GM Vadim Malakhatko is among the favorites in ACC
GM Vadim Malakhatko arrives Tromsø with his wife IM Anna Zozulia.
Photo: Chessbase.com
Don't let his relativly low rating of 2570 fool you. Malakhatko is of Super Grandmaster strenght as he has proven over time for almost 3 years now, and his playingstyle is made for taking enough risk to either win or fail in such a tournament as this years Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø.
Vadim Malakhatko is originally from Ukraine but he now lives in Belgium and plays under the Belgian flag. Vadim was born in 1977 in Ukraine. HE became a Grandmaster at the age of 22, and is married to IM Anna Zozulia and they play a lot of international opens together. In between rounds they are often seen playing cards with other east Europeans.
Vadim have a silver medal from the European rapid championship. He was world champion for teams in 2001 for Ukraine. He played in 3 different leagues, the Belgian, the Spanish and the German. His Belgian team won their league in 2008. Malakhatko has won several open tournaments such as Basel Open 2006 & 2007, Copenhagen Open 2006, Lyon Open 2008 and Hastings Chess Congress 2008.
GM Vadim Malakhatko is a strong positional player with an aggressive opening repertoire with the Sicilian, the Benoni and the Benko gambit in his arsenal. His main weapon as white is 1.d4 with a positional squeeze. He broke the 2600 barrier for the first time in October 2006 and have since then been stable between 2596 and 2633 which is his peak. But on the July list of 2009 he faced a setback with a 2570 after a bad tournament in Poland in early June 2009 where he lost over 20 elo points. In late June 2009 he again performed strong in 4th Polonia Wroclaw's Tournament where he kicked back in a field of 15 GMs, and 82 participants in total. He was only beaten by Sergei Tiviakov (2697) in a 3 shared tiebreak where all scored 7/9. Malakhatko is certainly a 2600+ player by strenght, and is a highly interesting start at Arctic Chess Challenge 2009.
Vadim have a silver medal from the European rapid championship. He was world champion for teams in 2001 for Ukraine. He played in 3 different leagues, the Belgian, the Spanish and the German. His Belgian team won their league in 2008. Malakhatko has won several open tournaments such as Basel Open 2006 & 2007, Copenhagen Open 2006, Lyon Open 2008 and Hastings Chess Congress 2008.
GM Vadim Malakhatko is a strong positional player with an aggressive opening repertoire with the Sicilian, the Benoni and the Benko gambit in his arsenal. His main weapon as white is 1.d4 with a positional squeeze. He broke the 2600 barrier for the first time in October 2006 and have since then been stable between 2596 and 2633 which is his peak. But on the July list of 2009 he faced a setback with a 2570 after a bad tournament in Poland in early June 2009 where he lost over 20 elo points. In late June 2009 he again performed strong in 4th Polonia Wroclaw's Tournament where he kicked back in a field of 15 GMs, and 82 participants in total. He was only beaten by Sergei Tiviakov (2697) in a 3 shared tiebreak where all scored 7/9. Malakhatko is certainly a 2600+ player by strenght, and is a highly interesting start at Arctic Chess Challenge 2009.
Can you calculate whites win here?
Malakhatko-Speelman, Isle of Man 2007, white to move:
42.Rc8 a1=Q 43.d8=Q Rxc8 44.Qd5+! Ke8 45.f7 mate!
The point of the obvious 42.Rc8 was 44.Qd5+! which forces a pretty mate against the former candidate to the World Championship - Jonathan Speelman.
You can find the whole game here
Arctic Chess Challenge 2009 starts in Tromsø 1st of August. So far it has 14 GMs and 18 IMs among a record high of 131 participants, still counting... You can find the chessgames of Vadim Malakhatko at chessgames.com.
The Chess Phantom Blog - that you're now visiting - will blog in English till mid-August due to this International event.
Malakhatko-Speelman, Isle of Man 2007, white to move:
42.Rc8 a1=Q 43.d8=Q Rxc8 44.Qd5+! Ke8 45.f7 mate!
The point of the obvious 42.Rc8 was 44.Qd5+! which forces a pretty mate against the former candidate to the World Championship - Jonathan Speelman.
You can find the whole game here
Arctic Chess Challenge 2009 starts in Tromsø 1st of August. So far it has 14 GMs and 18 IMs among a record high of 131 participants, still counting... You can find the chessgames of Vadim Malakhatko at chessgames.com.
The Chess Phantom Blog - that you're now visiting - will blog in English till mid-August due to this International event.
Odd k
17.jul.2009 kl.22:24
Sven
17.jul.2009 kl.22:33
Espen F
17.jul.2009 kl.23:48
Sven
18.jul.2009 kl.00:13