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Alexander Sergeyevich Morozevich (russian: Александр Серге́евич Морозе́вич, translit=Aleksandr Sergéevich Morozévich; born July 18, 1977) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by
FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...
in 1994. Morozevich is a two-time World Championship candidate (2005, 2007), two-time Russian champion and has represented Russia in seven Chess Olympiads, winning numerous team and board medals. He has won both the Melody Amber (alone 2002, shared 2004, 2006, 2008) and Biel (2003, 2004, 2006) tournaments several times. Morozevich is known for his aggressive and unorthodox playing style. His peak ranking was second in the world in July 2008.


Career

His first win in an international tournament was in 1994, when at the age of 17 he won the Lloyds Bank tournament in London with a score of 9½ points out of 10. In 1994 he also won the
Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...
tournament, a victory he repeated in 1998. In 1997 Morozevich was the top seed at the
World Junior Chess Championship The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament (players must have been under 20 years old on 1 January in the year of competition) organized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE). The idea was the brainchild of William Rits ...
, but lost to the eventual champion, American
Tal Shaked Tal Shaked is an American chess grandmaster who is best known for winning the World Junior Championship in 1997. Shaked learned the game at the age of seven, and developed his chess skills in the scholastic chess organizations of Tucson, Arizo ...
in a
bishop and knight checkmate The bishop and knight checkmate in chess is the checkmate of a lone king which can be by a king, a bishop, and a knight. With the stronger side to move and with perfect play, checkmate can be forced in at most thirty-three moves from any start ...
. That same year, Morozevich participated in the FIDE World Championship, where he eliminated former world champion Vassily Smyslov in the first round. He was knocked out in the second round by Lembit Oll. The next year Morozevich won the Russian Championship. In 1999 he played in his first super-tournament in Sarajevo and finished in fourth scoring 5½ points of 9. In beginning of 2000 Morozevich participated at the
Corus chess tournament The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Steel ...
in Wijk aan Zee and finished fifth out of 14 players. The event was won by Garry Kasparov ahead of
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 Cha ...
, Viswanathan Anand and Peter Leko. In the same year he participated in the FIDE World Championship played in New Delhi. Due to his rating he was seeded directly into the second round, in which he eliminated
Gilberto Milos Gilberto Milos (born October 30, 1963) is a Brazilian chess player. He was awarded by FIDE the title of International Master in 1984 and the title of Grandmaster in 1988. Milos competed in the FIDE World Championship five times (1998, 1999, 20 ...
with the score of 2–0, then he proceeded to beat
Evgeny Vladimirov Yevgeniy Vladimirov (russian: Евгений Владимиров; born 20 January 1957) is a chess player and trainer from Kazakhstan. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1989. Career In 2004, during the 14th Abu Dhabi Chess Fest ...
1½–½ in the third round before finally being eliminated in the fourth by
Vladislav Tkachiev Vladislav Tkachiev (, born Moscow November 9, 1973) is a Russian-born Kazakh-French chess player. Biography In 1982, he moved to Kazakhstan with his parents and learnt to play chess a year later. A winner of the Kazakhstani Youth Championship in ...
. In Wijk aan Zee 2001 Morozevich became the first player to defeat World Champion Vladimir Kramnik after beating him with black. He shared fifth together with
Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov (, lv, Aleksejs Širovs; born 4 July 1972) is a Latvian and Spanish chess player. Shirov was ranked number two in the world in 1994. He won a match against Vladimir Kramnik in 1998 to qualify to play as challenger for the classi ...
, behind Kasparov, Anand, Vassily Ivanchuk and Kramnik. In the 2001 FIDE World Championship, Morozevich beat Nugzar Zeliavok,
Krishnan Sasikiran Krishnan Sasikiran (Tamil: கிருஷ்ணன் சசிகிரண்; born 7 January 1981) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He was one of Viswanathan Anand's seconds in the World Chess Championship 2013. Chess career Born in Madr ...
and Mikhail Gurevich before losing in tie-breaks in the fourth round against the eventual winner of the event
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 i ...
. In September 2005, Morozevich played in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 in San Luis, Argentina, taking fourth place behind Veselin Topalov, Anand and Peter Svidler. In December 2006, he won the strong
Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...
tournament with a score of 6 points out of 7 and an Elo performance of 2951. He shared second place with
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 he ...
, behind Anand, at the 2007 Linares tournament. His San Luis result earned him direct entry to the
World Chess Championship 2007 The World Chess Championship 2007 was held in Mexico City, from 12 September 2007 to 30 September 2007 to decide the world champion of the game of chess. It was an eight-player, double round robin tournament. Viswanathan Anand of India won the t ...
. In that tournament he scored 6 out of 14, placing sixth out of eight players. He was the only player who managed to defeat the reigning world champion Vladimir Kramnik (which was also Kramnik's only defeat in 2007). In December 2007 Morozevich won the Russian Championship for the second time, winning the last six rounds. In June 2008 Morozevich won the Bosna tournament in Sarajevo with a margin of 1½ points ahead of second place. Two months later he shared second place in the
Tal Memorial The Tal Memorial is an annual chess tournament played in Moscow from 2006 to 2018 with the exception of 2015, to honour the memory of the former World Champion Mikhail Tal (1936–1992). Many of the world's strongest players compete. In 2014 it w ...
after leading the tournament in early rounds. While officially being fourth in the world, Morozevich unofficially climbed to the top spot of the world rating list, but fell back to fourth by the end of the tournament. In June 2011 he won the Russian Championship Higher League in Taganrog with 8/11, earning a spot in the Superfinal, in which he came second behind the eventual winner Peter Svidler. In October Morozevich won the Saratov Governor's Cup in Russia with a score 8½/11, one and a half points ahead of the field, and a performance of 2917. In February 2012 Morozevich came first in the Vladimir Petrov Memorial, a rapidplay tournament with the time control of 15 minutes plus 6 seconds per move. In 2014 he won the 15th Karpov International tournament in Poikovsky. Morozevich won the ''Magistral Ciutat de Barcelona'' tournament in 2015 on tiebreak over Axel Bachmann, having played more games with the black pieces.


Team competitions

Morozevich had great successes in team competitions: in the
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 ...
he won the gold medal with the Russian team three times (1998, 2000, 2002), one silver medal (2004) and a bronze medal (1994). He also won the gold medal in the World Team Championships in 2005 in which he beat the member of the Chinese team in the last round in a must win situation. He also won two gold medals in the European Team Championships (2003 and 2007).


Playing style

Morozevich is known to be an aggressive player with an unorthodox opening repertoire. He has on occasion played the
Chigorin Defense The Chigorin Defense is a chess opening named for 19th-century Russian master Mikhail Chigorin. An uncommonly played defense to the Queen's Gambit, it begins with the following moves: :1. d4 d5 :2. c4 Nc6 The Chigorin Defense violates sever ...
(1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6) and the
Albin Countergambit The Albin Countergambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. d4 d5 :2. c4 e5 and the usual continuation is: :3. dxe5 d4 The opening is an uncommon defense to the Queen's Gambit. In exchange for the gambit pawn, Black has a ...
(1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5). He is also well known for preferring complicated positions. Due to his risky and spectacular style which produces relatively few draws, Morozevich is popular among chess fans. In 2007, Morozevich published, along with co-author Vladimir Barsky, a book about the
Chigorin Defense The Chigorin Defense is a chess opening named for 19th-century Russian master Mikhail Chigorin. An uncommonly played defense to the Queen's Gambit, it begins with the following moves: :1. d4 d5 :2. c4 Nc6 The Chigorin Defense violates sever ...
, called ''The Chigorin Defence According to Morozevich''.


Blindfold chess

Morozevich is considered to be one of the best blindfold chess players in the world. He has confirmed that status in blindfold sections of Amber Melody tournaments: 2002 first 9/11, 2003 shared second 7/11, 2004 first 8½/11, 2005 shared second 6/11, 2006 first 9½/11, 2007 shared second 7/11, 2008 shared first 6/11 and in 2009 shared fourth with Anand 6½/11.


Go

Morozevich has a Go ranking of 1 dan as of 2018. In July 2016, he beat Tiger Hillarp Persson in a 4-game mixed chess and go match.


References


External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morozevich, Alexander 1977 births Living people Sportspeople from Moscow Chess grandmasters Russian chess players Chess Olympiad competitors Russian chess writers