Alexander Grischuk

Alexander Igorevich Grischuk (Russian: Алекса́ндр И́горевич Грищу́к; born October 31, 1983) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2000. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015).

Alexander Grischuk
Alexander Grischuk at the European Chess Team Championship 2013
Full name	Alexander Igorevich Grischuk
Country	Russia
Born	October 31, 1983 Moscow[1] Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Title	Grandmaster (2000)
FIDE rating	2777 (February 2021)
Peak rating	2810 (December 2014)
Ranking	No. 6 (May 2020)
Peak ranking	No. 3 (May 2014)

He has competed in five Candidates' Tournaments: in 2007, 2011 (when he reached the final), 2013, 2018 and 2020. 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 Olympiads.[2] He also holds three team gold medals, one team silver and individual gold, two silver and one bronze from the World Team Chess Championship.[3]

Chess career

Alexander Grischuk, 1992 at Duisburg,
2nd at the World Chess Championship under 10

1996

In 1996, Grischuk finished in 21st place in the Boys Under-14 section of the World Youth Festival[4] and tied for third place in the same section of the Disney Rapid Chess Championships.[5]

1998

By January 1998 Grischuk had become a FIDE Master, finished 24th in the Moscow leg of the Russian Cup with 6/9, and finished 18th at Nizhnij Novgorod.[6][7] He finished 44th in his first Russian Chess Championship, scoring 5/11 points,[8] and was International Master and rating favourite when he tied for 8th place at the Boys Under 16 section of the World Youth Championships.[9]

1999

In January 1999, Grischuk tied for 13th at the Hotel Anibal Open, defeating third seed Artashes Minasian in the third round.[10] He started strongly at the Hotel Ubeda Open but slipped to tie for 7th place with 6.5/10.[11] At Bled Open in March he finished 9th with 6/9 and at the Biel MTO Open in July finished 11th with 7/10.[12][13] At the Porto San Giorgio Grischuk finished 4th with 6.5/9.[14] In November 1999, Grischuk scored 7/9 to share first place with Sergei Volkov at the Chigorin Memorial.[15][16] 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.[17][18]

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.[19][20] At the New York Open he finished 10th with 6.5/9.[21] In June 2000, he won the Lausanne Young Masters, defeating Ruslan Ponomariov in the final.[22] His success gave him his first appearance in the FIDE Top 100 at 78th, with 2606 and third top Junior in July 2000.[23] Grischuk finished 4th on tiebreaks with 5/9 at the North Sea Cup.[24] 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.[25][26] He claimed individual bronze medal for his second reserve board result at the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.[27]

In the 2000 FIDE World Chess Championship, Grischuk reached the semifinals, losing to Alexei Shirov.[28]

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.[29]

2004

In the 2004 FIDE World Chess Championship he made it to the quarterfinals, where he lost 3−1 to eventual champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Also he shared 1st place in the traditional tournament at Poikovsky (with Sergey Rublevsky); 2nd place at the Russian Championship (behind Kasparov).[30]

2005

Grischuk finished in the top 10 in the 2005 FIDE World Cup, qualifying him for the 2007 Candidates Tournament 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.[31] Later that year he won the Linares tournament on tiebreak over Vassily Ivanchuk after being invited as replacement for Veselin Topalov, 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 of the 2012 World Chess Championship cycle. Upon the withdrawal of world No. 2 Magnus Carlsen from the candidates tournament, Grischuk was appointed to take his place.[32] In the 2011 candidates tournament, Grischuk was seeded 6th out of eight players, and faced Levon Aronian 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. 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 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 from 15 March to 1 April. He finished sixth, with a score of 6½/14 (+1=11-2).[33]

2014

In November 2014 he took first place with 5½/7 at the Tashir Chess Tournament in memory of Tigran Petrosian in Moscow. This enabled him to cross the 2800 Elo rating mark.[34][35]

2016

In July 2016, Grischuk won a four-game match against Ding Liren in Wenzhou, 2½–1½.[36]

2017

In February 2017 Grischuk tied for first place with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the first event of the FIDE Grand Prix series, held in Sharjah, UAE, taking first place on tiebreak.[37][38][39] In July 2017, he beat Yu Yangyi 3–1 in the China-Russia Chess Grandmaster Summit Match held in Jiayuguan, China.[40][41]

In December, Grischuk won the men's Basque chess event of the IMSA Elite Mind Games in Huai'an, China.[42]

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 in rapid tiebreaks during the tournament finale. By finishing second in the tournament, Grischuk netted 7 Grand Prix points.[43] Grischuk then reached the semi-finals at Riga, and won the Hamburg tournament, for a total of 20 Grand Prix points.[44] He was confirmed as a qualifier for the Candidates Tournament 2020 after the second day of the Jerusalem Grand Prix.[45]

Team results

Chess Olympiads

Olympiad	Individual result	Team result
Istanbul 2000	7.5/10 (Bronze)	Gold
Bled 2002	7/11 (18th)	Gold
Calvia 2004	6.5/11 (30th)	Silver
Turin 2006	7/11 (25th)	6th
Dresden 2008	4.5/8 (10th)	5th
Khanty-Mansiysk 2010	6/9 (4th)	Silver
Istanbul 2012	7/11 (5th)	Silver
Tromso 2014	6/9 (10th)	4th
Baku 2016	6.5/9	Bronze

Blitz chess

In 2006 Grischuk won the World Blitz Chess Championship in Rishon Lezion, Israel, with 10½/15.[46] He won his second World Blitz Championship in 2012 in Astana, Kazakhstan, with 20 points out of 30 games.[47] In October 2015, Grischuk won the World Blitz Championship for the third time in Berlin with a score of 15½/21, half a point ahead of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Vladimir Kramnik.[48]

Personal life

Grischuk was formerly married to Ukrainian chess grandmaster Natalia Zhukova.[49] He is now married to Ukrainian-Russian grandmaster Kateryna Lagno.[50]

References

1. "Alexander Grischuk". Russian Chess Federation (in Russian). July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
2. "Men's Chess Olympiads: Alexander Grischuk". OlimpBase. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
3. "World Team 09 Russia takes gold; China silver". ChessBase. 2013-12-06. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
4. "The Week in Chess 104". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
5. "The Week in Chess 110". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
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8. "The Week in Chess 196". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
9. "The Week in Chess 209". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
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13. "The Week in Chess 247". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
14. "The Week in Chess 251". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
15. Kavalek, Lubomir (1999-11-29). "CHESS". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
16. "The Week in Chess 262". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
17. "The Week in Chess 265". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
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19. "The Week in Chess 273". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
20. "The Week in Chess 284". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
21. "The Week in Chess 288". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
22. "The Week in Chess 291". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
23. "The Week in Chess 295". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
24. "The Week in Chess 297". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
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26. "The Week in Chess 310". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
27. "The Week in Chess 314". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
28. "The Week in Chess 318". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
29. "All-time Tournaments - Tata Steel Chess". www.tatasteelchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
30. "Grischuk: "Procrastination is definitely the main factor"". chess24.com. 22 May 2020.
31. "Russian Championships Information 2009". Chess.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 August 2011. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
32. Grischuk to replace Carlsen in the Candidates
33. "Tournament standings". FIDE. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
34. "Alexander Grischuk wins the International TASHIR Chess Tournament in Memory of Tigran Petrosian". FIDE. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
35. "Petrosian Memorial, Rd. 7. Kramnik: "Grischuk is in brilliant shape"". chess-news.ru. 2014-11-11. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
36. Fischer, Johannes (2016-07-25). "Alexander Grischuk wins match against Ding Liren". Chess News. ChessBase. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
37. GU. "Alexander Grischuk wins Sharjah Grand Prix on tie-break". www.fide.com. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
38. "Alexander Grischuk wins FIDE Grand Prix in Sharjah". Russian Chess Federation. 2017-02-27. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
39. Silver, Albert (2017-02-28). "Grischuk wins Sharjah FIDE Grand Prix". Chess News. ChessBase. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
40. Liang, Ziming (2017-07-25). "Grischuk beats Yu 3-1 in Russia-China match". Chess News. ChessBase. Retrieved 2017-08-07.
41. McGourty, Colin (2017-07-25). "Grischuk storms to victory over Yu Yangyi". chess24.com. Retrieved 2017-08-07.
42. "2017 IMSA Elite Mind Games: Grischuk and Zhao Xue won Basque". FIDE. 2017-12-14. Retrieved 2018-01-07.
43. Doggers, Peter (29 May 2019). "Nepomniachtchi Wins Moscow FIDE Grand Prix". Chess.com.
44. Doggers, Peter (18 November 2019). "Grischuk Wins Hamburg Grand Prix, Almost Certain Of Candidates Qualification". Chess.com.
45. Steincamp, Isaac (12 December 2019). "Grischuk Earns Candidates Spot After Jerusalem Grand Prix Draws". Chess.com.
46. "Grischuk wins FIDE World Blitz Championship". ChessBase.com. 12 September 2006. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
47. "World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2012". The Week in Chess. 2012-07-10. Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
48. FIDE World Blitz Championship 2015 Chess-Results
49. ChessBase.com – Chess News – Kateryna and Robert – pour la vie à jamais unis...Archived 2012-11-20 at the Wayback Machine
50. https://aif.ru/sport/other/korona_dlya_ekateriny_mnogodetnaya_mat_stala_chempionkoy_mira_po_shahmatam

External links

• Alexander Grischuk chess games at 365Chess.com
• Alexander Grischuk player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• Alexander Grischuk player profile at the Internet Chess Club
• Interview with Alexander Grischuk