Janis Kļaviņs (Elo 2349) was born in Ruba, Latvia, a small village in western Latvia near the Lithuanian border.
Klavins had a short but bright chess career that spanned only the years 19501957. He won the Latvian Championship in 1952 and finished third in 1956, 1959 and 1960.
In 1955, he fulfilled chess master norm in the Team Championship of USSR in Voroshilovgrad. In 1956 he won the All-Union Mass Tournament in Moscow ahead Isaac Boleslavsky, Vladimir Makogonov, Leonid Stein and Ratmir Kholmov. He also played for Latvia in Soviet team championship in 1953, 1955, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962 and 1963.
He was a member of the Latvian team "Daugava" in the Soviet team chess cup in 1954 and 1961. He played third board behind Mikhail Tal and Alvars Gipslis.
Although well versed in all aspects of theory his strength was his tactical ability.
Klavins did more than just play chess; he had a career in science.
After obtaining a degree from the University of Latvia in 1957, he enrolled in the Institute of Physics of Latvian Academy of Sciences (now the Institute of Physics of University of Latvia).
That was the beginning of his scientific career and spelled the end of his chess career. He worked as an engineer, scientist, laboratory director, scientific secretary and deputy director of scientific work. He performed research in Magneto-hydrodynamics problems and earning his doctorate degree in Physics.
In the following game Klavins delivers a fine performance to defeat the strong Soviet GM Alexey Suetin (192602001) who won the World Senior Championship in 1996.
Alexey S Suetin–Janis Klavins0–1C82USSR Chp, Semi-Finals, Kharkiv1956Stockfish/Komodo
C82: Open Ruy Lopez 1.e4 e5 2.f3 c6 3.b5 a6 4.a4 f6 5.0-0 xe4
In the open variation Black tries to make use of the time white will take to
regain the Pawn to gain a foothold in the center. It contains ideas completely
different from the usual Ruy Lopez. It leads to an open game with unbalanced
structures and sharp play. 6.d4 6.e1 is seldom played, but not bad...at
least in theory, Practically though black often does quite good. c5 7.xc6 dxc6 8.xe5 e7 9.d4 e6 with a completely equal position. 6...b5 7.b3 d5 8.dxe5 e6 9.c3 c5 10.c2 g4 11.e1 d4 The main line is 11...Be7
followed by ...O-O 12.h3 h5 13.g5 13.e6 fxe6 14.cxd4 xf3 15.xf3 xd4 16.h5+ g6 17.xg6+ hxg6 18.xh8 Black is down the exchange but has
reasonable compensation, In Koch,B-German,E Helsinki 1952, black went on to
win. 13.f4 d3 14.b3 xb3 15.axb3 e7 16.e3 g6 17.bd2 Matanovic,
A-Teschner,R Oberhausen 1961. Black is ever so slightly better. 13...xg5 14.xg5 xd1 15.xd1 d3 15...dxc3 only helps white. 16.xc3 d4 17.d5 ce6 18.h5 White is much better after 18...O-O-O. Black must
avoid g6 19.f6+ e7 20.d5+ d7 21.g4 c6 22.xf7 and white is clearly
better. 16.f3 0-0-0 17.xc6 White gets enough compensation for the
exchange, 17.e2 favors black after dxc3 18.xc3 cxe5 19.e4 h6 20.xd3 xd3 21.xe5 hxg5 22.xg5 d2 with the more active position. 17.xf7 is equal after xe1 18.xc6 c2 19.e4 xa1 20.f5+ d7 21.xh8 d8 22.xd7 xd7 17...xe1 18.xf7 Slightly better would have been 18.Be4 c2 Up to this point chances have been evenly balanced, but white next,
a natural looking move, is a mistake. 19.xh8 Taking either R is
unfavorable! 19.xd8 xd8 20.cxd4 xa1 Black is a R up. 19.e4
is an entirely different story. xa1 20.f5+ d7 21.xh8 d8 22.xd7 xd7 23.f4 with equal chances. 19...xa1 20.f7 White is lost because black
save the R and. in addition, it reaches a very powerful post dxc3 21.xc3 21.xd8 c2 would win 21...d2 22.e6 In spite of his poot position
Suetin manages to make the maximum use of his e-Pawn and actively placed
pieces. c2 23.d5 Black must now prevent e7. e2 24.d7+ b8 25.g4 d4
Black's position is won, but he must still work to gain the point! 26.f4 xb2 Black is clearly winning. 27.g2 xa2 28.e5 b4 29.d5 b3 30.e7 Technically there is nothing better, but with the disappearance of the
e-Pawn all hope i gone. 30.c4 Makes black work harder to core the point. e2 31.de3 e7 32.a4 b2 32...h4 is also quite good. 33.d1 xe6
Here, too, with the e-Pawn gone so are all od white's hope. 33.xb2 xb2
at this point all white can do is annoy his opponent. 30...xe7 31.xe7 b2 32.7c6+ b7 33.d8+ b6 34.f5 h6 35.c2 a1 White resigned. Solid play
by Klavins. 0–1
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