Valery Salov

Who is Valery Salov?

Valery Salov is a Russian chess grandmaster.

Salov was awarded the International Master title in 1984 and the Grandmaster title in 1986. He was the World under-17 Champion in 1980 and European Junior Champion in 1983–84. He shared the 1st place with Alexander Beliavsky in the 1987 USSR Championship but lost the play-off match. At the 1988 USSR Championship he finished 3rd= with Artur Yusupov, behind Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov.

He qualified twice for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship. In 1988, he reached the round of 16 but was defeated by Jan Timman in his first match.

His best result was in the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996. He qualified for the Candidates and won his first two matches against Alexander Khalifman and Jan Timman, to reach the final 4. He then lost at the semi-final stage to Gata Kamsky.

He has not played any FIDE-rated tournaments since January 2000.