 |
 |
Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
|
|
|
|
|
© Dr Tim Harding
Last modified:
2 October 2009
Latvian CC-Grandmaster Janis Vitomskis died of melanoma on 25 June 2009. Having been born on 20 August 1936, he was 72 years old.
Vitomskis won the 28th European Correspondence Chess Championship (1984-9). He became an ICCF International Master in 1993, a Senior International Master in 2000 (when that title was introduced) and a GM in 2001.
Vitomskis competed in the Final of the 15th CC World Championship and played top board for Latvia in the 12th Olympiad Final (winning a bronze medal) and again in the 13th Olympiad Final.
Here is an article featuring two of his games.
Vitomskis was a great expert on the Marshall Attack in the Ruy Lopez (Spanish), having analysed it with GMs Tal and Gutman in the 1970s for the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. He edited a Latvian chess magazine and contributed articles on the Marshall to Chess Mail magazine and collaborated with Martin Bennedik and Tim Harding on a CD-ROM database and e-book, The Total Marshall. We now have only a very few copies of that CD left for sale.