Jānis Kļaviņš is a Latvian chess master who won the Latvian Chess Championship

Latvian Chess Championship

-History:Professional level Latvian chess players have already appeared in the nineteenth century. They participated in chess tournaments and union congresses, organized by the Riga Chess Association. After the World War I, when Latvia became an independent country, official Latvian chess...

 in 1952.

Chess player career

Jānis Kļaviņš has a short but bright chess player career. He won Latvian Championship in 1952 and three times won the bronze medals (1956, 1959, 1960).
In 1955 Jānis Kļaviņš fulfilled chess master norm in Team Championship of USSR in Voroshilovgrad. In 1956 Jānis Kļaviņš won the All-Union Mass Tournament in Moscow

Moscow

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...

, ahead Isaac Boleslavsky

Isaac Boleslavsky

Isaac Yefremovich Boleslavsky was a Soviet–Jewish chess Grandmaster.-Early career:Boleslavsky taught himself chess at age 9...

, Vladimir Makogonov

Vladimir Makogonov

Vladimir Andreevich Makogonov was a chess player from Azerbaijan. He was born in Nakhchivan but lived in Baku for most of his life. He became an International Master in 1950 and was awarded an honorary Grandmaster title in 1987. Makogonov never became well known outside the Soviet Union, but was...

, Leonid Stein

Leonid Stein

Leonid Zakharovich Stein was a Soviet chess Grandmaster from Ukraine. He won three USSR Chess Championships in the 1960s , and was among the world's top ten players during that era.- Early life :...

, Ratmir Kholmov

Ratmir Kholmov

Ratmir Dmitrievich Kholmov was a Russian chess Grandmaster. He won many international tournaments in Eastern Europe during his career, and tied for the Soviet Championship title in 1963, but lost the playoff...

).
Jānis Kļaviņš played for Latvia

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...

 in Soviet team chess championship in 1953 (won first price at third board), 1955, 1958, 1959, 1960 (won third place at third board), 1962, and 1963, and for Latvian team "Daugava" in Soviet team chess cup in 1954 and 1961.
He is well versed in all aspects of chess theory and technique but his strength lies in his combinational ability.

Career in science

After completing Faculty of Physics and Mathematics University of Latvia

University of Latvia

University of Latvia is a university located in Riga, Latvia. Being established in 1919, University of Latvia is the biggest university in the Baltic states.-History:...

 in 1957, Jānis Kļaviņš enrolled at the Institute of Physics of Latvian Academy of Sciences (now - Institute of Physics of University of Latvia). He started career in science and ended chess player career. Jānis Kļaviņš has worked as an engineer, scientist, laboratory director, scientific secretary and deputy director of scientific work. He performed research in Magnetohydrodynamics

Magnetohydrodynamics

Magnetohydrodynamics is an academic discipline which studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such fluids include plasmas, liquid metals, and salt water or electrolytes...

 problems and earning his doctorate degree in Physics from there.

External links

player profile at chessgames.com player profile at 365chess.com player profile at chesstempo.com

• Žuravļevs, N.; Dulbergs, I.; Kuzmičovs, G. (1980), Latvijas šahistu jaunrade, Rīga, Avots., pp. 40 – 42 (in Latvian).