Alexander Beliavsky


Alexander Genrikhovich Beliavsky is a Ukrainian and Slovenian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1975.
Beliavsky was born in Lviv, USSR, now Ukraine. Since 1994, he lives in Slovenia and he plays for its national team.

Career

Beliavsky won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1973 and the USSR Chess Championship four times.
In the 1982–84 World Chess Championship cycle, he qualified for the Candidates Tournament, losing to eventual winner Garry Kasparov in the quarterfinals of the 1983 Candidates matches. Beliavsky played on the top board for the USSR team that won the gold medal in the 1984 Chess Olympiad.
In tournaments, he was first equal at Baden 1980, first at Tilburg 1981, second equal at Tilburg 1984, joint winner at Wijk aan Zee 1984 and joint second at the same event a year later. At the second Russia vs Rest of the World match in 1984, he was the top scorer for the victorious Soviet team, defeating Yasser Seirawan 2–0 and Bent Larsen 1½–½. Beliavsky won the Vidmar Memorial tournament four times: in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005. In 2013 he tied for 1st–8th places with Alexander Moiseenko, Evgeny Romanov, Hrant Melkumyan, Constantin Lupulescu, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Sergei Movsesian, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alexey Dreev and Evgeny Alekseev in the European Individual Chess Championship, thus qualifying for the FIDE World Cup.
He is also a chess coach and in 2004 was awarded the title of FIDE Senior Trainer.
In November 2009, he was the oldest person among the world's top 100 active players, but as of October 2011 he is no longer in the top 100. He competed at the 2009 Maccabiah Games.
Beliavsky shares the record for having defeated the most undisputed world champions. He has defeated nine - every undisputed world champion since Vassily Smyslov except Bobby Fischer - a record he shares with Paul Keres and Victor Korchnoi.

Books

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