Viktorija Čmilytė

Viktorija Čmilytė (born 6 August 1983), also known as Čmilytė-Nielsen, is a Lithuanian chess player and politician. Awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2010, she was European women's champion in 2011, and is a two-time Lithuanian champion. In 2015, she replaced Remigijus Šimašius in the Lithuanian parliament.[1]

Viktorija Čmilytė
Full nameViktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen
CountryLithuania
Born (1983-08-06) 6 August 1983
Šiauliai, Lithuanian SSR, USSR
TitleGrandmaster (2010)
FIDE rating2538 (August 2020)
Peak rating2542 (June 2017)

Chess career

Born in Šiauliai,[2] Čmilytė started playing chess at the age of six, having been taught the moves by her father.[3] He remained her coach during the formative years.[4] She won the European Youth Chess Championships in 1993 in the Girls U12 category and the World Youth Chess Championships in 1995 in the same category.

In 2000, at the age of sixteen, Čmilytė won both the women's and absolute national championships of Lithuania, held in Vilnius. She won the latter edging out Grandmasters Darius Ruzele, Viktor Gavrikov and Aloyzas Kveinys, and International Masters Vaidas Sakalauskas and Vytautas Slapikas on tiebreak.[5] Čmilytė won the absolute championship again in 2005 in her home city, on tiebreak from Šarūnas Šulskis.[6]

She finished second to Jovanka Houska in the 2000 European Junior (Under-20) Girls Championship in Asturias. By 2001, she was ranked number one by FIDE amongst girls. In the same year she won the Corus Reserve Group tournament at Wijk aan Zee.[7]

Čmilytė took the silver medal at the European Women's Individual Championship in 2003 (Silivri), 2008 (Plovdiv) and 2010 (Rijeka). She won the European Women's Rapid Chess Championship in 2007.[8] She was awarded the Grandmaster title in 2010, having gained the required norms in the 2008 Gibraltar Chess Festival, 2009 European Team Chess Championship and 2010 European Women's Individual Championship.[9] In 2011, Čmilytė finally took the gold medal in the European Women's Individual Championship.[10][11]

Čmilytė competed in the Women's World Chess Championship for the first time in 2000, when she reached the third round. In 2004 she was defeated in the quarterfinals by former Women's World Champion Maia Chiburdanidze. In 2006, Čmilytė reached the semifinals and lost to the eventual runner-up, Alisa Galliamova. In 2008 and 2010 she was eliminated in the second round, while in 2010 and 2015 she went out in round three.

Team competitions

Čmilytė has played for the Lithuanian team in the 2010 Chess Olympiad (Open Section) and on other occasions participated in the Women's Chess Olympiads, where she won two individual gold medals on board one, the first at Istanbul in 2000 (9½/12) and the second at Calvià in 2004 (8½/11). She earned a place in the team for the first time when she was thirteen (in Yerevan, 1996) and was first board at fifteen (Elista, 1998), contributing a plus score each time.[12]

In the Frauenbundesliga (Women's Bundesliga) in Germany, she is a team member of OSC Baden Baden, but has also played some league chess in Sweden.

Recognition
  • 1996: Knight's Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas[13]
  • 2006: Medal 'For sports victories' by the Department of Physical Education and Sports of the Republic of Lithuania
  • 2006: Nominated as the best sportswoman of the year by the Lithuanian sports' journalists
  • 2008: Medal 'For sports victories' by the Department of Physical Education and Sports of the Republic of Lithuania
  • 2011: Knight's Cross of the Order for Merits to Lithuania
  • 2011: Honorary Citizen of the city of Šiauliai

Personal life

By way of hobbies, she enjoys sports, such as volleyball.[3] She speaks Russian, English and Spanish in addition to her native Lithuanian.

Čmilytė was married to Alexei Shirov from August 2001 to early 2007. On 28 December 2013 Čmilytė married Peter Heine Nielsen. She has three sons, Dmitrij, Alexander and Marius.

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References
  1. "Lithuania's top female chess master to get MP seat". Delfi. 16 March 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  2. GM title application. FIDE.
  3. Sujatha Srinivasan. "FIDE World Chess Championships 2000 - Interview with Viktorija Cmilyte". The Week in Chess Magazine. London Chess Center. Archived from the original on 2003-03-09. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  4. Šachmatai – gyvenimo būdas, bet ne visas gyvenimas Archived June 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Kontrastai. Retrieved on 2008-05-30 (in Lithuanian)
  5. Crowther, Mark (2000-04-10). "TWIC 283: Lithuanian Championships". The Week in Chess. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  6. Short bio by John Saunders Gibraltar Chess Festival 2008. Retrieved 9 October 2015
  7. Crowther, Mark (2001-01-29). "TWIC 325: Corus Wijk aan Zee 2001". The Week in Chess. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  8. European Rapid Women's Chess Championship 2007 FIDE Archive
  9. GM title application FIDE
  10. European Women's Chess Championship-2011. chess-results.com. Retrieved 3 September 2015
  11. "European Women's Championship: Cmilyte is champion!". Chess News. ChessBase. 2011-05-21. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
  12. Viktorija Čmilytė team chess record at OlimpBase.org
  13. "Dėl apdovanojimo Didžiojo Lietuvos Kunigaikščio Gedimino ordinu ir ordino medaliu". Teisės aktų registras (in Lithuanian). 9 February 1996. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
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