next to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio, the largest Slovene settlement in the world. It is a charming place in wine-growing country, with wine-loving people; there is gemuetlichkeit, and there are beautiful alpine surroundings. As a specialty, the hilltops around Laibach are adorned with at least one Catholic church each.

Vidmar studied in Vienna which became his second home – easily so because Vienna is just a large Laibach while Laibach may be called a little Vienna. The two places have much in common, even as far as the language is concerned, in that broken German has always been spoken a lot in Laibach, too. But Vidmar’s German was perfect to the last finesses; it had the Viennese flavor that befits the thoroughly vindobonized man he became, although still remaining a good Slovene.

He was a good-looking man of medium height, blond, fair, extremely intelligent and sharp-witted, with a merciless tongue and a strong sense of humor, preferably Jewish, although actually he was very definitely gentile. He was energetic and realistic unexcitable as a rock and, for all his jovial appearance, emanating strong authority every inch.

Unlike Morphy, Vidmar had to make a living for himself, and he made it well as a scientist, never hunting fortune but securing a comfortable life almost from the start. He studied technology more specifically electrical engineering and became an expert on transformers. One of his teachers was the Hungarian Blathy, known in chess as composer of endgames with solutions running into hundreds of moves.

Scientist Vidmar acquired fame. Having settled in Laibach, he became professor and at one time rector magnificus at the university there. In addition big producers of electrical equipment in several European countries became his customers often inviting him for consultation.

His private life was a happy one, too. Married twice, Vidmar had two sets of children distinguishable by a considerable difference in their ages. When he became grandfather in the male line, his father was in the nineties. They all were Milan Vidmars, four generations of them. Good stock.

Vidmar loved chess very much, but he never allowed it to interfere with his regular occupation; he played it for fun. On the other hand, when invited to a tournament he would never underbid professional masters.

The Austro-Hungarian monarchy has produced many a great player; think only of Steinitz, There was a lot of chess activity in Budapest, Prague and other places, but Vienna naturally had the most of it. In Vidmar’s time young talents like Perlis, Reti, Spielmann, Tartakover and he himself met daily either at the famous Wiener Schachklub or at the Café Central just two blocks away. Schlechter, Marco and Heinrich Wolf were also around, and often such distinguished veterans as Albin, Professor Berger from Graz, the father of all literature on end-games and Max Weiss, an employee of Rothschild’s banking firm better known as co-winner of the New York 1889 tournament, Maroczy from Budapest and Duras from Prague sometimes showed up, and frequently so did celebrities from abroad.

Among such experts, Vidmar proceeded to mastership in chess. In the tournament at Prague 1908, where Duras and Schlechter tied for first and second, Vidmar finished third, well ahead of Maroczy. Still more remarkable was his success in the San Sebastian Tournament of 1911. It was won by Capablanca, but Vidmar tied for second and third with Rubinstein, thereby obtaining the reputation of grandmaster, which then was a new distinction not official.

But his was as high as Vidmar ever came in a great tournament.

With the fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Vienna’s chess life died down, and Vidmar settled in Laibach, He took third prize at both London 1922 and Semmering 1926. In 1927 at New York, he had an even score.

As time went on, he found it increasingly more difficult to maintain a place in the upper ranks.

In skittles however, Vidmar remained active until the end. He used to play some almost every day, Particularly while living in Vienna. There, but some time after 1918, he once had a strange experience with a child from Poland; Vidmar lost repeatedly but, when he finally won a game, the child, whose name was given as Samuel Reshevsky started to cry.

While living in Laibach, Vidmar often made business trips to or via Vienna, and then he spent every free hour on skittles with as strong opponents as possible. During tournaments, Vidmar’s urge for recreation was divided between skittles and two card games, namely tarock in monarchie days and bridge thereafter.

Vidmar had a strong personal liking for Nimzovich, in later years for Najdorf. With these two he used to be on terms better than correct; he took great pleasure in playing skittles with them, skittles with words as well as skittles with chessmen. In general, he liked people the more the better they were in the art of mutual, good-natured heckling.

Professor Dr. Milan Vidmar may not have been the greatest of all chessmasters. But one of the greatest personalities among them he unquestionably was. With him, a fascinating stretch of chess history has definitely come to an end.

(to be concluded)

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Milan Vidmar

Milan Vidmar

June 29, 2016

Dr. Vidmar wrote the book Goldene Schachzeiten (The Golden Times of Chess) in German, published in 1961. Evidently, for the chess historian, it is a must-read. In his book, Chess Lists (2nd edition, 2002 ), Andrew Soltis has a list of twelve chess books which are begging to be translated into English but never have. The first book on the list is Goldene Schachzeiten by Vidmar.

I have a copy published by de Gruyter, a thick 259-page paperback.

Back in the 80s, I met a chap who wrote on chess history and he asked me if I would lend him my copy. This I did, but found that he later was reluctant to give it back, so attached had he become to the volume!

I don’t know if it ever will be translated into English, so if you see the German edition, you might want to pick it up and try slogging through it.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Milan Vidmar

Thanks for spreading chess culture Wayne! I recommend everyone visit Ljubljana. Here's to skittles and kibitzing which every chessplayer should enjoy. I have had the pleasure of much of Vidmar and although Im aging Im forever young.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Milan Vidmar

In this 'Slovenia Revealed' news item, it is said that Milan Vidmar is "the man who played the fairest move ever seen in England." (:

http://www.rtvslo.si/news-in-english...victory/325227