Alexander Khalifman - Biography

Alexander Valeryevich Khalifman (born January 18, 1966, in Leningrad) is a Soviet and Russian chess Grandmaster of Jewish descent; he is also a former FIDE champion.

When Khalifman was 6 years old, he was taught chess by his father.

He gained the Grandmaster title in 1990 with one particularly good early result being his first place in the 1990 New York Open ahead of a host of strong players.

His most notable achievement was winning the FIDE World Chess Championship in 1999, a title he held until the following year. He was rated 44th in the world at the time, which some compared unfavourably to "Classical" World Champion Garry Kasparov being rated #1. Khalifman said after the tournament, "Rating systems work perfectly for players who play only in round robin closed events. I think most of them are overrated. Organizers invite same people over and over because they have the same rating and their rating stays high". Perhaps in response, Khalifman was invited to the next Linares chess tournament, and performed credibly (though placing below joint winner Kasparov).

He also won the 1982 USSR Youth Championship, 1984 USSR championship, 1985 and 1987 Moscow championships, 1990 Groningen, 1993 Ter Apel, 1994 Chess Open of Eupen 1995 Chess Open St. Petersburg, 1996 Russian Championship, 1997 Chess Grand Master Tournament St. Petersburg, 1997 Aarhus, 1997 World Team Championship Luzern, 1998 Bad Wiessee, 2000 Hoogeveen, Netherlands, 2000 Chess Olympiad and 2002 Chess Olympiad tournaments.

Khalifman holds the record of most consecutive games played at Aeroflot Open tournament without a loss (72 games in eight tournaments — from 2004–2011).

With his trainer Genadi Nesis he runs a chess academy in St. Petersburg, called "The Grandmaster Chess School." There he trains players from all over the world following the motto: "chess = intellect + character."

Notable games

• Bogdan Lalic vs Alexander Khalifman, Anibal Open 1997, Benko Gambit: Accepted, Dlugy Variation (A57), 0-1
• Alexander Khalifman vs Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu, wcc elim 1999, Catalan Opening: Closed Variation (E01), 1-0
• Alexander Khalifman vs Evgeny Bareev, Corus 2002, French Defense: Rubinstein Variation, Blackburne Defense (C10), 1-0

External links

• Biography
• Chess puzzles from the games of Alexander Khalifman
• Interview with Alexander Khalifman (2005)
• Interview with Alexander Khalifman (2008)
• Two part interview with Alexander Khalifman (2010) Part 1 Part 2