Zigurds Lanka (born May 21, 1960 in

Baldone Baldone (; german: Baldohn) is a town in Ķekava Municipality in the Semigallia region of Latvia. The town is famous for its sulfur water springs and was a spa resort. Viktors Arājs Viktors Arājs (13 January 1910 – 13 January 1988) was a ...

) is a Latvian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player. In chess, he received the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) in 1987 and Grandmaster (GM) in 1992. In

correspondence chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less common ...

, he earned the title of

Correspondence Chess International Master International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) was founded on 26 March 1951 as a new appearance of the International Correspondence Chess Association (ICCA), which was founded in 1945, as successor of the Internationaler Fernschachbund (IF ...

(IM) in 1989. Lanka started to play chess when he was 6 years old. He won the Latvian Chess Championship in 1993 and 2020. His

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved ch ...

peaks were 2575 in 1997 and 2531 in 2005. Lanka is considered to be an excellent theoretician and trainer. He assisted Alexei Shirov. Zigurds Lanka graduated from the Latvian University and is a journalist by profession. Lanka is married to former

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

er Nina Serbina.

ChampionshipsLanka played for Latvia in all of these Championships

Soviet Team Chess Championship

* In 1983, at the third board in the 16th Soviet Team Chess Championship in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

(+1, =0, -0). * In 1979, at the seventh board in the 14th Soviet Team Chess Championship in

(+2, =2, -1);

Chess Olympiads

* In 1992, at the reserve board in the

30th Chess Olympiad The 30th Chess Olympiad ( tl, Ika-30 Olimpiyadang pang-ahedres), organized by FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and a women's tournament, as wel ...

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

(+5, =4, -1); * In 1994, at the third board in the

31st Chess Olympiad The 31st Chess Olympiad (russian: 31-я Шахматная олимпиада, ''31-ya Shakhmatnaya olimpiada''), organized by FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male an ...

(+2, =9, -1); * In 2008, at the fourth board in the

37th Chess Olympiad The 37th Chess Olympiad ( it, Le 37° Olimpiadi degli scacchi), organized by FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and a women's tournament, as we ...

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

(+2, =2, -4).

3rd World Team Chess Championship

* In 1993, at third board in

Lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...

(+3, =2, -2).

European Team Chess Championship The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...

* In 1992, at first board in

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

(+2, =4, -2); * In 1997, at second board in

Pula Pula (; also known as Pola, it, Pola , hu, Pòla, Venetian language, Venetian; ''Pola''; Istriot language, Istriot: ''Puola'', Slovene language, Slovene: ''Pulj'') is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the List of cities and town ...

(+2, =4, -3); * In 1999, at first board in

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of th ...

(+3, =3, -3).

Notes

References

* Žuravļevs, N.; Dulbergs, I.; Kuzmičovs, G. (1980), Latvijas šahistu jaunrade, Rīga, Avots., pp. 47 – 50 (in Latvian).

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lanka, Zigurds 1960 births Living people Latvian chess players Latvian journalists Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors University of Latvia alumni People from Baldone Municipality