My Professional and Family Life :
| My real name is Hannu Timo Lehto and I took my Masters degree in
Electronics several years ago in the Technical University of Helsinki. (Finland). After
serving as a design engineer and later as a business unit manager for a larger Finnish
company , I established my own company 1986. My company , MIP Oy , (... Yes, "Mr.
Mip" comes right here ) designs , manufactures and markets Environmental Monitors all
around the world . With the sales of a couple of million dollars annually I do all right
(Knock!, Knock!...) .Without being filthy rich nor wretchedly poor, I can freely
pursue more important aspects of the life such as studying chess..... As for the family , yes, there is Mrs. Mip and Mr. Mip.Jr. and Miss Mip as well. The younger Mips have already flown out of the nest. They probably will not take over the business after me , nor would I mention their chess. Both are rather more of artistic persuasion. He is a cartoonist and she just graduated from Film & Drama faculty of the University of Reading (UK). |
My Chessical Life :
| After learning the moves from my dad at the age of 12 and by tradition
beating him regularly a couple of months later , I more or less forgot the chess
temporarily.By sheer accident I wound up to a local chess club 3 years later ( As I
remember , I was only tracking a friend ). Anyhow , this caused me to join the club. After
being repeatedly and regularly smashed to pulp for a couple of years , I somehow "got
it" and begun to fight back. When it was time for me to leave the club in order to
start my university studies , I was category 2 (B) player. During my years in the
university the "chessbug" got worse if anything. In fact I estimate that playing
chess delayed my studies by a year. I took part in some tournaments and this resulted
finally in my promotion to the exalted rank of a Candidate Master ( Expert ) in 1971. This
was also the time the young Mrs.Mip put her pretty foot down pretty firmly and informed me
that I was quitting chess , wrapping up my studies and getting ready to be hard-working
father and provider of a family. I did quit the competitive playing for 10 years. But Caissas grip is strong. For those years I turned to chessbooks and luckily all kinds of chess computers were appearing as well . Playing against them kept me occupied. Then after 10 years of wilderness (1981) I suddenly noticed from the local paper that a chess club was established in my new (and current ) hometown , Kerava . They were arranging a club tournament about the Championship of Kerava and I joined in. As the fate had it , I managed to tie for the first place with the score of 9,5 / 10 and the Championship was split. Unfortunately the club faded out soon after and my years of wilderness continued for the next ten years. Then again my local newspaper told me that the pub in Kerava was arranging a knock-out chess tournament with (small ) monetary prizes .Some 100 players participated with a couple strong Masters and Candidate Masters included. Well , the man's got to do , what the manīs got to do - I joined the gang. Funny enough , I won all my games against progressively tougher and tougher opponents and ended up with the first prize of $ 300 and 10 Free Pizzas.( Who says that the Chess does not pay , eh ? ) .I made a lot of new friends during the tournament and for a time joined a club in the nearby city of Vantaa. After playing a few games as a member of the club team , my competitive chess is again dormant. My other chessical activities include an occasional dip into problem composing and
solving as evident from the home pages. |
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