Viktor Láznička (born January 9, 1988, in

Pardubice Pardubice (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 92,000 inhabitants. It is the capital city of the Pardubice Region and lies on the Elbe River. The historic centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Repub ...

) is a Czech

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

grandmaster.

Chess beginnings

After learning the game at age six, he progressed quickly to playing junior tournaments and achieved many prize-winning performances in the national championships across the range of age limits. These included wins in the under-10 category (1997) and the under-12 category (1998 and 1999). He also finished second in the under-18 event in 2001. At the

European Youth Chess Championship The European Youth Chess Championship is organized by the European Chess Union (ECU) in groups under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 years old. History The first tournament was held in 1991, and the under 8 category was introduced in 2007. Until 2002 t ...

, held in

Herceg Novi Herceg Novi (Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Херцег Нови, ) is a town in Coastal Montenegro, Coastal region of Montenegro located at the Western entrance to the Bay of Kotor and at the foot of Mount Orjen. It is the administrative center of ...

in 2005, he was a bronze-medallist in the under-18 category. Upon leaving school, he enrolled at the

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, to study Business Administration.

Results in international competitions

In the early part of Láznička's tournament career, he was a joint winner at

Olomouc Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region. Located on the Morava (rive ...

in 2002 and at

Mariánské Lázně Mariánské Lázně (; ) is a spa town in Cheb District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. Most of the town's buildings come from its Golden Era in the second half of the 19th century, when many c ...

in 2003. He was successful in

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

in both 2005 and 2006, the latter when he won the full national Czech Championship. This was also the year that he qualified as a grandmaster and commenced his

Olympiad An olympiad (, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the Ancient Olympic Games, ancient and Olympic Games, modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Archaic Greece, Greece ...

career, scoring the best individual result of the Czech team in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. In 2007, he was joint winner of the Czech Open (with Vlastimil Babula), held in his home town. He qualified for the

Chess World Cup 2007 The Chess World Cup 2007 served as a qualification tournament for the World Chess Championship 2010. It was held as a 128-player single-elimination tournament, between 24 November and 16 December 2007, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. In an event att ...

, but was eliminated in the first round by strong Polish player

Bartłomiej Macieja Bartłomiej (Bartek) Macieja (born 4 October 1977) is a Polish chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (GM). He is married to Mexican chess master Alejandra Guerrero Rodríguez. He currently serves as the head ...

. In 2008, he shared victory with

Krishnan Sasikiran Krishnan Sasikiran (Tamil: கிருஷ்ணன் சசிகிரண்; born 7 January 1981) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He was one of Viswanathan Anand's seconds in the World Chess Championship 2013. Chess career Born in Madra ...

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

and was declared winner on tie-break. He then took a share of second place at the

EU Individual Open Chess Championship The EU Individual Open Championship was first contested in Cork, Ireland in 2005, under the auspices of organising body, the European Chess Union (ECU). The event is open to members of chess federations within the European Union. Exceptionally, at ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, behind

Jan Werle Jan Werle (born 15 January 1984) is a Dutch chess grandmaster. He earned the International Master title in 2001 and was subsequently named a Grandmaster in 2006. He reached his peak FIDE rating of 2,607 in January 2009. Early success Werle bega ...

(and equal with the highly rated Michael Adams and

Nigel Short Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, columnist, coach and commentator who has been the FIDE Director for Chess Development since September 2022. Short earned the title of grandmaster at the ...

). In December 2009, he tied for 1st-4th with

Georg Meier Georg "Schorsch" Meier (; 9 November 1910 – 19 February 1999) was a German Motorcycle sport, motorcycle racer famous for being the first foreign winner of the prestigious Senior TT, the Blue Riband race of the Isle of Man TT Races, in 1939 ri ...

Julio Granda Julio Ernesto Granda Zúñiga (born February 25, 1967) is a Peruvian chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and four-time champion of the Americas. Career Born in Camaná, he learned how to play chess at the age of five. In 1980 he won the Worl ...

and

Kiril Georgiev Kiril Dimitrov Georgiev (; born 28 November 1965 in Petrich) is a Bulgarian and Macedonian chess grandmaster, and seven-time Bulgarian Chess Champion. From 2002 to 2004, he was affiliated to the Macedonian Chess Federation, to which he ret ...

in the 19th Magistral

Pamplona Pamplona (; ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Navarre, Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. Lying at near above sea level, the city (and the wider Cuenca de Pamplona) is located on the flood pl ...

Tournament. In June 2010, he won the City of Good Wine Rapid tournament in

Hustopeče Hustopeče (; ) is a town in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 6,400 inhabitants. It is known for fruit and wine growing. Etymology The name of the town is derived from the name of the nobleman and ...

. In July 2010, he took clear first place at the

World Open Chess Tournament The World Open is an annual open chess tournament usually held in Philadelphia. The inaugural event was held in New York in 1973 with 732 players, and was won by Walter Browne. The tournament is divided into different sections, with typically 100� ...

with 7½/9. In August 2010, Láznička won convincingly the prestigious invitation Gyorgy Marx Memorial tournament with 8/10. Between 2006 and 2014 he participated in the

Chess olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

with the Czech team five times. In 2019, he reached 2nd place in the Czech Blitz Championship with a score of 13/15. Láznička has had several coaches during his chess career, but most recently has been tutored by

Sergei Movsesian Sergei Musheghi Movsesian (; born 3 November 1978) is an Armenian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1997. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Armenian team at the 2011 World Team Chess Championship in Ningbo. ...

, a high-ranking Slovak player and one of his teammates in the Czech league. he is the Czech Republic's third highest-rated player.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laznicka, Viktor 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from Pardubice Chess Grandmasters Czech chess players Charles University alumni Chess Olympiad competitors