Vladislav Tkachiev (, born Moscow November 9, 1973) is a Russian-born Kazakh-French
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 ...
player.
Biography
In 1982, he moved to
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
with his parents and learnt to play chess a year later. A winner of the Kazakhstani Youth Championship in 1985, he went on to represent Kazakhstan at the 1992 Chess Olympiad in
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 ...
and was twice the national champion.
International Master and Grandmaster titles were awarded to him in 1993 and 1996 respectively. Now living in
Cannes
Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...
, Tkachiev has taken French citizenship and won the 2006
French Chess Championship The French Chess Championship is the annual, national chess tournament of France. It was officially first played in 1923
after the formation of the ''Fédération Française des Echecs'' in 1921. The first unofficial national tournament was played i ...
, held at
Besançon
Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzer ...
, August 14–26. His victory included a rapid play-off win against
Laurent Fressinet
Laurent Fressinet (; born 30 November 1981 in Dax) is a French chess grandmaster. He is a two-time French Chess Champion.
Career
He won the French Chess Championship in 2010 and 2014. In 2012 he finished second in the European Individual Che ...
.
In 2007, he won the
European Individual Chess Championship
The European Individual Chess Championship is a chess tournament organised by the European Chess Union. It was established in 2000 and has since then taken place on a yearly basis.
Apart from determining the European champions (open and women's), ...
, held in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
, following a play-off with GMs
Emil Sutovsky
Emil Sutovsky (born 19 September 1977) is an Israeli chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1996. Sutovsky is the FIDE CEO since 2022. Previously he served as FIDE Director-General (2018-22). He was the president of the As ...
,
Dmitry Jakovenko
Dmitry Olegovich Jakovenko (russian: Дмитрий Олегович Яковенко; born 28 June 1983) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2001. Jakovenko was European champion in 2012. He was a member ...
and
Ivan Cheparinov
Ivan Cheparinov (; born November 26, 1986) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He is a four-time Bulgarian champion (2004, 2005, 2012, 2018). Cheparinov competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2015 and 2017. In 2018 he switched his na ...
.
He also reached the semi-finals of the
Russian Chess Championship
The Russian Chess Championship has taken various forms.
Winners by year (men) Imperial Russia
In 1874, Emanuel Schiffers defeated Andrey Chardin in a match held in St. Petersburg with five wins and four losses. Schiffers was considered the first ...
in 2005 and won the Moscow Blitz Superfinal in 2004, ahead of
Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Sergeyevich Morozevich (russian: Александр Серге́евич Морозе́вич, translit=Aleksandr Sergéevich Morozévich; born July 18, 1977) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE ...
. Other victories include
Oakham
Oakham is the county town of Rutland in the East Midlands of England, east of Leicester, south-east of Nottingham and west of Peterborough. It had a population of 10,922 in the 2011 census, estimated at 11,191 in 2019. Oakham is to the west o ...
1993,
Cannes
Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...
1996 (and 1999),
Isle of Man
)
, anthem = "O Land of Our Birth"
, image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg
, image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg
, mapsize =
, map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe
, map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green)
in Europe ...
1996 and Makarska 1997.
In matchplay, he has defeated
Alberto David
Alberto David (born 26 March 1970) is a Luxembourgian-Italian chess grandmaster. He is a three-time Italian Chess Champion.
Chess career
David was born in Milan in 1970, and in 1974 moved with his parents to Luxembourg, where he learned to pla ...
6-2 (+4=4) in 1999 and beat Dutch grandmaster
John van der Wiel
Van der Wiel in 1983, thumb
John van der Wiel (born 9 August 1959) is a Dutch chess grandmaster. He is a two-time Dutch Chess Champion.
Chess career
Born in 1959, Van der Wiel won the ''Daniël Noteboom tournament'' in Leiden in 1976 and 197 ...
by 7-3 (+5=4-1). In 2000, his (Cannes) match against
Jeroen Piket
Jeroen Piket (born 27 January 1969) is a Dutch chess grandmaster. He is a four-time Dutch Chess Champion.
Chess career
Born in 1969, Piket earned his international master title in 1986 and his grandmaster title in 1989. He won the Dutch Chess ...
ended in a 4–4 draw (+2=4-2). In 2013 Tkachiev won the Nancy stage of the French Rapid Grand Prix.
Tkachiev admits leading a racy—if not hedonistic—lifestyle and to finding it difficult to cope with lengthy tournaments at long
time control
A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game cloc ...
s. His passion is therefore for
blitz chess
Fast chess, also known as Speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blit ...
and this appears also to be his real strength.
In September 2009, Tkachiev caused controversy after falling asleep during a match at an international tournament in
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
On the less serious side of chess, Vladislav Tkachiev is one half of a duo, known as the "Blitz Brothers", responsible for setting up the ''World Chess Beauty Contest''. With the intention of promoting chess worldwide and attracting the interest of media and sponsors, Vladislav and his brother Evgeny created a website that hosted the competition. Although the site is currently offline, viewers were able to register to see the full size images and vote for their favourites.
Whilst the contest was controversial in some quarters and considered to be degrading by some female chess players, the not-too-revealing photographs were mostly sent in by the participants themselves. A judging panel was made up of a wider selection of chess grandmasters, including
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English chess grandmaster, columnist, coach, and commentator, who is the vice-president of FIDE since October 2018. Short earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19, and was ranked third in the ...
Elisabeth Pähtz
Elisabeth Pähtz (born January 8, 1985, sometimes spelt Elisabeth Paehtz) is a German chess Grandmaster.French Championship 2006 round-up (in French)
"Blitz Brothers" on Chessbase
Times Online - article from ''The Sunday Times'' December 4, 2005.