Alexander Grischuk

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Alexander Grischuk

Full name	Alexander Igorevich Grischuk
Country	Russia
Born	October 31, 1983 (1983-10-31) (age 24) Moscow, Russia

Title	Grandmaster


FIDE rating	2716 (No. 18 on the April 2008 FIDE ratings list)
Peak rating	2732 (July 2003)

This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

Alexander Grischuk (b. October 31, 1983) is a chess grandmaster from Russia. His FIDE rating in July 2007 was 2726, making him the world's fourteenth-ranked player.

In the FIDE World Chess Championship 2000 he made it to the semi finals.

In the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 he made it to the quarter finals, where he lost 3-1 to Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

He finished in the top 10 in the 2005 FIDE World Cup, which qualified 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 8 player FIDE World Chess Championship 2007 tournament. In that tournament he scored 5.5 out of 14, placing last in the eight player field.

Along with being a top-level professional, Grischuk is also known as one of the best blitz chess players in the world, having once held the record for highest rating achieved on the Internet Chess Club. In 2006 he won the World Blitz Championship in Rishon Lezion, Israel with 10.5 points out of 15 games, winning 10 games.

Grischuk is married to the Ukrainian WGM Natalia Zhukova.

In the following game, played in 2001, Grischuk crushes one of the world's top players, Evgeny Bareev in only seventeen moves:

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Nh6 6. Bd3 cxd4 7. Bxh6 gxh6 8. cxd4 Bd7 9. Nc3 Qb6 10. Bb5 Rg8 11. O-O Nxe5 12. Nxe5 Bxb5 13. Qh5 Rg7 14. Rfe1 Rd8 15. Nxb5 Qxb5 16. Nxf7 Rxf7 17. Rxe6+ 1-0

One possible continuation of the game is: