Alexander Igorevich Grischuk (born October 31, 1983) is a
Russian chess
grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time
world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015).
He has competed in five Candidates Tournaments: in 2007, 2011 (when he reached the final),
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...
,
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
and
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...
. He also reached the semifinals of the 2000 FIDE World Championship.
Grischuk has won two team gold-medals, three team silvers, one team bronze, and one individual bronze medal at
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 an ...
s. He also holds three team gold medals, one team silver and individual gold, two silver and one bronze from the
World Team Chess Championship.
Chess career
1996
In 1996, Grischuk finished in 21st place in the Boys Under-14 section of the
World Youth Festival
The World Festival of Youth and Students is an international event organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and the International Union of Students after 1947. History
The festival has been held regularly since 1947 as an ev ...
and tied for third place in the same section of the
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
Rapid Chess
Fast chess, also known as Speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, bli ...
Championships.
1998
By January 1998 Grischuk had become a
FIDE Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
, finished 24th in the Moscow leg of the Russian Cup with 6/9, and finished 18th at Nizhnij Novgorod. He finished 44th in his first
Russian Chess Championship
The Russian Chess Championship has taken various forms.
Winners by year (men) Imperial Russia
In 1874, Emanuel Schiffers defeated Andrey Chardin in a match held in St. Petersburg with five wins and four losses. Schiffers was considered the first ...
, scoring 5/11 points, and was International Master and rating favourite when he tied for 8th place at the Boys Under 16 section of the World Youth Championships.
1999
In January 1999, Grischuk tied for 13th at the Hotel Anibal Open, defeating third seed
Artashes Minasian
Artashes Minasian (sometimes transliterated as Minasyan; hy, Արտաշես Մինասյան; born 21 January 1967) is an Armenian chess grandmaster. He won the USSR Chess Championship in 1991 and is a six-time Armenian Chess Champion.
Ches ...
in the third round. He started strongly at the Hotel Ubeda Open but slipped to tie for 7th place with 6.5/10. At Bled Open in March he finished 9th with 6/9 and at the
Biel MTO Open in July finished 11th with 7/10. At the Porto San Giorgio Grischuk finished 4th with 6.5/9. In November 1999, Grischuk scored 7/9 to share first place with
Sergei Volkov at the Chigorin Memorial. He made four draws as reserve board at the
European Team Championship held in Batumi then was knocked out of the Russian Championship in the quarterfinals by
Alexei Bezgodov
Alexei Mikhailovich Bezgodov ( rus, Алексей Михайлович Безгодов; born 30 June 1969) is a Russian chess grandmaster and writer.
Chess career
Bezgodov won the 1993 Russian Chess Championship. He finished second in the 199 ...
.
2000
Grischuk made his first Grandmaster norm in January 2000 at the Hotel Ubeda Open scoring 7/10 for 4th place then placed 4th at the Reykjavik Open, scoring 6.5/9. At the New York Open he finished 10th with 6.5/9. In June 2000, he won the Lausanne Young Masters, defeating
Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Olehovych Ponomariov ( uk, Русла́н Оле́гович Пономарьо́в; born 11 October 1983) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was FIDE World Chess Champion from 2002 to 2004. He won the Ukrainian Chess Championship in ...
in the final. His success gave him his first appearance in the FIDE Top 100 at 78th, with 2606 and third top Junior in July 2000. Grischuk finished 4th on tiebreaks with 5/9 at the North Sea Cup. Now a Grandmaster, he finished third with 6/11 at the 4th Russian Cup Final in Elista and won the Torshavn International in October on tiebreak with Ponomariov. He claimed individual bronze medal for his second reserve board result at the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.
In the
2000 FIDE World Chess Championship, Grischuk reached the semifinals, losing to
Alexei Shirov.
2001
In September 2001, Grischuk scored 4/6 at the inaugural Russia-Chess Summit. In January 2002, he finished second at his first
Corus event with 8.5/13, half a point behind
Evgeny Bareev.
2004
In the
2004 FIDE World Chess Championship he made it to the quarterfinals, where he lost 3−1 to eventual champion
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Rustam Kasimdzhanov; russian: Рустам Касымджанов (born 5 December 1979) is an Uzbek chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Champion (2004-05). He was Asian champion in 1998.
In addition to his tournament play, Kasimdzha ...
. Also he shared 1st place in the traditional tournament at Poikovsky (with Sergey Rublevsky); 2nd place at the Russian Championship (behind Kasparov).
2005
Grischuk finished in the top 10 in the
2005 FIDE World Cup, qualifying him for the 2007
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The w ...
in May–June 2007. He won his matches against
Vladimir Malakhov (+2 −0 =3) and
Sergei Rublevsky (tied at +1 −1 =4, winning the rapid playoff +2 −0 =1), to advance to the eight-player
2007 FIDE World Chess Championship. In that tournament he scored 5½ out of 14, placing last in the eight-player field.
2009
In 2009, Grischuk won the
Russian Chess Championship
The Russian Chess Championship has taken various forms.
Winners by year (men) Imperial Russia
In 1874, Emanuel Schiffers defeated Andrey Chardin in a match held in St. Petersburg with five wins and four losses. Schiffers was considered the first ...
. Later that year he won the
Linares tournament on tiebreak over
Vasyl Ivanchuk
Vasyl Mykhaylovych Ivanchuk ( uk, Василь Михайлович Іванчук; born March 18, 1969), also transliterated as Vassily Ivanchuk, is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1988. A leading ...
after being invited as replacement for
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; bg, Весели́н Александров Топа́лов; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Champion.
Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by wi ...
, who was in the
Challenger's Match against Gata Kamsky.
2010
In 2010, he finished second to Topalov in Linares.
2011
Grischuk finished third in the 2008-10
FIDE Grand Prix, qualifying him as the first alternate for the
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The w ...
of the 2012
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013.
The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 matc ...
cycle. Upon the withdrawal of world No. 2
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...
from the candidates tournament, Grischuk was appointed to take his place. In the 2011 candidates tournament, Grischuk was seeded 6th out of eight players, and faced
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigori Aronian ( hy, Լևոն Գրիգորի Արոնյան, Levon Grigori Aronyan; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenian chess grandmaster, who currently plays for the United States Chess Federation. A chess prodigy, he earned the titl ...
in the first round. After splitting the four regular games 2–2, Grischuk won the rapid playoff 2½–1½ to advance to the semifinals, where he faced world No. 4 and former World Champion
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Ch ...
. Grischuk won the blitz playoff by 1½–½ to advance to the final, where he faced 2009 Chess World Cup winner
Boris Gelfand for the right to play
Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have ...
for the World Championship. After five draws, Gelfand won the final game to win the match, 3½–2½.
2013
Grischuk played in the
2013 Candidates Tournament in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
from 15 March to 1 April. He finished sixth, with a score of 6½/14 (+1=11-2).
2014
In November 2014 he took first place with 5½/7 at the Tashir Chess Tournament in memory of
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian (, ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style ...
in Moscow. This enabled him to cross the 2800
Elo rating
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor.
The Elo system was invented as an improved c ...
mark.
2016
In July 2016, Grischuk won a four-game match against
Ding Liren in
Wenzhou
Wenzhou (pronounced ; Wenzhounese: Yuziou �y33–11 tɕiɤu33–32 ), historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province in the People's Republic of China. Wenzhou is located at the extreme south east o ...
, 2½–1½.
2017
In February 2017 Grischuk tied for first place with
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Shahriyar Hamid oghlu Mammadyarov ( az, Şəhriyar Həmid oğlu Məmmədyarov; born 12 April 1985), known internationally as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov , is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster. he is ranked No. 1 in Azerbaijan and No. 13 in the world ...
in the first event of the
FIDE Grand Prix series, held in
Sharjah
Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area.
Sharjah is the capital ...
, UAE, taking first place on tiebreak. In July 2017, he beat
Yu Yangyi 3–1 in the China-Russia Chess Grandmaster Summit Match held in
Jiayuguan, China.
In December, Grischuk won the men's
Basque chess event of the
IMSA Elite Mind Games in
Huai'an
Huai'an (), formerly called Huaiyin () until 2001, is a prefecture-level city in the central part of Jiangsu province in Eastern China. Huai'an is situated almost directly south of Lianyungang, southeast of Suqian, northwest of Yancheng, a ...
, China.
2019
In late May, Grischuk participated in the Moscow
FIDE Grand Prix tournament, which is part of the qualification cycle for the
2020 World Chess Championship. The tournament was a 16-player event. Grischuk was defeated by compatriot GM
Ian Nepomniachtchi
Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi ( rus, Ян Алекса́ндрович Непо́мнящий, r=Yan Aleksandrovich Nepomnyashchiy, p=ˈjan ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ nʲɪˈpomnʲɪɕːɪj, a=Ru-Ian Alexandrovich Nepomnyashchij.ogg; born 14 J ...
in rapid tiebreaks during the tournament finale. By finishing second in the tournament, Grischuk netted 7 Grand Prix points. Grischuk then reached the semi-finals at Riga, and won the Hamburg tournament, for a total of 20 Grand Prix points. He was confirmed as a qualifier for the
Candidates Tournament 2020
A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example:
* to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs.
* t ...
after the second day of the Jerusalem Grand Prix.
2020
From March 16th to 26th Grischuk played Candidates Tournament, interrupted by FIDE after 7th day due to
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. At the time of the interruption he was one point behind the leading pair made up of his compatriot Ian Nepomniachtchi and the French Grandmaster
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
2021
From April 19th to 27th Grischuk played again at the Candidates Tournament, resumed by FIDE after more than a year. He concluded in sixth place, with 7 points out of 14.
2022
Through February and March 2022, Grischuk played in the
FIDE Grand Prix 2022
The FIDE Grand Prix 2022 was a series of three chess tournaments played between 4 February and 4 April 2022. The top two finishers – Hikaru Nakamura (winner) and Richárd Rapport (runner-up) – qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2022, . In the first leg, he placed third in Pool A with a 3/6 result. In the second leg, he finished fourth in Pool A with a result of 2/6, finishing 22nd in the standings with two points.
Team results
Chess Olympiads
Blitz chess
In 2006 Grischuk won the
World Blitz Chess Championship
The World Blitz Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in chess played under blitz time controls. Since 2012, FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz chess tournament and billed it as the World Rapid ...
in
Rishon Lezion
Rishon LeZion ( he, רִאשׁוֹן לְצִיּוֹן , ''lit.'' First to Zion, Arabic: راشون لتسيون) is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan ...
, Israel, with 10½/15. He won his second World Blitz Championship in 2012 in
Astana
Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan.
The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, tho ...
, Kazakhstan, with 20 points out of 30 games. In October 2015, Grischuk won the World Blitz Championship for the third time in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
with a score of 15½/21, half a point ahead of
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Ch ...
.
Personal life
Grischuk was formerly married to
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
chess grandmaster
Natalia Zhukova
Natalia Oleksandrivna Zhukova ( uk, Наталія Олександрівна Жукова; born 5 June 1979) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster and two-time European women's champion. She won several age-group titles as a teenager, at both the ...
. He is now married to Ukrainian-Russian grandmaster
Kateryna Lagno and they have three children together.
Notes
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
Interview with Alexander Grischuk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grischuk, Alexander
1983 births
Living people
Chess grandmasters
Chess Olympiad competitors
Russian chess players
Sportspeople from Moscow