Alexander Valeryevich Khalifman (russian: Алекса́ндр Вале́рьевич Халифма́н; born 18 January 1966) is a Russian

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 and writer. Awarded the title of Grandmaster by

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 ...

in 1990, he was FIDE World Chess Champion in 1999.

Early life

Khalifman is of Jewish descent. When he was six years old, his father taught him chess.

Tournament career

Khalifman won the 1982 Soviet Union Youth Championship, the 1984 Soviet Union Youth Championship, the 1985 European Under-20 Championship in

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of t ...

, the 1985 and 1987 Moscow championships, 1990 Groningen, 1993 Ter Apel, 1994 Chess Open of Eupen, 1995 Chess Open St. Petersburg, the Russian Championship in 1996, the Saint Petersburg Championship in 1996 and 1997, 1997 Chess Grand Master Tournament St. Petersburg, 1997 Aarhus, 1997 and 1998 Bad Wiessee, 2000 Hoogeveen. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team at the Chess Olympiads in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, and at the 1997 World Team Chess Championship. Khalifman gained the Grandmaster title in 1990 with one particularly good early result being his first place in the 1990

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Open ahead of a host of strong players. His most notable achievement was winning the FIDE World Championship in 1999, a title he held until the following year. He was rated 44th in the world at the time, while "Classical" World Champion

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...

was rated No. 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." Khalifman played in the

Linares chess tournament The Linares International Chess Tournament ( Spanish: ''Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares'') was an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, which takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén p ...

next year, and performed credibly (though placing below joint winner Kasparov).

Trainer

With his trainer Gennady Nesis ( de) he runs a chess academy in St. Petersburg, called "The Grandmaster Chess School", since November 1998. Khalifman has been coaching

Vladimir Fedoseev Vladimir Vasilyevich Fedoseev (russian: Влади́мир Васи́льевич Федосе́ев; born 16 February 1995) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2015, 2017, and 2021. Career Fedoseev tied for ...

since 2011. Khalifman has been coaching the

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

i national team since 2013 and is its captain. He acted as a to

Alisa Galliamova Alisa Mikhailovna Galliamova (russian: Алиса Михайловна Галлямова, tt-Cyrl, Алисә Михаил кызы Галләмова; born 18 January 1972 in Kazan) is a Russian chess player who holds the FIDE titles of In ...

in the

Women's World Chess Championship 1999 The 1999 Women's World Chess Championship was won by former champion Xie Jun, who regained her title after defeating Alisa Galliamova. Previous to the match, reigning champion Susan Polgar had been stripped of her title after much controversy. 19 ...

and to

Anna Ushenina Anna Yuriyivna Ushenina (; born 30 August 1985) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster who was Women's World Chess Champion from November 2012 to September 2013. Personal life Ushenina lives in Kharkiv, where she was born. She is of Jewish ethnici ...

in the Women's World Chess Championship 2013.

Books

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Alexander Khalifman (2000–2002). ''Opening for White according to Kramnik 1.♘f3'' (5 volumes). Chess Stars * Alexander Khalifman (2003–2012). ''Opening for White according to Anand 1. e4'' (14 volumes). Chess Stars * Alexander Khalifman (2006–2011). ''Opening for White according to Kramnik 1.♘f3'' (revised edition, 5 volumes). Chess Stars * * *

References

External links