Andrei Sokolov
Encyclopedia
Andrei Yurievich Sokolov (Андрей Юрьевич Соколов; born 20 March 1963 in Vorkuta
, Komi ASSR, Russian SFSR) is a French chess
Grandmaster of Russian origin, now living in France. He is not to be confused with the Latvian International Master of the same name and other, similar named players registered with FIDE.
games. At age 12, he attended one of the many chess schools that existed in and around Moscow and he occasionally frequented the legendary Pioneer Palace. Some major preparation followed in the years 1975–1982, mainly under the tutelage of renowned coach, Vladimir Yurkov.
Alexei Suetin attended the same sports club (Trud) and as senior Moscow coach, observed the youngster's progress closely. Sokolov won the minor championship of Moscow in 1981, but fared less well in the major Open Championship a short while later. He had yet to learn the subtleties of positional play, but already there was much to admire. Suetin described him as "a practical-minded chess player ... most concentrated, deprived of any impulsiveness and very persistent in attaining his aims."
. A strong entry had included Joel Benjamin
, Ivan Morovic
, Nigel Short
and Niaz Murshed. At this time Sokolov was an International Master with an Elo rating of 2450. At that time FIDE automatically awarded the International Master title to the winner of the Junior Championship. (Later the rule would be changed to make the Junior Champion a grandmaster.) His Grandmaster status was achieved in 1984, a year of outstanding achievement for the 21-year-old as he rocked the chess world by winning the Championship of the Soviet Union
at his first attempt. Impressive was his penultimate round effort against ex-champion Beliavsky
who, playing white, quickly mounted a ferocious attack against Black's king
position. It was however already a quality of Sokolov that he remain ice-cool under pressure. He not only repelled the attack, but launched a counter-offensive of his own and won a crucial game. It was also a year that saw him finish a creditable second at the strong Novi Sad
tournament and advance his Elo rating up to 2550.
Representing the Soviet Union at the Thessaloniki 1984
and Dubai 1986
Chess Olympiads, his performances were assured, scoring close to 67% on each occasion and contributing to two team gold medals.
Sokolov qualified through the Biel Interzonal
for the final stages of the World Championship
cycle in 1985, playing his Candidates Tournament
quarter-final against Rafael Vaganian
in Minsk
in 1986 and winning it by a comfortable score of 6-2. Next was the semi-final in Riga
in 1987, where he defeated Artur Yusupov
7½-6½. In the final however, he was heavily outgunned by an in-form Anatoly Karpov
, losing out 3½-7½. Having beaten Karpov at Bugojno
1986, he felt his pre-match mood had been overly optimistic and described his defeat as "very severe". Nevertheless, in 1987/88 his rating peaked at 2645 and he was listed as the third strongest player in the world behind Garry Kasparov
and Anatoly Karpov. He even went on to defeat Karpov again at Belfort
1988, a World Cup event.
Such elevated standing was short-lived however. He suffered a major setback with an unexpected loss to the Canadian grandmaster Kevin Spraggett
in their Candidates'
first-round match at Saint John
, 1988. Already, he was finding it difficult to repeat his form and successes of a few years earlier. Exceptionally, in 1990, he scored a resurgent win at the Moscow Open (finishing ahead of Mikhail Tal
, Rafael Vaganian
, Alexey Vyzmanavin
and Mikhail Krasenkov, among others). This preceded a period of lesser chess activity.
, he came close in 2003 when he tied first with Joël Lautier
and Étienne Bacrot
, losing out to Bacrot in a play-off. In 2005, he finished equal second with 14-year-old Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
, behind Lautier.
There have been two appearances for the French Olympiad team (in 2002 and 2006) and he further represented his adopted country at the European Team Championship
of 2003, held in Plovdiv
.
, Belfort
, Reykjavík
and Rotterdam
, finishing an overall 11th from a field of 25 and winning a combined prize fund of $36,584. In the following game, played during the Brussels leg in 1989, Sokolov sacrifices a piece and then the exchange
in order to create a powerful double threat of two passed pawn
s on one wing and a kingside attack on the other.
Vorkuta
Vorkuta is a coal-mining town in the Komi Republic, Russia, situated just north of the Arctic Circle in the Pechora coal basin at the Usa River. Population: - Labor camp origins :...
, Komi ASSR, Russian SFSR) is a French chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
Grandmaster of Russian origin, now living in France. He is not to be confused with the Latvian International Master of the same name and other, similar named players registered with FIDE.
Formative years
He learnt the game from his father Yuri, a Soviet Army officer and Candidate Master. At just 6 years of age, inspiration arrived in the form of a book of Alekhine'sAlexander Alekhine
Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion. He is often considered one of the greatest chess players ever.By the age of twenty-two, he was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played...
games. At age 12, he attended one of the many chess schools that existed in and around Moscow and he occasionally frequented the legendary Pioneer Palace. Some major preparation followed in the years 1975–1982, mainly under the tutelage of renowned coach, Vladimir Yurkov.
Alexei Suetin attended the same sports club (Trud) and as senior Moscow coach, observed the youngster's progress closely. Sokolov won the minor championship of Moscow in 1981, but fared less well in the major Open Championship a short while later. He had yet to learn the subtleties of positional play, but already there was much to admire. Suetin described him as "a practical-minded chess player ... most concentrated, deprived of any impulsiveness and very persistent in attaining his aims."
Meteoric rise and a setback
By 1982, the groundwork was really paying off as he went on to win the Junior World Chess Championship, held in CopenhagenCopenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
. A strong entry had included Joel Benjamin
Joel Benjamin
Joel Benjamin is an American chess Grandmaster. In 1998, he was voted "Grandmaster of the Year" by the U.S. Chess Federation. , his Elo rating was 2576, making him the No. 12 player in the U.S. and the 214th-highest rated player in the world.-Life and career:Benjamin is a native of Brooklyn, New...
, Ivan Morovic
Iván Morovic
Iván Eduardo Morović Fernández is a Chilean chess player and an International Grandmaster of Croatian origin. He often has been the best Latin American chess player....
, Nigel Short
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short MBE is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess...
and Niaz Murshed. At this time Sokolov was an International Master with an Elo rating of 2450. At that time FIDE automatically awarded the International Master title to the winner of the Junior Championship. (Later the rule would be changed to make the Junior Champion a grandmaster.) His Grandmaster status was achieved in 1984, a year of outstanding achievement for the 21-year-old as he rocked the chess world by winning the Championship of the Soviet Union
USSR Chess Championship
This is a list of all the winners of the USSR Chess Championship. It was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winners...
at his first attempt. Impressive was his penultimate round effort against ex-champion Beliavsky
Alexander Beliavsky
-External links:...
who, playing white, quickly mounted a ferocious attack against Black's king
King (chess)
In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...
position. It was however already a quality of Sokolov that he remain ice-cool under pressure. He not only repelled the attack, but launched a counter-offensive of his own and won a crucial game. It was also a year that saw him finish a creditable second at the strong Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
tournament and advance his Elo rating up to 2550.
Representing the Soviet Union at the Thessaloniki 1984
26th Chess Olympiad
The 26th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between November 18 and December 5, 1984, in Thessaloniki, Greece.-References:...
and Dubai 1986
27th Chess Olympiad
The 27th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between November 14 and December 2, 1986, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.-References:...
Chess Olympiads, his performances were assured, scoring close to 67% on each occasion and contributing to two team gold medals.
Sokolov qualified through the Biel Interzonal
Interzonal
Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle.- Zonal tournaments :...
for the final stages of the World Championship
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
cycle in 1985, playing his Candidates Tournament
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...
quarter-final against Rafael Vaganian
Rafael Vaganian
Rafael Artemovich Vaganian, also transliterated Vahanyan is an Armenian chess grandmaster known for his sharp tactical style of play...
in Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
in 1986 and winning it by a comfortable score of 6-2. Next was the semi-final in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
in 1987, where he defeated Artur Yusupov
Artur Yusupov
Artur Mayakovich Yusupov is a German International Grandmaster of chess, and a chess writer.-Chess career:...
7½-6½. In the final however, he was heavily outgunned by an in-form Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
, losing out 3½-7½. Having beaten Karpov at Bugojno
Bugojno
Bugojno is a town and municipality of the same name in central Bosnia and Herzegovina on the river Vrbas. It is located in the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity. The town is to the northwest from Sarajevo, with an estimated population of 50,000 .To the west...
1986, he felt his pre-match mood had been overly optimistic and described his defeat as "very severe". Nevertheless, in 1987/88 his rating peaked at 2645 and he was listed as the third strongest player in the world behind Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
and Anatoly Karpov. He even went on to defeat Karpov again at Belfort
Belfort
Belfort is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Franche-Comté in northeastern France and is the prefecture of the department. It is located on the Savoureuse, on the strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap or Burgundian Gate .-...
1988, a World Cup event.
Such elevated standing was short-lived however. He suffered a major setback with an unexpected loss to the Canadian grandmaster Kevin Spraggett
Kevin Spraggett
Kevin Spraggett is a Canadian chess grandmaster. He is the fourth Canadian to earn the grandmaster title, after Abe Yanofsky, Duncan Suttles and Peter Biyiasas. Spraggett is the only Canadian to have qualified for the Candidates' level, having done so in 1985 and 1988...
in their Candidates'
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship...
first-round match at Saint John
Saint John, New Brunswick
City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...
, 1988. Already, he was finding it difficult to repeat his form and successes of a few years earlier. Exceptionally, in 1990, he scored a resurgent win at the Moscow Open (finishing ahead of Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....
, Rafael Vaganian
Rafael Vaganian
Rafael Artemovich Vaganian, also transliterated Vahanyan is an Armenian chess grandmaster known for his sharp tactical style of play...
, Alexey Vyzmanavin
Alexey Vyzmanavin
Alexey Borisovich Vyzmanavin was a Russian chess Grandmaster.During the early part of his career, he regularly played in the Moscow Championships and in 1981, with an Elo rating of 2200, finished sixth, ahead of several strong grandmasters including David Bronstein, Yuri Razuvaev, Artur Yusupov,...
and Mikhail Krasenkov, among others). This preceded a period of lesser chess activity.
A French national
He moved to France and acquired French nationality in 2000. While he has not yet managed to win the French ChampionshipFrench Chess Championship
The French Chess Championship is the annual, national chess tournament of France. It was officially first played in 1923after the formation of the Fédération Française des Echecs in 1921. The first unofficial national tournament was played in 1880, in the Café de la Régence, where further edition...
, he came close in 2003 when he tied first with Joël Lautier
Joel Lautier
Joël Lautier is a French chess grandmaster and FIDE Senior Trainer .Born in Canada, of French father and Japanese mother, Lautier is one of the strongest grandmasters from France. He won the 1988 World Junior Chess Championship on tiebreak at Adelaide, and the French Chess Championships in 2004...
and Étienne Bacrot
Étienne Bacrot
Étienne Bacrot is a French chess grandmaster and currently ranked number one in France.He started playing at 4; by 10 young Bacrot was already winning junior competitions and in 1996, at 13 years of age, he won against Vasily Smyslov...
, losing out to Bacrot in a play-off. In 2005, he finished equal second with 14-year-old Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a French chess Grandmaster and the 2009 World Junior Chess Champion.-Grandmaster norms:He completed his final grandmaster norm at age 14 years, 4 months, in 2005....
, behind Lautier.
There have been two appearances for the French Olympiad team (in 2002 and 2006) and he further represented his adopted country at the European Team Championship
European Team Championship
The European Team Championship is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9...
of 2003, held in Plovdiv
Plovdiv
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...
.
Sample game
As a participant of the 1988-89 World Cup series, he competed at BrusselsBrussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belfort
Belfort
Belfort is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Franche-Comté in northeastern France and is the prefecture of the department. It is located on the Savoureuse, on the strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap or Burgundian Gate .-...
, Reykjavík
Reykjavík
Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...
and Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, finishing an overall 11th from a field of 25 and winning a combined prize fund of $36,584. In the following game, played during the Brussels leg in 1989, Sokolov sacrifices a piece and then the exchange
The exchange (chess)
The exchange in chess refers to a situation in which one player loses a minor piece but captures the opponent's rook. The side which wins the rook is said to have won the exchange, while the other player has lost the exchange, since the rook is usually more valuable...
in order to create a powerful double threat of two passed pawn
Passed pawn
In chess, a passed pawn is a pawn with no opposing pawns to prevent it from advancing to the eighth rank, i.e. there are no opposing pawns in front of it on the same file nor on an adjacent file. A passed pawn is sometimes colloquially called a passer...
s on one wing and a kingside attack on the other.
Andrei Sokolov Lajos Portisch Lajos PortischLajos Portisch is a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, whose positional style earned him the nickname, the "Hungarian Botvinnik"...
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Bb7 10. d4 Re8 11. Ng5 Rf8 12. Nf3 Re8 13. Nbd2 Bf8 14. a4 h6 15. Bc2 exd4 16. cxd4 Nb4 17. Bb1 c5 18. d5 Nd7 19. Ra3 c4 20. Nd4 Ne5 21. axb5 Qb6 22. Nxc4 Nxc4 23. Rg3 Bc8 24. b3 Ne5 25. Be3 Ng6 26. f4 Qd8 27. f5 Ne5 28. Qd2 a5 29. Bxh6 Qh4 30. Kh2 Bd7 31. Bg5 Qh5 32. Rf1 g6 33. Nc6 Bxc6 34. dxc6 Rab8 35. fxg6 fxg6 36. c7 Rbc8 37. b6 Qh7 38. Rxf8+ Rxf8 39. Qxd6 Nbc6 40. Bf6 Rxf6 41. Qxf6 Qd7 42. b7 1-0