Anton Kovalyov (born 4 March 1992) is a Ukrainian-born Canadian (formerly representing Argentina)

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

grandmaster.

Chess career

In 2004, he finished equal first at the Pan American Under-12 Championship and thanks to this result he was awarded the title of

FIDE Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

. In 2008 Kovalyov played for the Argentine team at the 38th Chess Olympiad. At the FIDE congress held during the competition he was awarded the grandmaster title. In 2009 he won the Quebec Invitational Championship in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. He won the Quebec Junior Championship in 2010, 2011 and 2012. He switched to the Canadian Chess Federation in 2013. In August 2014, he played for Canada on the top board at the 41st Chess Olympiad. He scored 7/11 (+4–1=6) for a

performance rating The PR (Performance Rating, P-rating) system was a figure of merit developed by AMD, Cyrix, IBM Microelectronics and SGS-Thomson in the mid-1990s (Cyrix announced it in February 1996) as a method of comparing their x86 processors to those of r ...

of 2670. At the 2015

American Continental Chess Championship The Pan American Chess Championship, also American continental Championship is an individual chess tournament organized since 1945. First pan American championships (1945 and 1954) The first Pan American Chess Championship was held in Hollywood ...

he scored 8 points out of 11 finishing in a tie for third with other five players, with whom he played a rapid playoff and managed to earn a spot in the

Chess World Cup 2015 The Chess World Cup 2015 was a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 10 September to 5 October 2015. Sergey Karjakin won the competition on tie-breaks after a four-game final against Peter Svidler. Both fi ...

. In the latter he knocked out

Rustam Kasimdzhanov Rustam Kasimdzhanov; russian: Рустам Касымджанов (born 5 December 1979) is an Uzbek chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Champion (2004-05). He was Asian champion in 1998. In addition to his tournament play, Kasimdzhan ...

and Sandro Mareco in round one and two respectively, then he was eliminated by

Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, Caruana became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days—the youngest grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United Sta ...

in the third round. In May 2016, he came in tied for second in the

, qualifying for a place in the Chess World Cup 2017. In September 2016, he competed for Canada on board 2 at the

42nd Chess Olympiad The 42nd Chess Olympiad ( az, 42-ci Şahmat Olimpiadası; also known as the Baku Chess Olympiad), organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and comprising an openAlthough sometimes referred to as the "men's division", this ...

. He scored 8/10 (+6–0=4) for a

of 2852. This was the second best board 2 performance, behind only Vladimir Kramnik's 2903 performance for Russia. In the Chess World Cup 2017, he defeated

Varuzhan Akobian Varuzhan Akobian ( hy, Վարուժան Հակոբյան, born 19 November 1983 in Yerevan, Soviet Union) is an Armenian-born American chess Grandmaster. Originally from Armenia, he now resides in St. Louis. He played on the bronze-medal-winni ...

in the first round and former World Champion

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating o ...

in the second, and was due to face

Maxim Rodshtein Maxim Rodshtein ( he, מקסים רודשטיין, russian: Максим Эдуардович Родштейн, translit=Maksim Eduardovich Rodshtein; born 19 January 1989) is an Israeli chess grandmaster. He competed in the FIDE World Cup in 20 ...

in the third. Shortly before the game with Rodshtein was due to start,

Zurab Azmaiparashvili Zurab Azmaiparashvili ( ka, ზურაბ აზმაიფარაშვილი; born 16 March 1960) is a chess grandmaster from Georgia. His peak Elo rating was 2702, achieved in July 2003. Career Azmaiparashvili became a Grandmaster i ...

, dressed in blue jeans, told Kovalyov to change from shorts to long pants. The two exchanged words, and Kovalyov ended up leaving the venue forfeiting the game. Kovalyov had been wearing shorts to FIDE events for years, but no one had said anything to him before about it. Kovalyov said part of his anger came from Azmaiparashvili shouting that he was dressed like a 'gypsy,' a word that struck Kovalyov as a racial slur.

Personal life

Born in

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, Kovalyov moved to Argentina in 2000, where he learned how to play chess under the guidance of

Pablo Ricardi Pablo Ricardi (born 25 February 1962) is an Argentine chess player who receive the FIDE title of Grandmaster in 1985. He won the Argentine Chess Championship five times (1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, and 1999), and was a sub-champion in 2005. He als ...

and

Oscar Panno Oscar Roberto Panno (born 17 March 1935 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine chess Grandmaster. Panno was the first top world chess player born in South America. Panno won the 2nd World Junior Chess Championship in 1953, ahead of such future stron ...

. In 2007 he moved to

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

, Canada, with his family. As of 2017, he is pursuing a master's degree in Computer Science at the

University of Texas at Dallas The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD or UT Dallas) is a public research university in Richardson, Texas. It is one of the largest public universities in the Dallas area and the northernmost institution of the University of Texas system. It w ...

References

External links

Anton Kovalyov
chess games at 365Chess.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kovalyov, Anton 1992 births Living people Sportspeople from Kharkiv Argentine chess players Argentine emigrants to Canada Canadian chess players Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Ukrainian emigrants to Argentina Ukrainian people of Russian descent