Kiril Georgiev
Encyclopedia
Kiril Dimitrov Georgiev (born November 28, 1965 in Petrich
) is a Bulgaria
n chess
master and three times the national champion. He should not be confused with fellow Bulgarian chess player (no relation) Krum Georgiev
.
Kiril Georgiev first caught the eye of the chess world in 1983, when he became the World Junior Champion
and an International Master. Two years later, he was awarded the International Grandmaster
title.
In the process of becoming the Bulgarian Champion of 1984 (shared), 1986 and 1989, he rapidly became recognised as Bulgaria's number one player, taking over from Radulov
and eventually giving way to Topalov
. He has represented his country at the Chess Olympiad
many times, playing on either board 1 or 2. Exceptionally, in 2002 he played for Macedonia
, while he was temporarily resident there.
His record in international competition has been remarkable, considering that he has never quite reached supergrandmaster status (Elo 2700 or above). He was a winner at Sarajevo
1986 (and would meet board boy Ivan Sokolov
there again, some 15 years later), San Bernardino
1988, Elenite (Burgas
) 1992 (ahead of Sokolov, Topalov, Dorfman, Razuvaev
and Kotronias
) and the 1993 Budapest
Zonal (ahead of J. Polgár
and Ftáčnik
). He repeated his Elenite success in 1995 (with Topalov, ahead of Short
, Gulko and Dolmatov
) and won at Belgrade
2000 (ahead of Beliavsky
and Andersson
).
Since 2000, his achievements have been no less impressive. First at Sarajevo 2001 (his first Category 16 tournament win - ahead of Topalov, Smirin
, Dreev and Ivan Sokolov) and first at Bad Worishofen
2002. At Gibraltar
, he was joint winner (with Aronian
, Efimenko
, Shirov
and Sutovsky
) in 2005 and the outright winner in 2006 (ahead of Short, Sutovsky, Shirov, Akopian and Bologan) with an imposing 8.5/10 score. This was also the year that he won a bronze medal at the European Individual Chess Championship (behind Zdenko Kozul
and Vassily Ivanchuk). At the Moscow Aeroflot Open, he finished only a half point off the lead.
Accordingly, these fine results have caused his Elo rating to advance rapidly during 2005 and 2006, reaching 2680 (at July 2006) and placing him at number 26 in the (FIDE) World's 100 top players.
Georgiev has also participated in the World Chess Championship
. In 1990, he qualified for the Interzonal
Tournament in Manila
and placed a creditable 14th out of 64, surpassing expectation and losing only to Alexei Dreev. At Groningen in 1997, he lost in round 4 to Loek Van Wely
. In December 2009, he tied for 1st-4th with Georg Meier
, Julio Granda
and Viktor Láznička
in the 19th Magistral Pamplona
Tournament. In 2010, he came third at the World Chess Open in León
. In 2011 he won the 29th Andorra Open.
In 2009, he broke the world record for the most simultaneous chess games
played: 360 games in just over 14 hours. He won 280, drew 74 and lost 6 for a total score of 88%. A score of at least 80% was required for the record to be accepted. In the same year he received the certificate from Guinness World Records
.
Petrich
Petrich is a town in Blagoevgrad Province in southwestern Bulgaria, located at the foot of the Belasica Mountains in the Strumeshnitsa Valley. , the town has 29920 inhabitants.Petrich is located close to the borders with Greece and the Republic of Macedonia...
) is a Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n 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...
master and three times the national champion. He should not be confused with fellow Bulgarian chess player (no relation) Krum Georgiev
Krum Georgiev
Krum Ivanov Georgiev is a Bulgarian chess Grandmaster, born in Pazardzhik. He beat Garry Kasparov in a wild game in Malta, 1980.Georgiev earned the International Master title in 1977 and International grandmaster title in 1988....
.
Kiril Georgiev first caught the eye of the chess world in 1983, when he became the World Junior Champion
World Junior Chess Championship
The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament organized by the World Chess Federation ....
and an International Master. Two years later, he was awarded the International Grandmaster
International Grandmaster
The title Grandmaster is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain....
title.
In the process of becoming the Bulgarian Champion of 1984 (shared), 1986 and 1989, he rapidly became recognised as Bulgaria's number one player, taking over from Radulov
Ivan Radulov
Ivan Radulov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster.As a chess player, he was most prominent during the 1970s, winning the Bulgarian Championship in 1971, 1974, 1977 and 1980. He just missed out at the 1976 event, finishing 2nd...
and eventually giving way to Topalov
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....
. He has represented his country at the Chess Olympiad
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...
many times, playing on either board 1 or 2. Exceptionally, in 2002 he played for Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, while he was temporarily resident there.
His record in international competition has been remarkable, considering that he has never quite reached supergrandmaster status (Elo 2700 or above). He was a winner at Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
1986 (and would meet board boy Ivan Sokolov
Ivan Sokolov
Ivan Sokolov is a chess grandmaster born in Jajce, SFR Yugoslavia, who currently resides in the Netherlands. Sokolov won the 1988 Yugoslav Championship....
there again, some 15 years later), San Bernardino
San Bernardino, California
San Bernardino is a city located in the Riverside-San Bernardino metropolitan area , and serves as the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States...
1988, Elenite (Burgas
Burgas
-History:During the rule of the Ancient Romans, near Burgas, Debeltum was established as a military colony for veterans by Vespasian. In the Middle Ages, a small fortress called Pyrgos was erected where Burgas is today and was most probably used as a watchtower...
) 1992 (ahead of Sokolov, Topalov, Dorfman, Razuvaev
Yuri Razuvayev
Yuri Razuvaev is a Russian chess player and trainer.-Chess career:He became International Master in 1973, Grandmaster in 1976 and Honoured Coach of Russia in 1977...
and Kotronias
Vassilios Kotronias
Vasilios Kotronias is a Greek chess grandmaster and chess author.Kotronias was awarded the titles of International Master in 1986 and Grandmaster in 1990...
) and the 1993 Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
Zonal (ahead of J. Polgár
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, the youngest person ever to do so at that time.Polgár was ranked No...
and Ftáčnik
Lubomir Ftácnik
Ľubomír Ftáčnik is a Slovak chess player and a former European Junior Champion.He became European Junior Champion in 1976/77 and was awarded the International Master title shortly after...
). He repeated his Elenite success in 1995 (with Topalov, ahead of 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...
, Gulko and Dolmatov
Sergey Dolmatov
Sergey Viktorovich Dolmatov is a Russian Grandmaster of chess 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...
) and won at Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
2000 (ahead of Beliavsky
Alexander Beliavsky
-External links:...
and Andersson
Ulf Andersson
Ulf Andersson is a leading Swedish chess player. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1970 and the Grandmaster title in 1972 .-Career:...
).
Since 2000, his achievements have been no less impressive. First at Sarajevo 2001 (his first Category 16 tournament win - ahead of Topalov, Smirin
Ilya Smirin
Ilya Yulievich Smirin is a Soviet-Israeli chess Grandmaster., his Elo rating was 2650, making him the 59th-highest rated player in the world...
, Dreev and Ivan Sokolov) and first at Bad Worishofen
Bad Wörishofen
Bad Wörishofen is a spa town in the district Unterallgäu, Bavaria Germany known for the water-cure developed by Sebastian Kneipp , a Catholic priest, who lived there for 42 years...
2002. At Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
, he was joint winner (with Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
, Efimenko
Zahar Efimenko
Zahar Efimenko is a Ukrainian chess player. He has been a grandmaster since 2002.-Chess career:In 1999 Efimenko won the U-14 World Youth Chess Championship in Oropesa del Mar, Spain. In the same year he was a member of the Ukrainian national youth team, which won the U-16 Chess Olympiad in Artek,...
, Shirov
Alexei Shirov
Alexei Dmitrievich Shirov is a Soviet-born Latvian chess grandmaster. He has consistently ranked among the world's top players since the early 1990s, and reached a ranking as high as number four in 1998...
and Sutovsky
Emil Sutovsky
Emil Sutovsky is an Israeli chess Grandmaster. He is one of the several top chess grandmasters who were born in Baku, Azerbaijan .-Successes:...
) in 2005 and the outright winner in 2006 (ahead of Short, Sutovsky, Shirov, Akopian and Bologan) with an imposing 8.5/10 score. This was also the year that he won a bronze medal at the European Individual Chess Championship (behind Zdenko Kozul
Zdenko Kožul
Zdenko Kožul is a Croatian chess grandmaster and was the 2006 European champion.-Chess career:Kožul was born in the north-western Bosnian town of Bihać, . He was awarded the grandmaster title by FIDE in 1989. In 1989 and 1990, Kozul won consecutive Yugoslavian championships...
and Vassily Ivanchuk). At the Moscow Aeroflot Open, he finished only a half point off the lead.
Accordingly, these fine results have caused his Elo rating to advance rapidly during 2005 and 2006, reaching 2680 (at July 2006) and placing him at number 26 in the (FIDE) World's 100 top players.
Georgiev has also participated in the World Chess 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....
. In 1990, he qualified for the 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 :...
Tournament in Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
and placed a creditable 14th out of 64, surpassing expectation and losing only to Alexei Dreev. At Groningen in 1997, he lost in round 4 to Loek Van Wely
Loek van Wely
Loek van Wely is a chess Grandmaster from the Netherlands. He won the Dutch Chess Championship six times straight from 2000 through 2005. He was rated among the world's top ten in 2001. In 2002, in Maastricht, Netherlands, van Wely took on the computer program Rebel in a four-game match. The...
. In December 2009, he tied for 1st-4th with Georg Meier
Georg Meier (chess player)
Georg Meier is a German grandmaster of chess.His top Elo rating is 2667, recorded in January 2011. In December 2009, he tied for 1st-4th with Julio Granda, Viktor Láznička and Kiril Georgiev in the 19th Magistral Pamplona Tournament....
, Julio Granda
Julio Granda
Julio Ernesto Granda Zúñiga is a Peruvian chess Grandmaster.In his coastal town, he learned how to play chess at the very young age of five....
and Viktor Láznička
Viktor Láznicka
Viktor Láznička is a chess grandmaster from the Czech Republic.-Early moves:After learning the game at age six, he progressed quickly to playing junior tournaments and achieved many prize-winning performances in the national championships across the range of age limits...
in the 19th Magistral Pamplona
Pamplona
Pamplona is the historial capital city of Navarre, in Spain, and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 6 to 14, in which the running of the bulls is one of the main attractions...
Tournament. In 2010, he came third at the World Chess Open in León
León, Spain
León is the capital of the province of León in the autonomous community of Castile and León, situated in the northwest of Spain. Its city population of 136,985 makes it the largest municipality in the province, accounting for more than one quarter of the province's population...
. In 2011 he won the 29th Andorra Open.
In 2009, he broke the world record for the most simultaneous chess games
Simultaneous exhibition
A simultaneous exhibition or simultaneous display is a board game exhibition in which one player plays multiple games at a time with a number of other players. Such an exhibition is often referred to simply as a "simul".In a regular simul, no chess clocks are used...
played: 360 games in just over 14 hours. He won 280, drew 74 and lost 6 for a total score of 88%. A score of at least 80% was required for the record to be accepted. In the same year he received the certificate from Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
.