Jānis Kļaviņš (April 27, 1933 – November 25, 2008) was a Latvian chess master who won the

Latvian Chess Championship The Latvian Chess Championship () is the annual national chess tournament of Latvia among men and women players, which was established in 1924. It is organized by the Latvian Chess Federation (), previously - Latvian Chess Union (). Histor ...

in 1952.

Chess career

Jānis Kļaviņš had 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 Luhansk (, ; , ), also known as Lugansk (, ; , ), is a city in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. As of 2022, the population was estimated to be making Luhansk the Cities in Ukraine, 12th-largest city in Ukraine. Luhansk served as the administra ...

. In 1956 Kļaviņš won the All-Union Mass Tournament in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, ahead

Isaac Boleslavsky Isaac Yefremovich Boleslavsky (, ; 9 June 1919 – 15 February 1977) was a Soviet chess grandmaster and writer. Early career Born in Zolotonosha in Ukraine to Jewish parents, Boleslavsky taught himself chess at age nine. In 1933, he became sch ...

Vladimir Makogonov Vladimir Andreevich Makogonov (, August 27, 1904 – January 2, 1993) was a Soviet chess player from Azerbaijan SSR. 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 h ...

Leonid Stein Leonid Zakharovych Stein (; November 12, 1934 – July 4, 1973) was a Soviet Union, Soviet chess Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster from Ukrainian SSR, Ukraine. He won three USSR Chess Championships in the 1960s (1963, 1965, and 1966), and was amo ...

Ratmir Kholmov Ratmir Dmitrievich Kholmov ( Russian: Ратмир Дмитриевич Холмов) (13 May 1925 in Shenkursk – 18 February 2006 in Moscow) was a Russian chess Grandmaster. He won many international tournaments in Eastern Europe during his ...

). Kļaviņš played for

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

in Soviet team chess championship in 1953 (won first prize on third board), 1955, 1958, 1959, 1960 (won third place on third board), 1962, and 1963, and for Latvian team "Daugava" in the Soviet team chess cup in 1954 and 1961. He was well versed in all aspects of

chess theory The game of chess is commonly divided into three phases: the chess opening, opening, Chess middlegame, middlegame, and Chess endgame, endgame. There is a large body of theory regarding how the game should be played in each of these phases, especi ...

and technique but his strength lied in his ability to make

combinations In mathematics, a combination is a selection of items from a set that has distinct members, such that the order of selection does not matter (unlike permutations). For example, given three fruits, say an apple, an orange and a pear, there are t ...

Career in science

After completing Faculty of Physics and Mathematics

University of Latvia University of Latvia (, shortened ''LU'') is a public research university located in Riga, Latvia. The university was established in 1919. History The University of Latvia, initially named as the Higher School of Latvia () was founded on Se ...

in 1957, 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 In physics and engineering, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD; also called magneto-fluid dynamics or hydromagnetics) is a model of electrically conducting fluids that treats all interpenetrating particle species together as a single Continuum ...

problems and earning his doctorate degree in Physics from there.

References

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

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Klavins, Janis 1933 births 2008 deaths Chess players from Riga Latvian chess players Soviet chess players University of Latvia alumni 20th-century Latvian scientists Latvian physicists Soviet physicists