Career
In 1980, he received the International Grandmaster title and this heralded the start of a successful playing career in national and international competitions. In tournaments, there have been many outright first places, including Esbjerg 1982, Trnava 1983, Alltensteig 1987, Baden-Baden Open 1987, Vienna 1990 and the Parkroyal Surfers (Australia) 2000. At Cienfuegos 1980, Dortmund 1981 and Lugano 1988, he shared first place, and at Hradec Králové in 1981 he was runner-up.
In 1987 he drew a match with Kiril Georgiev, the strong Bulgarian grandmaster.
At the Chess Olympiad, he has represented first Czechoslovakia and then Slovakia from 1980 onwards, missing out only in 1998. Oddly, his brilliant performance with the black pieces totally overshadowed his results with white, an unusual outcome at such a high level
In recent years he has spent more time travelling abroad and is an occasional visitor to Australia and the United States of America. He also played the Amsterdam 2006 event and finished a creditable half point off the leaders in what was a very strong field (Tiviakov, Timman, Nijboer, Tukmakov among others). Ftáčnik plays league chess in the German Bundesliga and has also made occasional appearances in the 4NCL. He has a son, Martin, born 1985.