In Romanian Chess Championships, he won six medals: four gold (1950, 1953, 1955, 1958) and two bronze (1951, 1954).
Ion Bălănel won International Chess tournament in Międzyzdroje (1952, shared 1st-2nd place with Zdravko Milev) and Ploiești (1957).
In 1955, in Bucharest he played in the national team match with France and on the second board defeating Chantal Chaudé de Silans with 2:0.
Ion Bălănel played for Romania in the Chess Olympiad:[2] Ion Bălănel played for Romania in the European Team Chess Championship preliminaries:[3] In 1958 he was virtually excommunicated from his club Dinamo and put in a lunatic asylum by the communist regime.
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