Vadim Aleksandrovich Virny (, born 1965 in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

) is a German (formerly

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

)

International draughts International draughts (also called international checkers or Polish draughts) is a Abstract strategy, strategy board game for two players, one of the variants of draughts. The gameboard comprises 10×10 squares in alternating dark and light co ...

player, an International Grandmaster. He was a European champion, World vice-champion and two-times World team champion in International draughts in the 1980s. Vadim Virny's father is Alexander Yakovlevich Virny, well known as a

draughts Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; Commonwealth English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve forward movements of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. ...

coach and an author of several draughts textbooks.

Early achievements

Vadim became a draughts master when he was 13 years old. In 1979, at 14, he won a bronze medal at the World junior championship and the next year for the first time took part in the Soviet championship finals, sharing places 6—10. In 1981 he won the World junior championship in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, defeating another young Soviet player, Alexander Dybman, in the final barrage.List of World and European champions in International draughts
at the Website of

World Draughts Federation The World Draughts Federation (''Fédération Mondiale du Jeu de Dames'') FMJD, is the international body uniting national draughts federations. It was founded in 1947 by four Federations: France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Membe ...

In 1983, at the age of 18, he became a European champion in

Deventer Deventer (; Sallaans dialect, Sallands: ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Salland historical region of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel, ...

(

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

) and was awarded a Grandmaster title. A month before that he took a second place, losing only to the reigning World champion Harm Wiersma, at a prestigious VOLMAC-Trophy tournament that was later recognized by the

as a World championship. As a silver medalist he had the right to play a World championship match against the reigning champion next year. In 1984 Virny met Wiersma in a World championship match and drew it (1+ 18= 1-), a result that allowed Wiersma to retain his crown. During this year he also played in a World championship tournament in Senegal but only shared places 4-5. In 1985 the Soviet team including Virny won a World Zonal Cup, an unofficial World championship. In 1986 the Soviet Grandmasters won Draughts Olympiade, which is currently counted by the World Draughts Federation as a World team championship. Another team title was won by Virny as a member of the Soviet team at 1989 World team championship in

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

. In between, Virny also won a silver medal at the individual 1987 European championship. In addition to his international titles, Vadim Virny was three-times (in 1983, 1985 and 1989) silver medalist of the Soviet championships in International draughts and a bronze medalist in 1982.

Since the 1990s

In 1992 Vadim Virny moved to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

with his wife, multiple World champion Elena Altchul, and started an IT career, paying less attention to sports. Only in the new millennium he started regularly playing again. In 2006 he won a silver medal at the Netherlands Open championship, the next year he became a silver medalist at the German national championship, and then in 2008—2010 won the national championships three times in a rowResults of 2008 German national championship
br
Results of 2009 German national championship
br
Results of 2010 German national championship
/ref> He returned to the European championships in 2008 and 2010, taking, accordingly, 4th and 5th places.

Personal record at the World and European championships

References

External links

Profile
at the Website of the Netherlands Draughts Federation {{DEFAULTSORT:Virny, Vadim Players of international draughts Soviet draughts players Ukrainian draughts players German draughts players Living people 1965 births Sportspeople from Kharkiv