The Lithuanian grandmaster Aloyzas Kveinys surprisingly died as a result of a heart attack on July 26th.
Throughout his career, Kveinys was Lithuanian national champion five times: 1982 (together with Eduardas Rozentalis), 1986, 2011 (with Sarunas Silskis), 2008 and 2012. In 1981, he was awarded, even in the USSR, the title of "Master of Sports". In addition to chess, he had a diploma from the Institute of Physical Culture in Moscow.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Kveinys specialized in open tournaments. In 1990 he received the title of International Master and in 1992 he was awarded the title of International Grandmaster. Kveinys participated in Chess Olympiad eight times between 1992 and 2008 for his native Lithuania. He also played for Lithuania in five European Team Championships. Aloyzas Kveinys has also defeated several strong players, including Alexey Shirov (Blitz), Gata Kamsky, Emil Sutovsky and Loek van Wely.
European Chess Union expresses the most sincere condolences to Mr. Aloyzas Kveynis' family, Lithuanian Chess Federation and the Baltic chess community on their loss.https://t.co/eRFEdyZlDz … pic.twitter.com/ckzCSKU2Az
— EuropeanChessUnion (@ECUonline) July 27, 2018
A speciality of the Lithuanian grandmaster was a Sicilian variation with early queen sortie after b6: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6. This variant is referred to today mainly after the Lithuanian grandmaster "Kveinys variation".
Kveinys was extremely popular among his chess colleagues, especially in Lithuania, for his friendly manner and sense of humour. He played for many years in the German League, after the opening of the "Iron Curtain", together with his Latvian colleague Edvin Kengis for the team Godesberg SK, from 1992 to 2007.
Kveinys participated in GM tournaments organized by the Godesberger SK and their president Anton Braun and was also willing to do some experiments, when necessary. In 1995 the computer program Fritz 3 also was allowed to participate in one of these tournaments. It ended somewhere in the middle of the standings. Kveinys had no fear to take this new kind of opponent and played the game without resentment and got a draw, with a bit of luck.
In recent years, he stepped away a bit from the professional player role and moved into chess coaching. From 2009, he lived in Iran and worked there as a coach for the Iranian women's national team.
Aloyzas Kveinys was 56 years old. He leaves his wife Vineta and three children.
Translation from German: Macauley Peterson
