Alexander Valeryevich Khalifman (; born 18 January 1966) is a Russian

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player and writer. Awarded the title of Grandmaster by

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

in 1990, he was FIDE World Chess Champion in 1999.

Early life

Alexander Khalifman was born in St Petersburg into a

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family of engineers. Khalifman's grandfather was the director of the Chaliapin Museum; the other half of the family came from the Baltics. According to family legend, Khalifman's ancestor was one of the commanders of Russian monitor Rusalka.

Tournament career

Khalifman won the 1982 Soviet Union Youth Championship, the 1984 Soviet Union Youth Championship, the 1985 European Under-20 Championship in

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

, the 1985 and 1987 Moscow championships, 1990 Groningen, 1993 Ter Apel, 1994 Chess Open of Eupen, 1995 Chess Open St. Petersburg, the Russian Championship in 1996, the Saint Petersburg Championship in 1996 and 1997, 1997 Chess Grand Master Tournament St. Petersburg, 1997 Aarhus, 1997 and 1998 Bad Wiessee, 2000 Hoogeveen. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team at the Chess Olympiads in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, and at the 1997 World Team Chess Championship. Khalifman gained the Grandmaster title in 1990 with one particularly good early result being his first place in the 1990

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Open ahead of a host of strong players. His most notable achievement was winning the FIDE World Championship in 1999, a title he held until the following year. He was rated 44th in the world at the time, while "Classical" World Champion

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

was rated No. 1. Khalifman said after the tournament, "Rating systems work perfectly for players who play only in round robin closed events. I think most of them are overrated. Organizers invite same people over and over because they have the same rating and their rating stays high." Khalifman played in the

Linares chess tournament The Linares International Chess Tournament (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares'') was an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, which takes its name from the city of Linares ...

next year, and performed credibly (though placing below joint winner Kasparov).

Coaching

With his trainer Gennady Nesis ( de) he runs a chess academy in St. Petersburg, called "The Grandmaster Chess School", since November 1998. Khalifman has been coaching Vladimir Fedoseev since 2011. Khalifman has been coaching the

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i national team since 2013 and is its captain. He acted as a to Alisa Galliamova in the Women's World Chess Championship 1999 and to Anna Ushenina in the Women's World Chess Championship 2013. In March 2022, he signed an open letter of Russian GMs to

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

urging him to stop the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Books

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Alexander Khalifman (2000–2002). ''Opening for White according to Kramnik 1.♘f3'' (5 volumes). Chess Stars * Alexander Khalifman (2003–2012). ''Opening for White according to Anand 1. e4'' (14 volumes). Chess Stars * Alexander Khalifman (2006–2011). ''Opening for White according to Kramnik 1.♘f3'' (revised edition, 5 volumes). Chess Stars * * *

References

External links