Alexander Morozevich

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Alexander Morozevich
Full name Alexander Sergeyevich Morozevich
Country Flag of Russia Russia
Born July 18, 1977 (1977-07-18) (age 30)
Moscow, Russia
Title Grandmaster
FIDE rating 2774
(No. 3 on the April 2008 FIDE ratings list)
Peak rating 2774 (April 2008)

Alexander Morozevich (Russian: Александр Морозе́вич) (born July 18, 1977) is a Russian chess player. In the April 2008 FIDE list, he had an ELO rating of 2774, making him number 3 in the world.[1]

Morozevich is noted for employing unusual openings. Against the Queen's Gambit, for instance, he has often played the Chigorin Defence (1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6), and more recently the Albin Countergambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5); both systems are hardly ever seen at the top level. He is also well known for preferring complicated rather than clear positions.

Among his most notable results are 7.5/10 at the 2000 Chess Olympiad (winning Bronze Medal for board 2 and gaining the highest Elo performance rating at 2803.7) and 7/11 at the 2002 Olympiad (against considerably weaker opposition, for a performance rating of 2663); first place in the combined blindfold and rapid standings at the 2002 Amber tournament with 15/22, joint second with 13.5/22 in the same event in 2003 (including wins in both his games against Vladimir Kramnik), and joint first with Kramnik with 14.5/22 in that event in 2004; first place in Biel three times: with 8/10 in 2003, with 7.5/10 in 2004, and with 7.5/10 again in 2006; joint first with Peter Svidler in the 2003 Russian Championship with 7/9 (Svidler took the title with a better tie-break score) and first place in the same event in 2007 with 8/11.

His first win in an international tournament was in 1994 when at the age of 17 he won the Lloyds Bank tournament in London with a spectacular 9.5 out of 10 score. In 1994 he also won the Pamplona tournament, a victory he repeated in 1998.

In 1997 Morozevich participated in the FIDE K.O. world championship, in the first round he eliminated the ex-world champion Smyslov but in the second round he was eliminated by Oll.

In 1999 Morozevich played in his first super-tourney the Sarajevo Bosna and finished in 4th with 5,5 points of 9.

In beginning of 2000 Morozevich participated at the Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee and finished 5th out of 14 players. The event was won by Kasparov in front of Kramnik, Anand and Leko.

In the same year he participated in the FIDE K.O. world championship played in New Delhi. Due to his rating he was seeded directly into the second round in which he eliminated Milos with the score of 2:0, then he proceeded to beat Vladimirov 1,5:0,5 in the third round before finally being eliminated in the fourth round by Tkachiev.

In the 2001 FIDE K.O. championship played in his native Moscow Morozevich beat Zeliavok, Sasikiran and Gurevich before losing in tie-breaks in the fourth round against the eventual winner of the event Ponomariov.

In September 2005, Morozevich played in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 in San Luis, taking fourth place behind Veselin Topalov, Vishwanathan Anand and Peter Svidler.

In December 2006, he won the strong Ciudad de Pamplona tournament with a score of 6 (of 7) and an ELO performance of 2951.[2] He shared second place with Magnus Carlsen behind Anand at the 2007 Linares tournament.

His San Luis result earned him direct entry to the World Chess Championship 2007. In that tournament he scored 6 out of 14, placing 6th out of eight players. He was the only player who managed to defeat the reigning world champion Vladimir Kramnik (which was also Kramnik's only defeat in 2007).

In December 2007 Morozevich won the Russian championship, during the tourney he scored a series of 6 consecutive wins, a rare event in competitions of that level.

Morozevich had great successes in team competitions: in the Chess Olympiad he won the gold medal with the Russian team 3 times (1998, 2000, 2002), one silver medal (2004) and a bronze medal (1994). He also won the gold medal in the World Team Championships championships in 2005 in which he beat the member of the Chinese team in the last round in a must win situation. And finally he also won 2 gold medals in the European Team Championships (2003 and 2007).

Morozevich is considered to be the best blindfold player in the world. He confirmed that status in the Amber blindfold tourneys where each year most of the best players in the world participate:

2002 first 9/11, 2003 shared second 7/11, 2004 first 8.5/11, 2005 shared second 6/11, 2006 first 9.5/11, 2007 shared second 7/11, 2008 shared first 6/11

Preceded by
Peter Svidler		 Russian Chess Champion
1998		 Succeeded by
Konstantin Sakaev
Preceded by
Evgeny Alekseev		 Russian Chess Champion
2007		 Succeeded by
TBD

[edit] References

  1. ^ FIDE Top 100
  2. ^ Chess Pamplona 2006

[edit] External links