Vladimir Malaniuk

Who is Vladimir Malaniuk?

Vladimir Pavlovich Malaniuk is a Ukrainian chess Grandmaster.

Considered by many to be one of the more colourful characters on the chess circuit, he has an extraordinary talent for rapid chess, which has been demonstrated at some of the world's most prestigious 'speed chess' tournaments.

In 2005, he finished second at the Tallinn rapid event, behind Alexey Shirov but ahead of such luminaries as Anatoly Karpov and Boris Gelfand. The same year, he took the silver medal at the European Rapid Championship, behind the strong Hungarian Grandmaster Zoltan Gyimesi. His sustained efforts were again rewarded in 2006, when at the Ajaccio Open Rapid event, he finished clear winner, ahead of a large group of strong GMs and Super-GMs including Kasimdzhanov, Milov, Bareev, Motylev, Bologan, Almasi, Smirin, Sokolov, Naiditsch, Sasikiran and Van Wely.

Whilst it is rare that older players can achieve this kind of success against more youthful talents, it is not completely unknown. Yuri Balashov is another mature player who enjoys success in such events and it is probable that good quality rapid chess relies as much on intuition as calculation and stamina, giving the experienced professional good chances against younger, sharper, but less knowledgeable minds.