The challenge is on: take on the 12-time world champion!
Республиканский центр олимпийской подготовки по шахматам и шашкам
On June 8, 2026, the Republican Olympic Training Center (hereinafter referred to as the Center) for Chess and Draughts will host a major sporting event—a simultaneous draughts exhibition open to the public. The session will be led by a legend of Belarusian sports, Andrei Stanislavovich Valyuk, an athlete and instructor for the Republic of Belarus’s national draughts team.
Why is this an event you can’t miss?
This is your unique chance to sit down at the same board with an outstanding master, test your tactical skills, and personally learn from the best player on the planet.
Event Details:
📅 When: June 8, 2026, at 5:30 PM
📍 Where: Regional Center for Chess and Draughts (Minsk, Karl Marx St., 10)
👥 Who can participate: Anyone interested (amateurs and professionals of all ages).
💳 Participation fee: 50 BYN
Come challenge the undisputed champion!
The most persistent participants will receive commemorative photos and autographs from the grandmaster.
Andrei Stanislavovich Valyuk (Bel. Andrei Stanislavovich Valyuk; born March 28, 1974, Grodno, Byelorussian SSR, USSR). He began playing draughts in 1984; his first coach was Rinat Kamilievich Shakirov; since 1989: Iosif Vladimirovich Kuzmitsky.
1987 — Candidate Master
1989 — Master of Sports
1993 — International Master
1997 — International Grandmaster
2012 — International Master
Participant in 16 World Championships.
Born in Grodno on March 28, 1974, into a Catholic family; his mother, Stanislava Boleslavovna Valyuk, worked as a nurse at the city hospital, and his father, Stanislav Tsezarovich Valyuk, was a construction worker. He was the second youngest child in the family. As a child, he suffered a spinal fracture; while undergoing treatment in the hospital, he read books on checkers. His older brother, Valentin Valyuk, also played checkers; as children, they attended training sessions together with the same coach. He graduated from Grodno State University of Physical Culture.
In 1998, he married Viktoria Mikhailovna Daineko (born 1980) from Minsk, who took the surname Valyuk upon marriage, and moved to Minsk that same year. In 1998, Viktoria Valyuk took first place among women at the Belarusian Championship in 100-square international checkers, fulfilling the requirements for the title of Candidate Master of Sports in draughts (coach I. S. Pashkevich).
World Champion in Russian draughts in 1997 (Rivne), 2005 (Yevpatoria), and 2022 (classical, Kobuleti, Georgia); World Champion in rapid draughts in 1998 (Odessa); silver medalist at the 1998 World Rapid Draughts Championship (Odessa), bronze medalist at the 1993 World Championship (Pinsk), silver medalist at the 2022 World Blitz Championship (Kobuleti, Georgia), bronze medalist at the 2011 World Blitz Championship (Saint Petersburg, Russia).
2012 European Champion in Suzdal, bronze medalist at the European Blitz Championship that same year. Participant in 11 World Championships and 3 European Championships. 11-time Belarusian champion: 1989, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2006 (100-square checkers), 2011, 2012, 2017. Winner of the Belarus Cup in 1991–1993, 1995–1997, and 2008.
Winner of the European Club Championship (as part of the SDYUSHOR-9 team, Chelyabinsk), 2010 (Yevpatoria).
