Vladislav Tkachiev (, born Moscow November 9, 1973) is a Russian-born Kazakh-French chess player.
Biography
In 1982, he moved to Kazakhstan 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
The 30th Chess Olympiad ( tl, Ika-30 Olimpiyadang pang-ahedres), organized by FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and a women's tournament, as wel ...
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 ...
Makarska
Makarska (; it, Macarsca, ; german: Macharscha) is a town on the Adriatic coastline of Croatia, about southeast of Split (city), Split and northwest of Dubrovnik, in the Split-Dalmatia County.
Makarska is a prominent regional tourist center, ...
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 pl ...
6-2 (+4=4) in 1999 and beat Dutch grandmaster John van der Wiel by 7-3 (+5=4-1). In 2000, his (Cannes) match against Jeroen Piket 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 controls. His passion is therefore for blitz chess 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, India. He was reportedly intoxicated and, after passing out repeatedly during the first hour of play, was forced to forfeit the game after eleven moves on technical grounds.Maverick chess master Vladislav Tkachiev falls asleep at the board /ref>
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, who along with some women players like Jennifer Shahade, supported the idea behind the venture. Amongst the more noted chess players featured in the contest were
Natalija Pogonina
Natalia Andreevna Pogonina (russian: Ната́лья Андре́евна Пого́нина; born 9 March 1985) is a Russian chess player who holds the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is the runner-up of the Women's World Chess C ...
,
Maria Manakova
Maria Manakova (born 1 March 1974) is a Russian-born Serbian chess player holding the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). Born in Kazan, she lived in Serbia for several years and played for the Yugoslav women's chess team. Manakova was first board ...
,
Almira Skripchenko
Almira Skripchenko (born 17 February 1976) is a Moldovan-French chess player who holds the titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She won the European Individual Chess Championship#Results (women), European Women's Indiv ...
and
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.