Sergey Dolmatov

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Sergey Viktorovich Dolmatov (born February 20, 1959) is a Russian International Grandmaster of chess and former World Junior Chess Champion.

Born in Kiselevsk in the former Soviet Union, Dolmatov's solid yet enterprising style of play was soon to launch him to the forefront of youth chess, culminating in him winning the World Junior Chess Championship in 1978. He was awarded the title of International Master in the same year and became a Grandmaster in 1982.

Along with the titles, the early part of his chess career yielded many international tournament victories, including the Amsterdam Masters 1979, Bucharest 1981, Hradec Kralove 1981, Frunze 1983, Barcelona 1983 and Tallinn 1985. Also notable was Dolmatov's second place (to Vitaly Tseshkovsky) in a category 11 tournament at Minsk in 1982.

However, as is often the case, such rapid early progress can be difficult to sustain. Despite winning at Hastings (1989-90) and qualifying as a World Championship candidate from the strong Manila Interzonal of 1990, Dolmatov narrowly failed to convert his 'preliminary round' match against Artur Yusupov the following year. Nevertheless, during this period his Elo rating exceeded 2600 and this probably indicates the peak of his playing strength to date. Certainly, his participation over the next decade was noticeably less frequent and his results more patchy.

Tournament success returned at the Linares Open of 2000, but at the Moscow Aeroflot Open of 2004 he famously lost a game to 13 year old Magnus Carlsen in just 19 moves. Presently, he maintains a competitive rating of 2561 (in the October 2005 rating list), continues to contribute opening surveys to chess publications and has recently played more chess than in previous years.

Dolmatov favours the e-pawn openings as a player of the white pieces and as black, shows a preference for the Dutch Defence, King's Indian Defence and French Defence.