Vladimir Malaniuk
Encyclopedia
Vladimir Pavlovich Malaniuk (Malanyuk) (Ukraine: Володимир Павлович Маланюк; born July 21, 1957, Arkhangelsk
, Soviet Union) 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
(Keres
Memorial) 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
(GM) 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.
Malaniuk has also been a strong player at standard time limits, winning many national and international tournaments, including Minsk
1985, Kostroma
1985 (USSR Ch. Semi-final), Lvov 1986 and Frunze 1987 on the road to securing his Grandmaster title (awarded in 1987). There were further victories recorded at Forlì
in 1990 and 1992, Porto San Giorgio
1994, Minsk 1997 Krasnodar
2001, Arkhangelsk
2002, Krasnodar 2002, Koszalin
2002, Kolobrzeg
2003, Kraków
2003 and Mielno
2006. Notable runner-up performances include Baku
1983, Tallinn 1987, Lvov 1988, Świdnica
2001 and Kraków 2004.
He was a regular participant of the Soviet Championships
between 1983 and 1991; his best finish occurring in 1986, when he shared second place behind Vitaly Tseshkovsky
. In Ukraine, he has thus far been the national champion on three occasions, in 1980, 1981 and 1986. In team chess, he played for Ukraine in the Moscow 1994
, Yerevan 1996
and Elista 1998
Chess Olympiad
s, winning team silver and bronze medals in '96 and '98, respectively.
Malaniuk has been credited with an important contribution to chess opening
theory. Along with Sergey Dolmatov
, Mikhail Gurevich
and Evgeny Bareev
, his faithful adherence to the Leningrad Dutch Defence
(described as a hybrid of the Dutch and the King's Indian) helped shape a dynamic new approach to the system in the 1980s and this led to a dramatic resurgence of interest. That it affords black the opportunity to unbalance the position and fight for the full point is probably its main attraction. The system has since become a popular choice for players at all levels, following the publication of a number of books and theoretical guides.
In a more minor capacity, he and Vladimir Akopian are noted for their attempts at reviving the Spielmann
Variation (4.Qb3) of the Nimzo-Indian Defence
, but have not met with any real success.
In 2001, Russian player and chess journalist Evgeny Atarov reported that Malaniuk was severely ill and was undergoing a number of surgical operations, the funding of which had become a cause for concern.
Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...
, Soviet Union) is a Ukrainian
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 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
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
(Keres
Paul Keres
Paul Keres , was an Estonian chess grandmaster, and a renowned chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s....
Memorial) rapid event, behind Alexey Shirov but ahead of such luminaries as 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...
and 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:...
. The same year, he took the silver medal at the European Rapid Championship, behind the strong Hungarian 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....
(GM) Zoltan Gyimesi
Zoltan Gyimesi
Zoltán Gyimesi is a Hungarian chess player. He has participated in 4 Chess Olympiads 1998, 2002-2006 with a record of +11=18-4. In 2002 at the 35th Chess Olympiad, the Hungarian team won the silver medal with Gyimesi on the fourth board...
. His sustained efforts were again rewarded in 2006, when at the Ajaccio
Ajaccio
Ajaccio , is a commune on the island of Corsica in France. It is the capital and largest city of the region of Corsica and the prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud....
Open Rapid event, he finished clear winner, ahead of a large group of strong GMs and Super-GMs including 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...
, Milov
Vadim Milov
Vadim Milov is a Russian–born Israeli–Swiss Grandmaster of chess.Following the collapse of the USSR he moved to Israel, before finally settling in Switzerland in 1996....
, Bareev
Evgeny Bareev
Evgeny Bareev is a Russian chess Grandmaster and chess coach. In October 2003, he was in fourth place in the world rankings, with an Elo rating of 2739....
, Motylev
Alexander Motylev
Alexander Anatolyevich Motylev is an International Grandmaster of chess and a former champion of Russia.He learnt how to play at the age of four and a half years and at age six took part in group instruction sessions. This is not uncommon in Russia where chess is very much part of the school...
, Bologan
Victor Bologan
Viktor Viorel Bologan is a Moldovan chess grandmaster.On the April 2005 FIDE list, he had an Elo rating of 2700, making him number 18 in the world and Moldova's best chess player. His major accomplishment has been winning the Dortmund Sparkassen 2003, ahead of higher-rated and well-known players...
, Almasi
Zoltan Almasi
Zoltán Almási is a Grandmaster of chess from Hungary. He is a seven-time Hungarian Chess Champion, winning in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2008...
, 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...
, Sokolov, Naiditsch
Arkadij Naiditsch
Arkadij Naiditsch is a German chess Grandmaster who was the clear winner of the Dortmund Sparkassen 2005 Tournament, ahead of higher-rated and well-known players such as Loek Van Wely, Veselin Topalov, Peter Svidler, Vladimir Kramnik, Michael Adams, and Peter Leko...
, Sasikiran
Krishnan Sasikiran
Krishnan Sasikiran is an Indian chess Grandmaster. Among Indians, he is second, after Viswanathan Anand, No. 6 in Asia & ranked 56th in the world in FIDE rating as on September 2011....
and 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...
.
Whilst it is rare that older players can achieve this kind of success against more youthful talents, it is not completely unknown. Yuri Balashov
Yuri Balashov
-Chess career:He was awarded the grandmaster title in 1973. Balashov was Moscow Champion in 1970 and 2nd to Anatoly Karpov in the 1976 USSR Chess Championship. In 1977 he won Lithuanian Chess Championship. He finished 1st= at Lone Pine 1977 and 1st= at Wijk aan Zee 1982.Balashov represented the...
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.
Malaniuk has also been a strong player at standard time limits, winning many national and international tournaments, including 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...
1985, Kostroma
Kostroma
Kostroma is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma Rivers...
1985 (USSR Ch. Semi-final), Lvov 1986 and Frunze 1987 on the road to securing his Grandmaster title (awarded in 1987). There were further victories recorded at Forlì
Forlì
Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the right of the Montone river, and is an important agricultural centre...
in 1990 and 1992, Porto San Giorgio
Porto San Giorgio
Porto San Giorgio is a comune in the Province of Fermo, in the Marche region of Italy. It has approximately 16,200 inhabitants and it is located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.-History:...
1994, Minsk 1997 Krasnodar
Krasnodar
Krasnodar is a city in Southern Russia, located on the Kuban River about northeast of the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. It is the administrative center of Krasnodar Krai . Population: -Name:...
2001, Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...
2002, Krasnodar 2002, Koszalin
Koszalin
Koszalin ; is the largest city of Middle Pomerania in north-western Poland. It is located 12 km south of the Baltic Sea coast. Koszalin is also a county-status city and capital of Koszalin County of West Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999...
2002, Kolobrzeg
Kolobrzeg
Kołobrzeg is a city in Middle Pomerania in north-western Poland with some 50,000 inhabitants . Kołobrzeg is located on the Parsęta River on the south coast of the Baltic Sea...
2003, Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
2003 and Mielno
Mielno
Mielno is a large coastal village in Koszalin County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Mielno. It lies approximately north-west of Koszalin and north-east of the regional capital Szczecin...
2006. Notable runner-up performances include Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
1983, Tallinn 1987, Lvov 1988, Świdnica
Swidnica
Świdnica is a city in south-western Poland in the region of Silesia. It has a population of 60,317 according to 2006 figures. It lies in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, being the seventh largest town in that voivodeship. From 1975–98 it was in the former Wałbrzych Voivodeship...
2001 and Kraków 2004.
He was a regular participant of the Soviet Championships
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...
between 1983 and 1991; his best finish occurring in 1986, when he shared second place behind Vitaly Tseshkovsky
Vitaly Tseshkovsky
Vitaly Valerianovich Tseshkovsky is a Russian chess Grandmaster and a former champion of the USSR.Tseshkovsky was born in Siberia into a Polish family ....
. In Ukraine, he has thus far been the national champion on three occasions, in 1980, 1981 and 1986. In team chess, he played for Ukraine in the Moscow 1994
31st Chess Olympiad
The 31st Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, took place between November 30 and December 17, 1994, in Moscow, Russia.- Chess competition :...
, Yerevan 1996
32nd Chess Olympiad
The 32nd Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, took place between September 15 and October 2, 1996, in Yerevan, Armenia.- Chess competition :...
and Elista 1998
33rd Chess Olympiad
The 33rd Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, took place between September 26 and October 13, 1998, in Elista, Kalmykia, . In the open tournament there were 110 teams, and in the women's, 72 teams.-Chess City: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...
s, winning team silver and bronze medals in '96 and '98, respectively.
Malaniuk has been credited with an important contribution to chess opening
Chess 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...
theory. Along with Sergey 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...
, Mikhail Gurevich
Mikhail Gurevich (chess player)
Mikhail Naumovich Gurevich is a Soviet chess player. He lived in Belgium from 1991 to 2005 and since then resides in Turkey....
and Evgeny Bareev
Evgeny Bareev
Evgeny Bareev is a Russian chess Grandmaster and chess coach. In October 2003, he was in fourth place in the world rankings, with an Elo rating of 2739....
, his faithful adherence to the Leningrad Dutch Defence
Dutch Defence
The Dutch Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:Elias Stein , an Alsatian who settled in The Hague, recommended the defence as the best reply to 1.d4 in his 1789 book Nouvel essai sur le jeu des échecs, avec des réflexions militaires relatives à ce jeu.-Theory:Black's 1.....
(described as a hybrid of the Dutch and the King's Indian) helped shape a dynamic new approach to the system in the 1980s and this led to a dramatic resurgence of interest. That it affords black the opportunity to unbalance the position and fight for the full point is probably its main attraction. The system has since become a popular choice for players at all levels, following the publication of a number of books and theoretical guides.
In a more minor capacity, he and Vladimir Akopian are noted for their attempts at reviving the Spielmann
Rudolf Spielmann
Rudolf Spielmann was an Austrian-Jewish chess player of the romantic school, and chess writer.-Career:He was a lawyer but never worked as one....
Variation (4.Qb3) of the Nimzo-Indian Defence
Nimzo-Indian Defence
The Nimzo-Indian Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:This hypermodern opening was developed by Grandmaster Aron Nimzowitsch who introduced it to master-level chess in the early 20th century. Unlike most Indian openings the Nimzo-Indian does not involve an immediate fianchetto,...
, but have not met with any real success.
In 2001, Russian player and chess journalist Evgeny Atarov reported that Malaniuk was severely ill and was undergoing a number of surgical operations, the funding of which had become a cause for concern.