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Alexander Khalifman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alexander Khalifman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alexander Valeryevich Khalifman (Russian:

; born 18 January 1966 in
Leningrad) is a Russian (formerly Soviet) chess Grandmaster.
He was FIDE World Chess Champion in 1999.

Alexander Khalifman

Contents
1 Early life
2 Tournament career
3 Trainer
4 Notable games
5 References
6 External links
Full name Alexander Valeryevich Khalifman
( )

Early life
Khalifman is of Jewish descent.[1] When he was six years
old, his father taught him chess.

Tournament career

Country

Russia

Born

18 January 1966
Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

Title

Grandmaster

19992000 (FIDE)
World
Champion

2613
FIDE
Khalifman won the 1982 Soviet Union Youth
(http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?
rating
Championship,[2] the 1984 Soviet Union Youth
event=4100115) (March 2015)
championship,[3] the 1985 European U-20 Championship at
(No. 143 in the January 2012 FIDE World
Groningen, the 1985 and 1987 Moscow championships,
Rankings)
1990 Groningen, 1993 Ter Apel, 1994 Chess Open of
Eupen, 1995 Chess Open St. Petersburg, 1996 Russian
2702 (October 2001)
Peak
Championship, 1997 Chess Grand Master Tournament St.
rating
Petersburg, 1997 Aarhus, 1997 World Team Chess
Championship Luzern, 1998 Bad Wiessee, 2000
Hoogeveen, Netherlands. As part of the Russian team, he won the 1992 Chess Olympiad, 2000 Chess Olympiad
and 2002 Chess Olympiad tournaments.

Khalifman gained the Grandmaster title in 1990 with one particularly good early result being his first place in the
1990 New York Open ahead of a host of strong players. His most notable achievement was winning the FIDE
World Chess Championship in 1999, a title he held until the following year. He was rated 44th in the world at the
time,[4] while "Classical" World Champion Garry Kasparov was rated No. 1. Khalifman said after the tournament,
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Alexander Khalifman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"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."[5] Khalifman played in the Linares chess tournament next year, and performed credibly (though placing below
joint winner Kasparov).[6]

Trainer
With his trainer Genadi Nesis he runs a chess academy in St. Petersburg, called "The Grandmaster Chess School".
There he trains players worldwide following the motto: "chess = intellect + character".

Notable games
Bogdan Lalic vs Alexander Khalifman, Anibal Open 1997, Benko Gambit: Accepted, Dlugy Variation
(A57), 01 (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1293381,)
Alexander Khalifman vs Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu, wcc elim 1999, Catalan Opening: Closed Variation (E01),
10 (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1254352,)
Alexander Khalifman vs Evgeny Bareev, Corus 2002, French Defense: Rubinstein Variation, Blackburne
Defense (C10), 10 (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1241404,)

References
1. "Russian Jewish Encyclopedia" (http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/rje_k.htm). JewishGen.org. Archived
(http://web.archive.org/web/20090604205850/http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/rje_k.htm) from the original on 4
June 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
2. "31st Soviet Union Junior Chess Championship, Yurmala, January 417, 1982"
(http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_urs/1982/ch_jun82.html). RusBase. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
3. "33rd Soviet Union Junior Chess Championship, Kirovabad, January 1984"
(http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_urs/1984/ch_jun84.html). RusBase. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
4. Crowther, Mark (1999-07-05). "The Week in Chess: FIDE July Rating list"
(http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic243.html#9). London Chess Center. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
5. Luchan, Jason; Aird, Ian. "Las Vegas World Championship, July 30 August 29, 1999"
(http://www.chessscotland.com/archives/lasvegas99.htm). ChessScotland.com. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
6. "The Week in Chess 273 13 March 2000" (http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic273.html).

External links
Alexander Khalifman (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=11645) player profile and games
at Chessgames.com
Biography (http://www2.hu-berlin.de/EUNIS2001/hauptseiten/chess/khalifman.html)
Chess puzzles from the games of Alexander Khalifman (http://www.wtharvey.com/khal.html)
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Interview with Alexander Khalifman (2005) (http://mail.e3e5.com/article.php?id=1060)

Interview with Alexander Khalifman (2008) (http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4850)
Two part interview with Alexander Khalifman (2010) Part 1 (http://www.crestbook.com/node/1233) Part 2
(http://www.crestbook.com/node/1273)
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Anatoly Karpov

FIDE World Chess Champion

19992000

Succeeded by
Viswanathan Anand

Preceded by
Peter Svidler

Russian Chess Champion

1996

Succeeded by
Peter Svidler

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alexander_Khalifman&oldid=644696749"

Categories: 1966 births Living people People from Saint Petersburg Russian Jews World chess champions
Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Russian chess players Soviet chess players
Jewish chess players Sportspeople from Saint Petersburg
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