Alexander Morozevich
| Alexander Morozevich | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Full name | Alexander Sergeyevich Morozevich |
| Country |  Russia |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| FIDE rating | 2787 (No. 2 on the October 2008 FIDE ratings list) |
| Peak rating | 2788 (July 2008) |
Alexander Morozevich (Template:Lang-ru) (born July 18, 1977) is a Russian chess player. In the July 2008 FIDE list, he had an ELO rating of 2788, making him the second highest rated player in the world.[1]
Morozevich is one of the best chess players in the world for nearly a decade. He is famous for employing unusual openings for example 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. Due to his risky and spectacular style which produces relatively little draws Morozevich is popular among chess fans. 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; first place in the overall standings at the Amber tournament in 2002, 2004 (shared with Kramnik) and 2006 (shared with Anand); first place in Biel tournament three times: 2003, 2004 and 2006; and twice winning the russian championship (1998 and 2007).
Career and results
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.
In June 2008 Morozevich won the Bosna tournament with a margin of 1,5 points ahead of second place.
In August 2008 Morozevich finished shared 2nd-5th in the Tal Memorial after leading the tournament in early rounds.
Team competitions
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).
Blindfold chess
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
References
External links
- Alexander Morozevich rating card at FIDE
- Alexander Morozevich Morozevich Digest (Official website,there is Russian and English version)
- Alexander Morozevich download 419 of his games in pgn format.
- Alexander Morozevich player profile and games at Chessgames.com