Valentina Gunina, born February 4 1989 in Murmansk, is a Russian grandmaster whose career has blended youthful promise with sustained elite achievement. She first drew attention by winning the European Girls Under‑12 Championship in 2000, and over subsequent years captured multiple World and European youth titles.

As an adult she translated that early success into top‑level play: she has won the Women’s World Blitz Championship twice (2012 and 2023) and claimed the European Women’s Individual Championship three times. She has been a central contributor to gold‑medal Russian teams at the Women’s Chess Olympiads and European Team Championships.

In recent years Gunina has remained competitive at the highest level: at the 2025 Women’s World Cup she advanced to the tiebreaks in Round 3, demonstrating her continuing form. As of November 2025, her classical FIDE rating is 2393. With a career that spans rapid, blitz and classical formats, Gunina remains one of women’s chess’s most versatile and enduring stars.