Sergey Viktorovich Dolmatov (born February 20, 1959) is a Russian Grandmaster of

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 ...

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 him to the forefront of youth chess, culminating in him winning the World Junior Chess Championship in 1978. He was awarded the title of International Master in the same year and became a Grandmaster in 1982. Along with the titles, the early part of his chess career yielded many international tournament victories, including the Amsterdam Masters 1979, Bucharest 1981, Hradec Kralove 1981, Frunze 1983, Barcelona 1983, as well as the traditional closed Tallinn (Keres Memorial) 1985 and Sochi (Chigorin Memorial) 1988. Also notable was Dolmatov's second place (to

Vitaly Tseshkovsky Vitaly Valeryevich Tseshkovsky (russian: Виталий Валерьевич Цешковский; 25 September 1944, Omsk – 24 December 2011, Krasnodar) was a Russian chess Grandmaster and a former champion of the USSR. Tseshkovsky (Cieszkow ...

) at Minsk in 1982. However, as is often the case, such rapid early progress can be difficult to sustain. Despite winning at

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

(1989–90, then still a major round-robin tournament) as clear first and qualifying as a

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

candidate from the strong Manila

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 C ...

of 1990, Dolmatov narrowly failed to convert his 'preliminary round' match against his friend Artur Yusupov the following year. Nevertheless, during this period his Elo rating exceeded 2600 and he managed to maintain this level for the next decade. As the new millennium approached, his frequency of play declined and since 2004, he has been more or less inactive. There was some success in the latter part of his 'busy' period, notably the Linares Open of 2000, but at the Moscow Aeroflot Open of 2004, Dolmatov famously lost a game to 13-year-old

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

in just 19 moves. Sergey Dolmatov has also been a chess writer in the early part of the 2000s, contributing opening surveys and tournament reports to chess journals such as New In Chess. As a player of the white pieces, he favours the King (or 'e') pawn openings and as black, shows a preference for the Dutch Defence,

King's Indian Defence The King's Indian Defence is a common chess opening. It is defined by the following moves: :1. d4 Nf6 :2. c4 g6 Black intends to follow up with 3...Bg7 and 4...d6 (the Grünfeld Defence arises when Black plays 3...d5 instead, and is consid ...

and

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 ...

. In 2007, Dolmatov was awarded the title of FIDE Senior Trainer.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dolmatov, Sergey 1959 births Living people Chess grandmasters Russian chess players Soviet chess players World Junior Chess Champions Chess coaches