Kirill Alexeyevich Alekseenko (; born 22 June 1997) is a Russian-born

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 ...

grandmaster who currently plays for Austria.

Personal life

Alekseenko was born in

Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

, and moved to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

as a child. His father was a soldier and his mother was a teacher. Alekseenko is a student at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. Together with 43 other Russian elite chess players, Alekseenko signed an open letter to Russian president

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 ...

, protesting against the

2022 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 ...

and expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people. After playing under the neutral FIDE flag, in July 2023 he transferred to the Austrian Chess Federation.

Chess career

Early career

Alekseenko's grandfather was a chess enthusiast and taught Alekseenko the rules of the game when he was four years old. Aside from his grandfather, no one in his family played chess. At the age of seven, Alekseenko played his first tournament, the St. Petersburg U8 Championship. At the

European Youth Chess Championship The European Youth Chess Championship is organized by the European Chess Union (ECU) in groups under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 years old. History The first tournament was held in 1991, and the under 8 category was introduced in 2007. Until 2002 t ...

, he was the U10 champion in 2007, and the U16 champion in 2013. At the World U14 Chess Championship, Alekseenko won bronze in 2010, and gold in 2011. He then won silver and bronze in 2012 and 2013, respectively, at the World U16 Chess Championship. Kirill Alekseenko 2015

Alekseenko achieved the necessary norms for the grandmaster title in 2012, but did not reach a FIDE rating of 2500 necessary for the granting of the title until 2015. He competed in the 2015 World U18 Chess Championship held in Greece from 24 October to 6 November, placing second with 8½/11 (+8–2=1}, one point behind winner Masoud Mosadeghpour. Alekseenko won the

Chigorin Memorial The Chigorin Memorial is a chess tournament played in honour of Mikhail Chigorin (1850–1908), founder of the Soviet Chess School and one of the leading players of his day. The first and most important edition was the one played in 1909 in St. ...

in 2015. He repeated the success in 2016 and 2017.

2018–2019

Alekseenko won the 2017/18 Rilton Cup. In February 2018, he participated in the

Aeroflot Open The Aeroflot Open is an annual open chess tournament organised through the joint efforts of the Chess Federation of Russia and the Russian Ministry of Sport with the sponsorship from the Russian flag carrier, Aeroflot. It is played in Moscow, ho ...

. He finished 13th out of 92, scoring 5½/9 (+4–2=3). In March, Alekseenko competed in the

European Individual Chess Championship The European Individual Chess Championship is a chess tournament organised by the European Chess Union. It was established in 2000 and has since then taken place on a yearly basis. Apart from determining the European champions (open and women's) ...

. He placed 34th, scoring 7/11 (+6–3=2). He competed in the European Championship again in 2019, placing 63rd with 6½/11 (+5–3=3). Although he failed to qualify for the

Chess World Cup 2019 The Chess World Cup 2019 was a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament that took place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, from 9 September to 4 October 2019. It was won by Azerbaijani grandmaster Teimour Radjabov. He and the runner-up, Ding Liren ...

through European Championship placement, Alekseenko was chosen as a wildcard nominee by the organiser of the tournament. He defeated

Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn (born 23 February 1990) is a Vietnamese chess player. The second-best player in Vietnam, he is the youngest Vietnamese ever to become a Grandmaster, and one of the youngest grandmasters in the history of the game ...

and Johan-Sebastian Christiansen in rounds one and two, then eliminated the 17th-seed

Pentala Harikrishna Pentala Harikrishna (born 10 May 1986) is an Indian chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster. He achieved a peak world ranking of 10 in November 2016, and a peak Elo rating system, Elo rating of 2770 in December 2016. On 17 August 2001, he bec ...

in the third round. He faced the 1st-seed

Ding Liren Ding Liren ( zh, c=丁立人; born 24October 1992) is a Chinese chess grandmaster who was the 17th World Chess Champion from 2023–24. He is also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion, was a member of the Chinese chess teams that won the Chess ...

in the fourth round. Alekseenko drew both of the classical games but lost in the rapid tiebreaks. At the 2019

European Team Chess Championship The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...

held in Batumi from 24 October to 2 November, Alekseenko represented Russia on the third board. He scored 4½/8 (+2–1=5) as Russia won gold. Alekseenko defeated

Kacper Piorun Kacper Piorun (born 24 November 1991) is a Polish chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in September 2012. He is a six-time winner of the World Chess Solving Championship, and two-time winner of the Polish Chess Champions ...

of Poland in the final round, which proved decisive to Russia's first-place finish. In December 2019, he competed in the World Rapid and Blitz Championships. He placed 57th in the rapid with 8½/15 (+6–4=5), and 71st in the blitz with 11½/21 (+8–6=7).

2020–2021 Candidates

At the

FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019 The FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019 was a chess tournament that formed part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2021. It was played on October 10 to 21 2019, on the Isle of Man.

held in October on the Isle of Man, Alekseenko took third place on tie breaks with 7½/11 (+4–0=7), half a point behind winner Wang Hao and runner-up

Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an Italian and American chess grandmaster who is the reigning four-time United States Chess Champion. With a peak rating of 2844, Caruana is the third-highest-rated player in history. Born in Mia ...

. Alekseenko thus became eligible to be chosen as the wildcard nominee for the Candidates Tournament 2020 as the next-highest placed finisher at the Grand Swiss, apart from Caruana (who had already qualified for the Candidates). On 23 December 2019, Alekseenko was announced as the wildcard nominee for the Candidates Tournament, originally scheduled to be held in

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...

from 17 March to 3 April 2020.

Peter Svidler Pyotr Veniaminovich Svidler (; born 17 June 1976), commonly known as Peter Svidler, is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and commentator who is an eight-time Russian Chess Champion. Svidler has competed in three World Championshi ...

acted as Alekseenko's second during that tournament. On 26 March, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the tournament was suspended. With seven rounds played, Alekseenko was tied for last with Ding on a score of 2½/7. After the resumption of the Candidates Tournament 2020–21 in April 2021, Alekseenko returned to Yekaterinburg and played the final seven games. He finished in seventh place with 5½/14.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alekseenko, Kirill 1997 births Living people Russian chess players Chess Grandmasters Chess players from Saint Petersburg Sportspeople from Vyborg Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University alumni Austrian chess players