Jānis Klovāns

Jānis Klovans ( born April 9, 1935 in Ruba, County Saldus; † 5 October 2010) was a Latvian chess grandmaster.

Jānis Klovans learned chess at the age of 14 years. Later, he earned a degree in economics and worked for many years in the Soviet Army, whose chess championship he won several awards. As a military officer he could no tournaments outside of the Warsaw Pact play at this time.

The Latvian national championship nine times he could decide for himself (1954, 1962, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1979 and 1986). He also participated in several Soviet championships.

For Latvia, he played in two Chess Olympiads, namely in 1992 on the first reserve board in Manila ( 0, -0 = 2) and in 2000 on the 3rd board in Istanbul ( 5, -4, = 4).

His greatest successes came, however, at the Senior World Chess Championships. In the years 1997, 1999 and 2001, he was world chess champion in each of the seniors.

His IM title he won in 1976. Due to the profit of the Chess World Championship of seniors in 1997 in Bad Love Cell 1998, he received the long -awaited GM title. For this he received in 2001 the GM title in correspondence chess.

From his life as a chess player Klovans told in an interview with Harald Graf Hofer during the Senior World Cup 1998 in Grießkirchen. The following year he won in Gladenbach the World Chess Championship of seniors in 1999.

His best Elo rating was 2530 in July 1996; at the time of his death was his Elo rating 2436th He was married six times the Latvian Mistress Astra Klovāne and had two daughters.