GM Valentina Gunina is certainly one of seven Russian girls in historical past to achieve the chess grandmaster title. She is a three-time European girls’s chess champion, a five-time Russian girls’s chess champion, has gained three gold medals with the Russian nationwide group on the Girls’s Chess Olympiads, and has gained six gold medals on the Girls’s European Crew Chess Championships.

On the finish of 2023, she added a win on the FIDE Girls’s World Blitz Chess Championship to her legendary resume, which was her second girls’s world blitz title since 2012. This got here lower than a 12 months after she was identified with lupus, an autoimmune illness during which the physique’s immune system mistakenly assaults wholesome tissue in lots of components of the physique. It has affected her potential to play chess, however evidently not her potential to persevere. 

Our Russian Social Media Supervisor Vsevolod Sidorov spoke with Gunina in her native language of Russian, with translations into English supplied by Director of Russian Content material Yury Solomatin and yours really. The complete video with English subtitles is supplied under, with an English transcription under.

We hope you benefit from the interview! We have organized it into the next topic-based sections:

Seva: Howdy, chess lovers and viewers of the Chesscom Russia channel. We’re glad to welcome you once more. And at present, to start with, Glad New Yr and Merry Christmas. With us is the Girls’s World Champion in Blitz of 2023, Valentin Gunina. Howdy, Valentina.

Gunina: Howdy, Glad New Yr to everybody!

Successful The World Championship

Seva: Sure, we even had a meme on the channel two years in the past throughout one of many phases of the FIDE Grand Prix. The meme included a quote from Capablanca about “draw demise” after which your photograph, and that the mission was achieved, that chess is saved, that’s, there are not any extra attracts. Nicely, one thing like that.

On the whole, Valentina, we wish to return to the world championship itself, to Samarkand. Do you bear in mind the second once you gained the championship, proper after that final recreation? Inform us about your impressions at that second.

Gunina: It is a combination of feelings, as a result of normally you aren’t getting so glad in the course of the event, as a result of at first you struggle and this struggle takes over every thing, and also you solely loosen up after the event ends and even at dwelling. That is why it is so humorous.

Seva: From what I noticed within the video feed, you could not maintain again your tears after the victory. You regarded overwhelmed.

Gunina: Sure, it was so humorous, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi got here as much as me, congratulated me, and earlier he additionally supplied his assist, if I would want any drugs or if I would want a health care provider in the course of the event. Rattling, it was so cute!

And WGM Baira Kovanova, who grew to become the Russian girls’s champion this 12 months. We had breakfast collectively, shared the identical resort in Samarkand, and usually frolicked with the identical group of ladies. She got here as much as me and congratulated me.

All the things that was exhausting for me simply flew away. I do not normally like to point out my feelings, glad feelings. I smile, however I do not like to point out my happiness as a result of my opponent is damage. So I am extra reserved, however right here every thing broke by means of. So it turned out to be an attention-grabbing clip.

Seva: It is nice that the cameraperson managed to take this shot. We noticed it too, a good looking shot.

Gunina: Sure, they introduced in group. The one factor is that there wasn’t our Anna Shturman, my good buddy from Yaroslavl, her group is FIDE. She additionally has a variety of cool photographs, she loves attention-grabbing views, views. And every thing of hers is attention-grabbing, I noticed a variety of photographs, a variety of attention-grabbing angles. It is very thrilling.

Seva: However usually, is it tougher to win Titled Tuesday than the Girls’s World Blitz Championship?

Gunina: Sure, it is harder. I am very glad that I gained tenth place as soon as. I normally win girls’s prizes, however I am most glad after I play with somebody robust,  after I beat somebody robust. I as soon as performed with Nakamura. I like to gather scalps, so to talk.

Battling With Sickness

Seva: Valentina, we simply wished to inform our viewers that you simply play chess not only for enjoyable, but additionally to treatment your sickness, so far as we perceive. Might you inform us how your sickness affected you in Samarkand?

Gunina: I used to be solely identified in Could final 12 months. I fought for a prognosis for a very long time. It began after I was 28, and now I am 34. In February I will be 35, and I am simply beginning to get remedy. With the programs I’ve had little enhancements, it is as a result of a variety of time went into looking for a prognosis.

I really thought that if I could not adapt to the remedy, I’d finish my chess profession. Such an choice can be my very own on the horizon, as a result of it is actually exhausting. However since I’ve a coach and chess, and assist from the federation, and within the remedy, and usually, I assumed I had an opportunity, however I managed to play properly in a number of tournaments, even in classical.

It was superb for me that I may change into the world champion in blitz. It was a shock for my coach and for my household, who know that it is exhausting when it comes to well being. My mother requested me how I transfer the items, as a result of after I take a chunk my fingers can damage and it is exhausting for me to even let go of it.

Seva: You mentioned in a single interview that chess lets you recover from the illness.

Gunina: Sure, sure, I want motivation to rise up from my mattress. At one level it was very troublesome, however now it’s simpler. However typically the illness utterly turns me off. I used to be afraid that—that’s, I can flip it off for a day, and I used to be afraid that it may occur at a chess  event. However in reality, at a chess event or on the coaching camp, this doesn’t occur. As a result of it acts like a distraction.

Seva: So proper now the quicker time controls are extra comfy for you than classical, proper?

Gunina: Alternatively, it’s extra handy due to the vitality consumption. However for the reason that nervous system was affected, I’d stutter, I’d have a spasm, so it wasn’t precisely a stutter. My palms additionally shook closely, so I used to be afraid that with blitz chess could be utterly not possible. I assumed, if I can not choose up the items, how am I alleged to play blitz usually?

And the good factor was the Girls’s Velocity Chess Championship. I performed with GM Harika Dronavalli and it was simply plainly seen. I am holding my hand on the mouse and I am utilizing my different hand to carry it in place as a result of it shakes. And it seems that it’s even troublesome for me to make a transfer. 

After which my buddy informed me that even after I take a cup of espresso, you may see my palms shaking, I begin consuming and I’ve such a tremor. I received used to it, in fact, I do know that there’s nonetheless a battle, these are some moments that also should be taken into consideration.

Seva: Nicely, we want you good well being, in order that every thing goes properly and turns into higher.

Gunina: Thanks.

Gunina’s Chess Persona, Origins Of Her Preventing Spirit

Gunina: I do not know, possibly classical. I am not for eliminating the classical time management as a result of the great thing about chess, the depth of chess, it seems once you sit on the board for a number of hours. Sure, that’s, blitz is extra leisure. Sure, GM Mikhail Botvinnik forbade his college students to play it, saying that it was all a joke/playing around.

Quick chess can get shut in depth, however nonetheless… I performed even in a 25+10 recreation. Even this doesn’t actually present how lovely the selections in chess will be. Subsequently, in all probability classical.

And the truth that boys play eight-hour video games is kind of troublesome. And now, the FIDE time management of 90 minutes for 40 strikes adopted by half-hour for the remainder of the sport, plus a 30-second increment… and the increment helps keep away from what we name “park blitz,” when the items fall. Sure, sure, it is extra for magnificence usually, as a result of chess is extra of an mental recreation.

Seva: Uh-huh. I have been your fan since 2016, after I began watching chess. I bear in mind watching some type of Russian Tremendous Finals. I do not bear in mind who commented precisely, however they at all times mentioned that if Valentina Gunina is taking part in some dead-drawn rook endgame, one thing will nonetheless occur on the board. I keep in mind that you gained a number of such video games and likewise misplaced a few of them. Please clarify why you at all times try for such shiny video games? That is such a shiny fashion; do you encourage your self to play with additional threat typically, or… what is the secret of your chess?

Gunina: It is in all probability from my tournaments as a toddler, as a result of I am from Murmansk myself, and to search out cash for a visit was an enormous drawback for the administration. And once you come to the event, it’s miles away, and I am touring with my dad. And so it seems that the extra attracts you make, and I am utterly silent about losses, you won’t get one other probability to exit like that once more and to advance additional. So that you needed to win.

My dad is a instructor in arithmetic, he performed chess himself. My grandfather performed chess. He taught me and my brother. However usually, the absence of a coach was nonetheless an issue. Now I’m working with an expert coach, making an allowance for the engine. On the whole, it is a extra skilled method. I perceive what errors I made. With horror I believe that everybody is scolding me, severely and accurately, after I refuse to take a pressured draw. It is simply that I’ve such a character since childhood.

Nicely, and so that you prepare and go to the sport, for what, to make a fast draw? After which spend half the day in your resort room? It’s kind of boring.

Ideas About Attracts And Fast Attracts

Seva: By the best way, what do you concentrate on the dance of the knights carried out by Ian Nepomniachtchi and GM Daniil Dubov?

Gunina: Nicely it was the truth that they did it precisely like that, that it was a knights dance and it was caught on digicam. I did not see it occur however noticed it afterward, and that they acquired a double-forfeit for this.

I believe that they need to have been punished. Then Ian wrote to me that he does not see the distinction between drawing this fashion or that means. That is why they wished to point out it like that. However usually, I believe you may simply agree within the room, within the males’s lavatory, within the girls’s lavatory. You can provide indicators, no matter. However it appears to me that they need to have been fined for such indiscretion. 

It’s not clear whether or not it was proper or not, however they put themselves in that very scenario. If they simply performed 10 strikes, I believe there would not have been such a scenario.

Seva: Nicely, I believe they did put 10 strikes on the board, however they did not take a look at that nice…

Gunina: Sure, sure, if it wasn’t so, as a result of I do know circumstances when gamers have been punished for this. However it was at all times like that. GM Bobby Fischer accused the Soviet grandmasters of constructing attracts with one another whereas he needed to struggle them. So there are totally different opinions.

Seva: However this isn’t your methodology, do I perceive accurately?

Gunina: After I want it, I conform to a draw. However I will not provide it myself, “behind the curtains” so to talk. Though if there’s a million {dollars} on the road, I’d give it some thought.

So when Magnus talks about his personal politics, that he is in opposition to such preparations, we take a look at it like: properly in fact, you are a millionaire! 

A End result To Bear in mind: ‘Chess Is My Complete Life’

Seva: Nicely, sure, I bear in mind the shortest attract historical past, with GM Vidit Gujrathi, I bear in mind such movies. I wish to return to the second earlier than Samarkand. There have been are just a few days left, you could go to the event. On the whole, what have been your expectations at that second, that’s, earlier than the event? What expectations did you’ve?

Gunina: Not a lot! I simply wished to play and earn some cash, if doable. While you go to the event, in fact you wish to be the primary. It is at all times like that. You then begin to backtrack, deciding even third place is OK, after which we start to have that battle with ourselves.

We flew out in a single day by Aeroflot, a direct flight of 4 hours. However for me, each early morning and night time flights, are undesirable for my nervous system. And it was exhausting to get there, however the group was superb, so every thing occurred in a short time.

I simply remembered that I do not wish to let my coach down and I wished to earn some cash for the New Yr, any cash. However the truth that I gained is a shock for me and for my Lupus illness too.

Seva: Furthermore, you simply have to get better.

Gunina: I can not get better. I can go into remission. It does not heal, sure, it stays within the physique.

Seva: Ah, in order that it will get higher. I perceive that that is the illness that is still with you.

Gunina: And on the identical time, I had it when the navy actions [in Ukraine] started. It was there, it started to point out itself. And particularly, when it began to point out itself at first, it was an enormous shock.

Seva: It [the war] was like a catalyst.

Gunina: Sure, sure, and about my life, the physician mentioned that even local weather change could cause some dangerous issues. And once they inform me that it will be higher for me to remain in Moscow and never exit wherever, I say, properly, you can have informed me this after I was 5 years outdated, after I already understood that chess is my entire life.

So, I perceive that I wish to journey someplace just like the seashores of Cuba, however with my illness, I’ve an allergy to the solar. So it is a threat. Nobody forbids me to fly for 10 hours, with a switch, for instance, or simply 10 hours, as to China or Vladivostok. I simply have to know my burden, and so forth. 

I had a dialogue with the docs when it was essential to get pictures in opposition to Covid. I can not take a single shot, I can not even get a shot for the flu. I got here to my rheumatologist then and I did not have an official prognosis but, so she waived it. There are various such nuances, however you may nonetheless play chess.

Seva: It is very pleasing, as a result of with out you I do not understand how we are going to watch chess usually. In my view, it is simply pointless.

Gunina: It might be boring!

Seva: Nicely, sure, simply because everybody will simply make attracts and that is it.

Gunina: Sure, it was on the Russian Superfinals two years in the past. Sure, sure. Sure, it was so boring. The ladies have been sitting there and combating. I received as much as take a cup of espresso.

Seva: Oh, I believe I’ve heard what you mentioned to GM Evgeny Tomashevsky. It was not possible to look at.

Gunina: I would barely tasted my espresso after I noticed that the final recreation within the open event was over. And so they have been saying: “Nicely, we’re professionals, I’ve checked the opponent’s preparation and known as it a day.” Girls’s chess is totally different. And actually, the benefit of these Sofia guidelines is that…

Seva: You imply, the rule {that a} draw by settlement earlier than transfer 30 is not possible.

Gunina: Sure, they’re good for sponsors and organizers, as a result of our viewers watches and wishes chess. For this reason we have to struggle. In any other case, it is hilarious, is not it? Everybody presents attracts, goes dwelling and that is all.

Seva: This isn’t cool. Valentina, clearly, I can not enumerate every thing, however I’ll attempt. You gained three Olympic gold medals. You gained the World Blitz Championship 11 years in the past. I believe you’re a five-time Russian chess champion. I am sorry if there’s something I missed. What was your most good victory?

Gunina: I can add that I gained the European championship 3 times. Now the Chess federation of Russia has switched to Asia…

Seva: Sure, sorry, sure. Mm-hmm.

On Russia Altering From European To Asian Federation

‘The Want To Grow to be The Classical World Champion All the time Stays With Me’

Gunina: I take pleasure in spending time with the women, with the Russian girls’s group. My first Chess Olympiad was in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2010. It was a breakthrough. Girls’s coach GM Yury Rafaelovich Dokhoian observed me. I’ve not too long ago performed at his memorial event for the second time.

Seva: The Chess Olympiad.

Gunina: He could not survive Covid. In 2010, I used to be on the upswing. I performed within the match between Russia and China. It was crucial for us at the moment. Possibly now they are going to maintain such matches once more. After that, I  received the chance to progress as an expert.

Seva: What was essentially the most memorable second in the course of the event in Samarkand? Probably the most memorable recreation or the second that involves thoughts?

Gunina: I misplaced to the Chinese language participant GM Zhu Jiner. She is 20 or 21 years outdated. GM Vladimir Malakhov, my greatest buddy, coaches her. 

I knew that my place was OK. I touched my king after which I understood that if I moved the king, I’d lose my queen to a fork or a skewer. If I had blocked the test with my knight, we may have performed on. That was the tip.

Truly, I’ve received an anxiety-depressive dysfunction brought on by lupus. I’ve to take very robust antidepressants. A while in the past, my docs added lithium within the combine, which was additionally fairly robust. Lithium helps to make your emotional state extra steady.
Earlier than that I used to have a tough time taking part in bodily, and I could not deal with losses emotionally. It was an emotional seesaw for me that repeated each 5 minutes. [With the right medicine] I spotted that I may cope. The signs had already diminished, and I used to be coping. After I misplaced that recreation, I began doing workouts. These have been particular psychological workouts, part of my remedy.

And I felt like: “OK, one misplaced recreation is just not the tip of every thing.” Within the final spherical, I performed in opposition to GM Anna Muzychuk. There had been a recreation between GM Alexandra Kosteniuk and GM Humpy Koneru within the earlier spherical. I noticed that epic battle. They made 200 strikes, in all probability. And funnily, the chess-results web site initially indicated by mistake that the sport was drawn.

Alexandra gained that recreation. Sure, sure, I knew that she had gained, I spotted that she was nonetheless inside a half-point distance, and if I made a draw there would have been a tiebreak. Muzychuk selected the Grunfeld protection in opposition to me.

I had ready with the coach a variation that I had not repeated that a lot, however it turned out that I remembered every thing properly. I felt an increasing number of assured. I felt as if the coach had been sitting subsequent to me and telling me easy methods to play.

Seva: The principle factor is that every thing has labored out in the long run. A superb victory, a superb victory within the event. I believe we’re slowly coming to an finish. You have got already partially answered the ultimate query, which is: you’ve gained virtually every thing, nonetheless, are you going to change into the world champion in classical chess? Does this stay your objective? 

Gunina: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wish to. Sure.

‘I Have A Thousand Needs,’ Remaining Remarks