Jan Smejkal is a Czech

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 player and, since 1972, an International Grandmaster

International Grandmaster

The title Grandmaster is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain....

. In the 1970s, he was among the world chess elite. He was champion of Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 in 1973, 1979 and 1986 and won many international tournaments, including Polanica Zdrój in 1970 and 1972, Smederevska Palanka in 1971, Palma in 1972, Novi Sad in 1976, Vršac in 1977, Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 in 1977, Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

 in 1979, Trenčianské Teplice in 1979, and Baden-Baden in 1985. In the 1973 Leningrad

Leningrad

Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...

 --Interzonal

Interzonal

Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle.- Zonal tournaments :...

 tournament he finished fourth, just missing out on qualification for the World Championship Candidates Tournament

Candidates Tournament

The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...

. Smejkal was born in Lanškroun

Lanškroun

Lanškroun , also known as Lanskron, Lanscron, Landeskrone, and Kronland, is a town and municipality in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. On the border between the former provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, it had a population of 9,911 .The town was founded in the thirteenth century as the...

, Czech Republic.

Notable chess games

• Jan Smejkal vs Vasily Smyslov, Hastings 1968, Modern Defense: King Pawn Fianchetto (B06), 1-0, Sacrificing an exchange in order to attack the Black King
• Jan Smejkal vs Florin Gheorghiu, Palma de Mallorca 1972, Nimzo-Indian (E41), 1-0, A combination using the Excelsior
  Excelsior (chess problem)
  "Excelsior" is one of Sam Loyd's most famous chess problems, originally published in London Era in 1861, named after the poem "Excelsior" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Loyd had a friend who was willing to wager that he could always find the piece which delivered the principal mate of a chess problem...
  
  theme
• Lev Polugaevsky vs Jan Smejkal, Reykjavik (0.25) 1978, English, Symmetrical (A33), 0-1, Two Rooks more powerful than a Queen
• Jan Smejkal vs Predrag Nikolić, Vršac 1981, Queen's Gambit Declined Slav (D11), 1-0, Rooks attacking along the D-file