Profile of GM Yuri Drozdovskij
This Super GM comes to ACC with a new all time high Elo and is just married to his WGM Natalia.
Photo: www.chessvibes.com
GM Yuri Drozdovskij (2620) was born 22 of May 1984 in Odessa, Ukraine. He is married with WGM Natalia Zdebska and they live together in Odessa. Yuri learned to play chess from his older brother at the age of 6, and he has been a devoted chess player ever since. In his childhood he represented Ukraine on many occasions in the Youth European and Youth World Championships. He won two Gold Medals in the European Youth Championship, the first in boys under 12 in Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia 1996. The second came in Tallinn 1997 in boys under 14. Yuri Drozdovskij showed his great talent from an early age on and won multiple medals as a junior in national championships. The most prestigious being a Gold Medal in 2004 for Juniors - under the age of 20.
Yuri Drozdowski have won many strong tournaments, including the European Rapid Championship in Poland 2006 becoming the European Champion! Tied 1st at Cappelle la Grande 2007, tied 1st at Bad Wörishofen 2008, tied 1st at Scandinavian Open in Copenhagen 2009 and out cut winner of SCS International Open GM Chess in India 2009. He also won the Czech Chess Extra League 2009 with his team Mahrla Praha where also GM David Navara plays. In both 2006 and 2008 he won Silver Medals in strong final of the Ukrainian Championship. One of his most remarkable results so far is his 2nd place at Pivdenny Bank Cup in Rapid Chess in 2008 ahead of such celebrities as Gelfand, Ponomariov, Karpov and Korchnoi.
In the October-list of 2003 Drozdowski was rated 2454 as a 19 years old. He has ever since been steadily climing the Elo-list and is today at his peak Elo of 2620 at age 25! You don't need a PhD to predict that we will hear more of this talented players in the years to come. Yuri is a devoted 1.d4 player who only occasionally plays an English to vary his first move. As black he prefers the Nimzo Indian or Queens Gambit Declined versus 1.d4 and the French versus 1.e4. Yuri is a solid positional player with a good sense for classical openings. He is gifted in technical play but can also launch and conclude an attack if you provoke him too.
Here we see a nice finish by Yuri. Everything is litterly winning so this one is about beaty and efficiency:
Yuri Drozdovskij - Andrey Tobak, Geller Memorial, Odessa 2007. White to move:
White is winning almost whatever he choose so you can't be wrong on this one. But the most efficient way is: 33.Bxg7+! Kxg7 34.Qd4+ Nf6 35.Rd7+ Bf7 36.Rf1 and here black resigned as the destruction is total!
Here you can find the game
Arctic Chess Challenge 2009 starts in Tromsø 1st of August. So far it has 14 GMs, 15 IMs and 1 WGM among a record high 135 participants so far, and still counting... You can find the chessgames of GM Yuri Drozdovskij at chessgames.com.
The Chess Phantom Blog - as this blog is called in Norwegian - will blog in English till mid August due to this International event in Tromsø which is part of Norways and Tromsø's program to make a bid for the Chess Olympics in 2014. You find the official site of Tromsø 2014 here.
