Mikhail Gurevich (russian: Михаил Наумович Гуревич, Mikhail Naumovich Gurevich; born 22 February 1959) is a Soviet-born Belgian

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 disti ...

player. He was a top ten ranked player from 1989 to 1991. Gurevich became an International Grandmaster in 1986, and is currently an

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

arbiter and senior trainer.

Chess career

Early years

Gurevich won the

Ukrainian Chess Championship This is a list of all the winners of the Ukrainian Chess Championship, including those held when Ukraine was a Soviet republic and those held after Ukraine became independent. Players' names listed in parentheses indicate that the player won the to ...

in 1984 and became USSR Champion in 1985, controversially taking the title from co-winners

Alexander Chernin Alexander Mikhailovich Chernin (russian: Александр Михайлович Чернин; born 6 March 1960) is a Soviet-born Hungarian chess grandmaster and trainer. Tournaments and championships Born in Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, as a youth ...

and

Viktor Gavrikov Viktor Nikolaevich Gavrikov (; 29 July 1957 – 27 April 2016) was a Lithuanian-Swiss chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1984. Gavrikov shared first place with Gintautas Piešina in the 1978 Lithuanian Champion ...

on tiebreak points' This was after a three-way playoff had been organized and all the game results were draws. He was not allowed to leave the country, however, to participate in the

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the ...

, and Gavrikov and Chernin went in his place. According to Gurevich, a Jew, the KGB prevented his journey to the West while they expected he would defect to Israel. {New in Chess, 1991, nr.6, p. 61)]. Gurevich was awarded the

International 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 ...

title in 1985, and became an International Grandmaster in 1986. In 1987 he was first at Moscow ahead of

Oleg Romanishin Oleg Mikhailovich Romanishin ( uk, Олег Михайлович Романишин, translit=Oleh Mykhailovych Romanyshyn; born 10 January 1952) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster and former European junior champion. Career Many honours and ...

and

Sergey Dolmatov Sergey Viktorovich Dolmatov (born February 20, 1959) is a Russian Grandmaster of chess and former World Junior Chess Champion. Born in Kiselevsk in the former Soviet Union, Dolmatov's solid yet enterprising style of play was soon to launch hi ...

. He finished second at

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

after

Rafael Vaganian Rafael Artemovich Vaganian ( hy, Ռաֆայել Արտյոմի Վահանյան, Rrafayel Artyomi Vahanyan, russian: link=no, Рафаэль Артёмович Ваганян, ''Rafael Artemovich Vaganyan''; born 15 October 1951) is an Armenian ...

, but ahead of

Andrei Sokolov Andrei Yurievich Sokolov (russian: Андре́й Ю́рьевич Соколо́в; born 20 March 1963, in Vorkuta, Komi ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. ...

and Artur Yusupov.''no title given''
; Chessmetrics.com

Peak

At his peak, between 1989 and 1991, Gurevich was consistently ranked in the top ten players in the world. He took first at

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has abou ...

1989, ahead of

Vassily Ivanchuk Vasyl Mykhaylovych Ivanchuk ( uk, Василь Михайлович Іванчук; born March 18, 1969), also transliterated as Vassily Ivanchuk, is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1988. A leading ...

Jaan Ehlvest Jaan Ehlvest (born 14 October 1962) is an Estonian-American chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster by FIDE in 1987. Ehlvest was Estonian champion in 1986. Since 2006, he has represented the United States. He was ...

and

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 of ...

and tied for first at Moscow 1990 with

Alexander Khalifman Alexander Valeryevich Khalifman (russian: Алекса́ндр Вале́рьевич Халифма́н; born 18 January 1966) is a Russian chess player and writer. Awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1990, he was FIDE World Chess Ch ...

and

Evgeny Bareev Evgeny Ilgizovich Bareev (russian: Евгений Ильгизович Бареев; born 21 November 1966) is a Russian-Canadian chess player and trainer. Awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1989, he was ranked fourth in the FIDE world r ...

. His highest world ranking was a tie for fifth place on the January 1990 and January 1991 FIDE rating lists (with ratings of 2645 and 2650 respectively).

Struggle and comeback

Mikhail Gurevich's results in the late 1990s were not as impressive as in previous years, but he has since made a comeback. He had achieved his highest rating of 2694 on the January 2001 rating list, which ranked him 14th in the world. In 2001 he won the

Belgian Chess Championship The Belgian Chess Championship is a championship organised yearly by the Koninklijke Belgische Schaakbond/Fédération Royale Belge des Echecs (Royal Belgium Chess Federation). The winner of the championship is awarded the title: Chess Champion of B ...

with a perfect 9/9 score. He placed 8th at the 2005 FIDE World Cup, beating Robert Markus,

Pavel Eljanov Pavel Eljanov ( uk, Павло Володимирович Ельянов, translit=Pavlo Volodymyrovych Elyanov; born 10 May 1983) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He has won two team gold medals and one individual silver medal at the Chess Oly ...

Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov (, lv, Aleksejs Širovs; born 4 July 1972) is a Latvian and Spanish chess player. Shirov was ranked number two in the world in 1994. He won a match against Vladimir Kramnik in 1998 to qualify to play as challenger for the classic ...

and Vladimir Malakhov along the way, before losing to the eventual winner,

Levon Aronian Levon Grigori Aronian ( hy, Լևոն Գրիգորի Արոնյան, Levon Grigori Aronyan; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenians, Armenian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, who currently plays for the United States Chess Federation. A ches ...

. This qualified him for the

Candidates Tournament The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The wi ...

for the

FIDE World Chess Championship 2007 The World Chess Championship 2007 was held in Mexico City, from 12 September 2007 to 30 September 2007 to decide the world champion of the game of chess. It was an eight-player, double round robin tournament. Viswanathan Anand of India won the t ...

, in May–June 2007. He was eliminated in the first round, however, losing his match against

Peter Leko Peter Leko ( hu, Lékó Péter; born September 8, 1979) is a Hungarian chess player and commentator. He became the world's youngest grandmaster in 1994. He narrowly missed winning the Classical World Chess Championship 2004: the match was draw ...

3.5-0.5. In 2006, Gurevich won the

Turkish Chess Championship Following are the official winners of the national Turkish Chess Championships from 1962 to date. Winners : Notes References Lists of winners from the Turkish Chess Federation (TCF) {{Chess national championships Chess national championships ...

. In 2009 he tied for first with

Michał Krasenkow Michał Krasenkow (born 14 November 1963) is a Polish chess grandmaster, chess trainer and writer. He is one of the strongest Polish chess players since World War II. His playing style is aggressive and he has won many "best game" awards. Lif ...

at the World Chess Open in Leon.

Team player

In team chess events, he represented the USSR at the 1989

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

European Team Chess Championship The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...

, winning team gold and individual bronze medals. In 1992, playing for Belgium, he had a fine result at the

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

, scoring 75% on board 1. In 2006, playing top board for his second adopted nation, Turkey, at the

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

Olympiad, he registered a respectable 58%.

Expertise

Mikhail Gurevich was also a long-time second to eventual world champion Vishwanathan Anand in the 1990s. He is known as an expert on the

French Defence The French Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e6 This is most commonly followed by 2.d4 d5, with Black intending ...c5 soon after, attacking White's and gaining on the . The French has a reputation for solidity ...

, the Reshevsky variation of the

Nimzo-Indian Defence The Nimzo-Indian Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. d4 Nf6 :2. c4 e6 :3. Nc3 Bb4 Other move orders, such as 1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.d4 Bb4, are also feasible. In the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'', the Nimzo-Indian ...

, and the Petrosian variation of the

Queen's Indian Defence The Queen's Indian Defense (QID) is a chess opening defined by the moves: :1. d4 Nf6 :2. c4 e6 :3. Nf3 b6 The opening is a solid defense to the Queen's Pawn Game. 3...b6 increases Black's control over the central light squares e4 and d5 by ...

. In 1991, he wrote a book on the latter, entitled ''Queen's Indian Defence: Kasparov System'', published by Batsford. In 2006, Gurevich was awarded the title of FIDE senior trainer. He holds the title of FIDE arbiter. In the Fourth ACP World Rapid Cup knockout tournament, held 27–29 May 2010 in Odessa, Ukraine, Gurevich created a sensation after beating two grandmasters, each rated at over 2700.

Personal life

Gurevich was born 22 February 1959 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.USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. He lived in Belgium from 1991 to 2005 (after the breakup of the Soviet Union), and since 2006, resides in Turkey.Chessgames.com
/ref>

Notable games

Joel Lautier vs Mikhail Gurevich, 21 1993, English Opening: Anglo-Dutch Defense (A10), 0-1Budapest Defense">Mikhail Gurevich vs Normunds Miezis, Bonn GSK 1996, Budapest Gambit, Budapest Defense
: Rubinstein Variation (A52), 1-0br>Sergei Movsesian vs Mikhail Gurevich, Sarajevo Bosnia 2000, French Defense: Advance, Euwe Variation (C02), 0-1Alexey Shirov vs Mikhail Gurevich, FIDE World Cup 2005, French Defense: Advance, Lputian Variation (C02), 0-1

References

External links

*
Mikhail Gurevich
chess games at 365Chess.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Gurevich, Mikhail 1959 births Living people Chess grandmasters Chess coaches Chess arbiters Soviet chess players Belgian chess players Turkish chess players Jewish chess players Chess writers Belgian male writers Turkish writers Ukrainian Jews Belgian Jews Turkish Jews Sportspeople from Kharkiv Naturalized citizens of Turkey