Alexander Khalifman

Alexander Khalifman
Full name	Alexander Valeryevich Khalifman (Александр Валерьевич Халифман)
Country	Russia
Born	(1966-01-18) January 18, 1966 (age 46) Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Title	Grandmaster
World Champion	1999–2000 (FIDE)
FIDE rating	2649 (March 2012) (No. 143 (active players) in the January 2012 FIDE ratings list)
Peak rating	2702 (October 2001)

Alexander Valeryevich Khalifman (Russian: Александр Валерьевич Халифман; born January 18, 1966, in Leningrad) is a Soviet and Russian chess Grandmaster of Jewish^[1] descent; he is also a former FIDE World Chess 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,^[2] which some compared unfavorably 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".^[3] Perhaps in response, Khalifman was invited to the next Linares chess tournament, and performed credibly (though placing below joint winner Kasparov).^[4]

He also won the 1982 Soviet Union Youth Championship,^[5] 1984 Soviet Union championship,^[6] 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 Chess Championship Luzern, 1998 Bad Wiessee, 2000 Hoogeveen, Netherlands, 2000 Chess Olympiad and 2002 Chess Olympiad tournaments.

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

References

External links

• Alexander Khalifman player profile at ChessGames.com
• 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