Alexander Motylev

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Alexander Motylev (born Ekaterinburg June 17, 1979) is an International Grandmaster of chess and a former champion of Russia.

He learnt how to play at the age of four and a half years and aged six, took part in group instruction sessions. This is not uncommon in Russia where chess is very much part of the school curriculum. His progress remained good and by the time he was eleven, Motylev was already a Candidate Master (a title previously achieved by his father). Around this time, he was also gifted at football, a sport for which he had major aspirations. Made aware of his split loyalties by his chess coach, Motylev's physical education teacher advised him to concentrate on chess and this proved to be good advice, as he went on to become national junior champion at both under 16 and under 18 level.

There was more to come in 2001, when he shocked the chess world with a surprise, but deserved win of the Russian Championship. Of course it can be a struggle to maintain such rapid progress and in the years that followed, his form has had both upturns and downturns. In 2002, he was invited to take part in the prestigious Russia vs Rest of the World match in Moscow and in the company of the world's elite players, scored a disappointing 1/6.

For the most part however, his tournament record continues to impress and in 2003, he won the Corsican Open at Bastia (ahead of a strong field including Van Wely, Sasikiran and Tiviakov). In 2004, he swept to a comfortable victory at the Tomsk qualifier and then performed well in the Russian Superfinal. In the latter contest, a fighting draw with Kasparov saw him finish strongly, level with SuperGMs Svidler, Morozevich and Bareev (behind Kasparov, Grischuk and Dreev). In 2005, he finished second at the 2nd Sanjin Hotel Cup (behind Harikrishna, who he defeated) and in the same year, qualified again for the Russian Superfinal, this time by taking 3rd place at Kazan. In 2006, he was the joint winner of the Corus "B" Tournament at Wijk aan Zee with Magnus Carlsen.

In regular team events, he played for Russia in the 2001 World Team Championships and contributed a solid 2/3 performance, helping the team to a silver medal. At the European Team Championship of 2005, his own sub-50% score and the whole team effort was far less convincing, as the Russians crashed to an unbelievable 14th place finish.

As of July 2006, Alexander Motylev's Elo rating was 2665.