Guntis Valneris

Guntis Valneris (born September 6, 1967 in Riga) is a Latvian draughts player. He was the 1994 World champion in international draughts, a two-time European champion (1992, 2008),^[1] two-time World champion in fast draughts (1999, 2007), three-time Junior World champion (1984–1986), and multiple-time Latvian national champion.

Guntis Valneris

Guntis Valneris (2002).
Personal information
Nationality	Latvian
Born	(1967-09-06) September 6, 1967 (age 57) Riga, Latvian SSR
Sport
Country	Latvia
Sport	International draughts
Club	DV VBI Huissen, Netherlands
Achievements and titles
World finals	1994 World Championships: Gold
Regional finals	1992 European Championships: Gold 2008 European Championships: Gold

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 checkers, and at the age of 13 he was already the winner of the Latvian senior championships and the U18 USSR 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 Dutch 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.

Participation in World and European Championships

Year	Level	City	Tournament/Match	Result	Place
1987	EC	Moscow	Tournament	+6 =5 −2	6
1988	WC	Paramaribo	Tournament	+7 =11 −1	4-5
1990	WC	Groningen	Tournament	+8 =11 −0	2-3[2]
1991	WC	Tallinn	Match against A. Chizhov	+0 =10 −6	2
1992	EC	Parthenay	Tournament	+10 =9 −0	1
1992	WC	Toulon	Tournament	+9 =11 −3	7-8
1994	WC	The Hague	Tournament	+8 =11 −0	1
1995	WC	Yakutsk	Match against A. Chizhov	+2 −3 in sets	2
1995	EC	Lubliniec	Tournament	+11 =8 −0	2
1996	WC	Abidjan	Tournament	+3 =7 −1	4-5
1999	EC	Hoogezand	Tournament	+7 =8 −0	3[3]
2000	WC	Moscow	Tournament	+5 =11 −0	2
2002	EC	Domburg	Tournament (play-off)		4[4]
2003	WC	Zwartsluis	Tournament	+7 =11 −1	3[5]
2005	WC	Amsterdam	Tournament	+3 =8 −0	2
2006	EC	Bovec	Tournament (Swiss)	+4 =6 −0	3[3]
2007	WC	Hardenberg	Tournament	+2 =15 −2	13
2008	EC	Tallinn	Tournament (Swiss)	+4 =5 −0	1
2011	WC	Emmeloord / Urk	Tournament	+3 =16 −0	5
2012	EC	Emmen	Tournament (Swiss)	+3 =6 −0	2[3]
2016	EC	İzmir	Tournament (Swiss)	+1 =8 −0	9
2017	WC	Tallinn	Tournament	+2 =9 −0	3
2018	EC	Moscow	Tournament (Swiss)	+1 =8 −0	14
2019	WC	Yamoussoukro	Tournament	+8 =11 −0	3
2021	WC	Tallinn	Tournament	+1 =8 −0	5 in semifinal В
2022	EC	Kortrijk	Tournament (Swiss)	+2 =7 -0	5-7
2023	WC	Willemstad	Tournament	+3 =15 -0	10
2024	EC	Chianciano Terme	Tournament (Swiss)	2+ 7= 0-	3