Alexander Beliavsky

Who is Alexander Beliavsky?

Alexander Genrikhovich Beliavsky is a Soviet, Ukrainian and Slovenian chess grandmaster.

Beliavsky was born in Lviv, USSR, now Ukraine. He currently lives in Slovenia and he plays for the Olympic team there. He is noted for his uncompromising style of play and for his classical opening repertoire, including openings such as the Queen's Gambit, Ruy Lopez, French Defence and the Two Knights Defence.

Beliavsky won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1973 and the USSR Chess Championship four times.

In the 1982–84 World Chess Championship cycle, Beliavsky qualified for the Candidates Tournament once, losing to eventual winner Garry Kasparov in the quarterfinals of the 1983 Candidates matches.

In tournaments, he was first equal at Baden 1980, first at Tilburg 1981, second equal at Tilburg 1984, joint winner at Wijk aan Zee 1984 and joint second at the same event a year later. At the second Russia vs Rest of the World match in 1984, he was the top scorer for the victorious Soviet team, defeating Yasser Seirawan 2–0 and Bent Larsen 1½–½. Beliavsky won the Vidmar Memorial four times: in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005. In 2013 he tied for 1st–8th with Alexander Moiseenko, Evgeny Romanov, Hrant Melkumyan, Constantin Lupulescu, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Sergei Movsesian, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alexey Dreev and Evgeny Alekseev in the European Individual Chess Championship, thus qualifying for the Chess World Cup 2013.