Ruslan Ponomariov
Encyclopedia
Ruslan Olegovich Ponomariov is a Ukrainian
chess
player and former FIDE World Champion.
in Ukraine
. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship
at the age of ten. In 1996 he won the European Under-18 Championship at the age of just twelve, and the following year won the World Under-18 Championship
. In 1998, at the age of fourteen, he was awarded the Grandmaster
title, making him the youngest ever player at that time to hold the title. In 1999, he was a member of the Ukrainian national youth team, which won the U-16 Chess Olympiad
in Artek
, Ukraine.
Among Ponomariov's notable later results are first at the Donetsk Zonal in 1998, 5/7 in the European Club Cup 2000 (including a victory over then-FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman
), joint first with 7½/9 at Torshavn 2000, 8½/11 for Ukraine in the 2001 Chess Olympiad
in Istanbul, winning gold medal on board 2, and first place with 7/10 in the 2001 Governor's Cup in Kramatorsk.
by a score of 4½/2½ to become FIDE World Champion at the age of 18, the first teenager and youngest person to ever become FIDE World Champion.
In the same year he finished second in the very strong Linares
tournament, behind Garry Kasparov
. His result in the strong 2003 Corus tournament
at Wijk aan Zee was not as good – despite having the third highest Elo rating, he finished only joint eleventh out of fourteen players with 6/13, and at Linares the same year he finished only fifth out of seven with 5½/12.
There were plans for him to play a fourteen-game match against Kasparov in Yalta
in September 2003, the winner of which would go on to play the winner of a match between Vladimir Kramnik
and Péter Lékó
as part of the so-called "Prague Agreement" to reunify the World Chess Championship
(from 1993 until 2006 there were two world chess championships). However, this was called off by FIDE on the grounds that Ruslan Ponomariov failed to sign the contract in time. The latter always alleged lack of equality in the contract for both contenders.
Ponomariov remained FIDE champion until Rustam Kasimdzhanov
won the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004
.
ringing during play. This happened in round one of the European Team Championship in Plovdiv
, Bulgaria
, when Ponomariov was playing Black against Swedish
GM Evgenij Agrest.
In 2004, Ruslan won the gold at the 2004 Chess Olympiad held in Calvià, Spain, with the Ukrainian team.
In 2005 he won the 15th edition of the Ciudad de Pamplona tournament. He also won a rapid tournament in Odessa, Ukraine, and the Golden Blitz Cup in Moscow. Finally, that year he reached the World Cup final against Levon Aronian
, who won the final.
In 2006 he shared first place with Levon Aronian
and Peter Leko
in the Tal Memorial tournament in Moscow.
In 2009 he shared first place with Hikaru Nakamura
at the Donostia Chess Festival in San Sebastian, Spain. The latter won the tie-break blitz games 2–0. Ruslan Ponomariov got one more second place by tie-break that year in the Khanty-Mansiysk World Cup, where he reached the final against Israeli Boris Gelfand
. After four classic games, four rapid games, and two blitz games with a drawn score, Gelfand finally won in one last set of two blitz games.
In July 2010 Ruslan Ponomariov won the prestigious Sparkassen tournament in Dortmund, one point ahead of Le Quang Liem
, from Vietnam. In September that year Ukraine won the gold once more at the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk with players Vassily Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Pavel Eljanov
, Zahar Efimenko
, and Alexander Moiseenko
.
In February 2011, after occupying an unfortunate last place at the World Blitz Championship in November 2010 in Moscow, GM Ponomariov showed great improvement at the strong Aeroflot Blitz held in the same city by reaching second place, just half a point behind Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
.
In June 2011 he won the 80th Ukrainian Championship, the strongest ever in the country, with 8.5/11 and a performance rating of 2853.
), entering the main lines of the Ruy Lopez
and Sicilian Defence
. With black, he has played the Sicilian against 1. e4 and also replied 1... e5, going into the Ruy Lopez. Against 1. d4 he has adopted a variety of defences, including the Queen's Gambit Accepted
, the Queen's Indian Defence
and the King's Indian Defence
. Earlier in his career he experimented with the Benko Gambit
and Pirc Defence
, but as of 2003 these have fallen out of his repertoire.
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
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...
player and former FIDE World Champion.
Early career
Ponomariov was born in HorlivkaHorlivka
Horlivka is a city in the Donetsk Oblast of eastern Ukraine. As of 2001, the city's population was 292,000. It is a coal mining and chemical industry centre...
in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship
World Youth Chess Championship
The World Youth Chess Championship is a chess competition for girls and boys under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18.The first predecessor of the youth championship was the Cadet Championship. It started off unofficially in 1974 in France for players under 18. The 1975 and 1976 editions were also...
at the age of ten. In 1996 he won the European Under-18 Championship at the age of just twelve, and the following year won the World Under-18 Championship
World Youth Chess Championship
The World Youth Chess Championship is a chess competition for girls and boys under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18.The first predecessor of the youth championship was the Cadet Championship. It started off unofficially in 1974 in France for players under 18. The 1975 and 1976 editions were also...
. In 1998, at the age of fourteen, he was awarded the 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, making him the youngest ever player at that time to hold the title. In 1999, he was a member of the Ukrainian national youth team, which won the U-16 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...
in Artek
Artek (camp)
Artek is a Young Pioneer camp near Gurzuf, Ukraine. It was established on June 16 1925 on the Black Sea in the town of Gurzuf located on the Crimean peninsula, near Medved Mountain, Ukraine. The camp first hosted only 80 children but then grew rapidly. In 1969 it had an area of 3.2 km²...
, Ukraine.
Among Ponomariov's notable later results are first at the Donetsk Zonal in 1998, 5/7 in the European Club Cup 2000 (including a victory over then-FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman
Alexander Khalifman
Alexander Valeryevich Khalifman is a Soviet and Russian chess Grandmaster of Jewish descent; he is also a former FIDE champion.When Khalifman was 6 years old, he was taught chess by his father....
), joint first with 7½/9 at Torshavn 2000, 8½/11 for Ukraine in the 2001 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...
in Istanbul, winning gold medal on board 2, and first place with 7/10 in the 2001 Governor's Cup in Kramatorsk.
FIDE World Chess Champion 2002
In 2002 he beat his fellow countryman Vassily Ivanchuk in the final of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002FIDE World Chess Championship 2002
The FIDE World Chess Championship 2002 was held in Moscow, Russia. The first six rounds were played between 27 November and 14 December 2001, and the final match started on 16 January and ended on 23 January 2002...
by a score of 4½/2½ to become FIDE World Champion at the age of 18, the first teenager and youngest person to ever become FIDE World Champion.
In the same year he finished second in the very strong Linares
Linares chess tournament
The Linares International Chess Tournament , is an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held...
tournament, 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....
. His result in the strong 2003 Corus tournament
Corus chess tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament formerly called the Corus chess tournament takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands...
at Wijk aan Zee was not as good – despite having the third highest Elo rating, he finished only joint eleventh out of fourteen players with 6/13, and at Linares the same year he finished only fifth out of seven with 5½/12.
There were plans for him to play a fourteen-game match against Kasparov in Yalta
Yalta
Yalta is a city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea.The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to have been founded by Greek sailors who were looking for a safe shore on which to land. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black...
in September 2003, the winner of which would go on to play the winner of a match between Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
and Péter Lékó
Péter Lékó
On the way to winning the prestigious Corus chess tournament in 2005, Lékó defeated Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces. The moves were:...
as part of the so-called "Prague Agreement" to reunify 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....
(from 1993 until 2006 there were two world chess championships). However, this was called off by FIDE on the grounds that Ruslan Ponomariov failed to sign the contract in time. The latter always alleged lack of equality in the contract for both contenders.
Ponomariov remained FIDE champion until Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Rustam Kasimdzhanov is an Uzbekistani chess Grandmaster, best known for winning the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004. He was born in Tashkent, in the former Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic...
won the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004
FIDE World Chess Championship 2004
The FIDE World Chess Championship, 2004 was held at the Almahary Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, from June 18 to July 13.It was won by Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who beat Michael Adams in the final by a score of 4½-3½...
.
Post-championship career
On Ponomariov's 20th birthday, October 11, 2003, he became the first high-profile player to forfeit a game because of his mobile phoneMobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
ringing during play. This happened in round one of the European Team Championship 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...
, 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...
, when Ponomariov was playing Black against Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
GM Evgenij Agrest.
In 2004, Ruslan won the gold at the 2004 Chess Olympiad held in Calvià, Spain, with the Ukrainian team.
In 2005 he won the 15th edition of the Ciudad de Pamplona tournament. He also won a rapid tournament in Odessa, Ukraine, and the Golden Blitz Cup in Moscow. Finally, that year he reached the World Cup final against Levon 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...
, who won the final.
In 2006 he shared first place with Levon 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...
and Peter Leko
Péter Lékó
On the way to winning the prestigious Corus chess tournament in 2005, Lékó defeated Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces. The moves were:...
in the Tal Memorial tournament in Moscow.
In 2009 he shared first place with Hikaru Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess Grandmaster . He has been ranked among the top six players in the world by FIDE....
at the Donostia Chess Festival in San Sebastian, Spain. The latter won the tie-break blitz games 2–0. Ruslan Ponomariov got one more second place by tie-break that year in the Khanty-Mansiysk World Cup, where he reached the final against Israeli Boris Gelfand
Boris Gelfand
Boris Abramovich Gelfand is a Belarus-born Israeli chess Grandmaster. He won the 2011 Candidates Tournament and will challenge Viswanathan Anand for the World Chess Championship 2012.-Biography:...
. After four classic games, four rapid games, and two blitz games with a drawn score, Gelfand finally won in one last set of two blitz games.
In July 2010 Ruslan Ponomariov won the prestigious Sparkassen tournament in Dortmund, one point ahead of Le Quang Liem
Le Quang Liem
Lê Quang Liêm is a leading Vietnamese chess player. He was the Under-14 World Youth Chess Champion in July 2005. He competed for Vietnam at the Chess Olympiads in 2006 and 2008....
, from Vietnam. In September that year Ukraine won the gold once more at the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk with players Vassily Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Pavel Eljanov
Pavel Eljanov
Pavel Eljanov is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster.In 1999, he was a member of the Ukrainian national youth team, which won the U-16 Chess Olympiad in Artek, Ukraine.Eljanov won the Corus B 2007 in Wijk aan Zee, Holland with a score of 9/13...
, Zahar 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,...
, and Alexander Moiseenko
Alexander Moiseenko
Alexander Moiseenko is a Ukrainian chess Grandmaster. He was a member of the gold-medal winning Ukrainian team at the chess Olympiad in 2004....
.
In February 2011, after occupying an unfortunate last place at the World Blitz Championship in November 2010 in Moscow, GM Ponomariov showed great improvement at the strong Aeroflot Blitz held in the same city by reaching second place, just half a point behind Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Shakhriyar Hamid oglu Mammadyarov , also known for his Shah nickname, is a chess Grandmaster. On the September 2010 FIDE rating list he was ranked number nine in the world with an Elo rating of 2756....
.
In June 2011 he won the 80th Ukrainian Championship, the strongest ever in the country, with 8.5/11 and a performance rating of 2853.
Opening repertoire
In his games with white, Ponomariov has almost always played 1. e4 (see chess openingChess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
), entering the main lines of the Ruy Lopez
Ruy Lopez
The Ruy Lopez, also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, who made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del...
and Sicilian Defence
Sicilian Defence
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves:The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4...
. With black, he has played the Sicilian against 1. e4 and also replied 1... e5, going into the Ruy Lopez. Against 1. d4 he has adopted a variety of defences, including the Queen's Gambit Accepted
Queen's Gambit Accepted
The Queen's Gambit Accepted is a chess opening characterised by the moves:The Queen's Gambit is not considered a true gambit, in contradistinction to the King's Gambit, because the pawn is either regained, or can only be held unprofitably by Black...
, the Queen's Indian Defence
Queen's Indian Defense
The Queen's Indian Defense is a chess opening defined by the movesBy playing 3.Nf3, White sidesteps the Nimzo-Indian Defense that arises after 3.Nc3 Bb4. The Queen's Indian is regarded as the sister opening of the Nimzo-Indian, since both openings aim to impede White's efforts to gain full control...
and the King's Indian Defence
King's Indian Defence
The King's Indian Defence is a common chess opening. It arises after the moves:Black intends to follow up with 3...Bg7 and 4...d6.The Grünfeld Defence arises when Black plays 3...d5 instead, and is considered a separate opening...
. Earlier in his career he experimented with the Benko Gambit
Benko Gambit
The Benko Gambit is a chess opening characterised by the move 3...b5 in the Benoni Defense arising after:- Origin and predecessors :The idea of sacrificing a pawn with ...b5 and ...a6 is quite old. Karel Opočenský applied the idea against, among others, Gideon Ståhlberg at Poděbrady 1936, Paul...
and Pirc Defence
Pirc Defence
The Pirc Defence |grandmasters]]), sometimes known as the Ufimtsev Defence or Yugoslav Defence, is a chess opening characterised by Black responding to 1.e4 with 1...d6 and 2...Nf6, followed by ...g6 and ...Bg7, while allowing White to establish an impressive-looking centre with pawns on d4 and e4...
, but as of 2003 these have fallen out of his repertoire.