Guntis Valneris
Encyclopedia
Guntis Valneris is a Latvia
n draughts
player. 1994 World champion
in international draughts
, two-times European champion (1992, 2008), two-times World champion in fast draughts (1999, 2007), three-times Junior World champion (1984-1986), multiple times Latvian national champion.
, and at the age of 13 he was already the winner of the Latvian senior championships and the U18 USSSR Champion. Another future World champion, Alexander Schwarzman
, was one of the players he defeated at the Soviet U18 championships.
In 1982 Guntis Valneris switched to international draughts
, with Emmanuils Merins becoming his new coach. Under Merins's guidance, Valneris three times in a row won the World Junior Championships. In 1985 he won his first senior Latvian championships in international draughts, and two years later he shared the first place at the senior USSR championships, losing gold medal in an ensuing barrage.
1987 was Valneris's debuting year in the European senior championships, and the next year he for the first time played in the senior World championships. Both times he finished with a good overall balance but not on a podium. Then in 1990 he tied for the second place at the World championships with the Duch master Ton Sijbrands
; a re-match for the silver medals was supposed to take place, but Sijbrands forfeited, and Valneris automatically proceeded to the championship match against the defending world champion Alexei Chizhov
next year. The match that took place in Tallinn
ended with Chizhov's unqualified victory.
This defeat did not stop Guntis. He won the European championships in Parthenay
in 1992 and then the World championships in the Hague
in 1994. The next year, in a return match, Chizhov took the world title back from him. In fact, the match was tied after the initial four sets, and then Chizhov managed to win a tie-breaking barrage set.
After that, Valneris multiple times won medals at the World and European championships, including the gold medal at the 2008 European championship. At the 2003 World championship he shared the first place in a three-way tie with Chizhov and Alexander Georgiev
but lost to Georgiev in a marathon tie-break barrage and finished third overall. In 1999 and 2007 he also won the World championships in fast draughts (blitz), and in 2005 he won a medal at the World team championships where he took part as the leader of the Latvian national team.
Guntis Valneris currently remains one of the world international draughts leaders.
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
n draughts
Draughts
Draughts is a group of abstract strategy board games between two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over the enemy's pieces. Draughts developed from alquerque...
player. 1994 World champion
Draughts World Championship
The Draughts World Championship is the world championship in draughts, organised by the World Draughts Federation . The following are the winners in men's and women's competitions.- Men's :-Women's:...
in international draughts
International draughts
International draughts is a board game, one of the variants of draughts. It is played on a 10×10 board with alternatingly dark and light squares, of which only the 50 dark ones are used. There are two players on opposite sides, with 20 pieces each, light for one player and dark for the other...
, two-times European champion (1992, 2008), two-times World champion in fast draughts (1999, 2007), three-times Junior World champion (1984-1986), multiple times Latvian national champion.
Career highlights
Guntis Valneris started playing draughts when he was 10 years old. Viktor Adamovich became his first coach. In a year, Guntis won the Latvian U18 championship in Russian checkersRussian checkers
Russian draughts is a variant of draughts played in some parts in Russia and some parts of the former USSR, as well as parts of Eastern Europe and Israel.-Rules:...
, and at the age of 13 he was already the winner of the Latvian senior championships and the U18 USSSR Champion. Another future World champion, Alexander Schwarzman
Alexander Schwarzman
Alexander Schwarzman is an international grandmaster international draughts with Russian nationality. He is known for his creative playing style, especially his positional sacrifices and his high number of elegant games involving encirclements...
, was one of the players he defeated at the Soviet U18 championships.
In 1982 Guntis Valneris switched to international draughts
International draughts
International draughts is a board game, one of the variants of draughts. It is played on a 10×10 board with alternatingly dark and light squares, of which only the 50 dark ones are used. There are two players on opposite sides, with 20 pieces each, light for one player and dark for the other...
, with Emmanuils Merins becoming his new coach. Under Merins's guidance, Valneris three times in a row won the World Junior Championships. In 1985 he won his first senior Latvian championships in international draughts, and two years later he shared the first place at the senior USSR championships, losing gold medal in an ensuing barrage.
1987 was Valneris's debuting year in the European senior championships, and the next year he for the first time played in the senior World championships. Both times he finished with a good overall balance but not on a podium. Then in 1990 he tied for the second place at the World championships with the Duch master Ton Sijbrands
Ton Sijbrands
Teunis Sijbrands is a famous Dutch player of international draughts who became world champion in 1972 and remained so in 1973 after he successfully defended his title against Andris Andreiko...
; a re-match for the silver medals was supposed to take place, but Sijbrands forfeited, and Valneris automatically proceeded to the championship match against the defending world champion Alexei Chizhov
Alexei Chizhov
Alexei Chizhov is a Russian who has been the ten-time world champion in international draughts. His first world champion title was in 1988 and his most recent was in 2005. He has won more world championships than any player since Isidore Weiss almost a century ago. In 2003 he headed the World...
next year. The match that took place in Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
ended with Chizhov's unqualified victory.
This defeat did not stop Guntis. He won the European championships in Parthenay
Parthenay
Parthenay is an ancient fortified town and commune in the Poitou-Charentes region in western France, sited on a rocky spur that is surrounded on two sides by the River Thouet...
in 1992 and then the World championships in the Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
in 1994. The next year, in a return match, Chizhov took the world title back from him. In fact, the match was tied after the initial four sets, and then Chizhov managed to win a tie-breaking barrage set.
After that, Valneris multiple times won medals at the World and European championships, including the gold medal at the 2008 European championship. At the 2003 World championship he shared the first place in a three-way tie with Chizhov and Alexander Georgiev
Alexander Georgiev
Alexander Sergeyevich Georgiev is a draughts player who won the world championship in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2011. He is considered to be among the best living players of the game.-External links:*...
but lost to Georgiev in a marathon tie-break barrage and finished third overall. In 1999 and 2007 he also won the World championships in fast draughts (blitz), and in 2005 he won a medal at the World team championships where he took part as the leader of the Latvian national team.
Guntis Valneris currently remains one of the world international draughts leaders.
Participation in World and European Championships
| Year | Level | City | Tournament/Match | Result | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | EC |  MoscowMoscow Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent... |
Tournament | +6 =5 −2 | 6 |
| 1988 | WC |  ParamariboParamaribo Paramaribo is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 250,000 people, more than half of Suriname's population... |
Tournament | +7 =11 −1 | 4-5 |
| 1990 | WC |  Groningen |
Tournament | +8 =11 −0 | 2-3 |
| 1991 | WC | Tallinn Tallinn Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list... |
Match against A. Chizhov Alexei Chizhov Alexei Chizhov is a Russian who has been the ten-time world champion in international draughts. His first world champion title was in 1988 and his most recent was in 2005. He has won more world championships than any player since Isidore Weiss almost a century ago. In 2003 he headed the World... |
+0 =10 −6 | 2 |
| 1992 | EC |  ParthenayParthenay Parthenay is an ancient fortified town and commune in the Poitou-Charentes region in western France, sited on a rocky spur that is surrounded on two sides by the River Thouet... |
Tournament | +10 =9 −0 | 1 |
| 1992 | WC | Toulon Toulon Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence.... |
Tournament | +9 =11 −3 | 7-8 |
| 1994 | WC | The Hague The Hague The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam... |
Tournament | +8 =11 −0 | 1 |
| 1995 | WC |  YakutskYakutsk With a subarctic climate , Yakutsk is the coldest city, though not the coldest inhabited place, on Earth. Average monthly temperatures range from in July to in January. The coldest temperatures ever recorded on the planet outside Antarctica occurred in the basin of the Yana River to the northeast... |
Match against A. Chizhov |
+2 −3 in sets | 2 |
| 1995 | EC |  LubliniecLubliniec Lubliniec is a town in southern Poland with 29,359 inhabitants . It is the capital of Lubliniec County, part of Silesian Voivodeship ; previously it was in Częstochowa Voivodeship .-Geography:... |
Tournament | +11 =8 −0 | 2 |
| 1996 | WC |  AbidjanAbidjan Abidjan is the economic and former official capital of Côte d'Ivoire, while the current capital is Yamoussoukro. it was the largest city in the nation and the third-largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris, and Kinshasa but before Montreal... |
Tournament | +3 =7 −1 | 4-5 |
| 1999 | EC | Hoogezand Hoogezand Hoogezand is a village in the municipality Hoogezand-Sappemeer, located in the principality Groningen in northeast Netherlands. The name refers to a higher sanded place in the peatlands cut through when the Winschoterdiep channel was dug. Near this channel in 1618 the village was founded.In the... |
Tournament | +7 =8 −0 | 3 |
| 2000 | WC | Moscow |
Tournament | +5 =11 −0 | 2 |
| 2002 | EC | Domburg Domburg Domburg is a seaside resort on the North Sea, on the northwest coast of Walcheren in the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is a part of the municipality of Veere, and lies about 11 km northwest of the city of Middelburg, the provincial capital.-Demographics:... |
Tournament (play-off) | 4 | |
| 2003 | WC | Zwartsluis Zwartsluis Zwartsluis is a small city in the Dutch province of Overijssel. It is located in the municipality of Zwartewaterland, at the mouth of the Zwartewater River and the Meppelerdiep canal.... |
Tournament | +7 =11 −1 | 3 |
| 2005 | WC | Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population... |
Tournament | +3 =8 −0 | 2 |
| 2006 | EC |  BovecBovec Bovec is a small city and municipality in northwestern Slovenia. The city of Bovec lies in the Bovec Basin in the Soča Valley below the Kanin mountain in the Julian Alps.-Geographical location:... |
Tournament (Swiss) | +4 =6 −0 | 3 |
| 2007 | WC | Hardenberg Hardenberg Hardenberg is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The city of Hardenberg has a population of about 17,200. It received city rights in 1362 from Jan van Arkel, Bishop of Utrecht. The famous Pieterpad also passes through Hardenberg.-Cycling:There are... |
Tournament | +2 =15 −2 | 13 |
| 2008 | EC |  Tallinn |
Tournament (Swiss) | +4 =5 −0 | 1 |