GM Janis Klovans
9 April 1935 – 5 October 2010
Grandmaster Janis Klovans passed away on 5 October 2010. The sad news was confirmed by Alexei Shirov in the Russian-language chess forums.
As we wrote in issue 3440 on his 75th birthday, Klovans “won the world senior championship three times, and played for Latvia at two Olympiads. During Soviet times he was a multiple winner of the Latvian championship, but was often not allowed to play in international competitions”.
Klovans played actively in Europe in the 1990s-2000s. While the time for showing his best play had passed, he was a dangerous opponent for many in the European opens, with a peak ELO of 2530 points achieved in 1996 at the age of 63.
Twice, in 1992 and 2000, he played on the Latvian team at Chess Olympiads, with a positive overall individual score. In July 2010, at the Pardubice Open, Klovans defeated the Azerbaijani national team player, GM Safarli (rated 2603), and drew against at least four players, rated over 2500.
I often met Klovans at tournaments in the mid-1990s. A vigorous and cheerful man, he preferred to walk instead of using transport whenever possible. We, young players, were impressed.
GM Mikhail Golubev for www.ChessToday.net
RIP, say hi to Bobby and Victor.