Andrei Sokolov

Andrei Sokolov (originally Russian Андрей Юрьевич Соколов / Andrei Sokolov Jurjewitsch, scientific transliteration Andrei Sokolov Jur'evič; born March 20, 1963 in Vorkuta ) is a French chess master of Russian origin.

Life

Chess learned Sokolov age of six from his father. He joined the age of twelve a Moscow chess school and received Vladimir Jurków as the first coach. In 1981, he won the championship of Moscow, 1982 in Copenhagen, the World Youth Championships. In the same year he was awarded the title of FIDE International Master. 1984 Sokolov won the USSR championship in Lviv and was Grand Master. He won with the USSR selection gold medals in the Chess Olympiads of Thessaloniki in 1984 and Dubai in 1986, and at the inaugural World Cup team played in Lucerne in 1985.

In the Soviet zone tournament in Riga in 1985 told Sokolow 4th - 6th Place and qualified for the interzonal tournament, which was held in Biel in the same year. His third place finish meant to qualify for the Candidates Tournament in Montpellier in 1985, which again was a great success for Sokolov: he shared with Rafael and Artur Yusupov Vaganian first place and thus arrived in the semifinals of the candidates fighting. Vaganian was in Minsk 1986, the first opponent, the Sokolov 6-2 ( 4 -0 = 4 ) defeated and pushed forward into the final, which was held in Riga in 1986. Sokolov won in a dramatic final sprint with 7.5 to 6.5 ( 4, -3, = 7) against his fellow countryman Artur Yusupov. Although Yusupov led after ten games with 6-4, but won the Sokolov lots 11 to 13, while Yusupov only managed a draw in the last game. In spring 1987, Sokolov had then in Linares against Anatoly Karpov, who had lost his world championship match against Garry Kasparov in the previous year, compete for the Super Final. Sokolov was defeated, 3.5-7.5 ( 0, -4, = 7), which meant qualification for the Karpov world championship fight in Seville in 1987.

After this exhausting start to the World Cup Sokolov did not manage another big success more. He had when he took the third place on the world rankings behind Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov in the years 1987/1988 his sporting highlight. The candidates fighting in 1988 in Saint John he was defeated by Canadian Kevin Spraggett already in the first round (after tournament games 3-3, after rapid chess 5.5-6.5 ). In the late 1990s Sokolov moved to France and took part in 2001 for the first time at the French Championship, 2002, he first played for his new home at the Chess Olympiad in Bled. In the French Cup in 2003 in Aix -les- Bains Sokolov came first together with Joël Lautier and Étienne Bacrot on the shared first - third Place, after a tie-break had to decide: Bacrot won out, Sokolov was third. With the French Championship in 2005 in Chartres Sokolov was runner-up behind Joël Lautier.

Andrei Sokolov played in the German Chess League in the season 1998/99 for the SK - Zahringen Freiburg and from 2001 to 2009 for the TV Tegernsee. In the Swiss National League A, he played until 2012 for the rich stone chess friends, with whom he won the Swiss team championships 2006; in the 2014 season, he is reported to the Club d' Echecs de Genève. In France, Sokolov plays for Mulhouse Philidor. His current Elo rating is 2565 (as of March 2014) so that it is ranked 13 of the French ranking. His previous highest Elo rating of 2645, he had in January 1987, he was at that time along with Artur Yusupov in third place in the world rankings.

When his best game he commented on the chess magazine Europe Échecs (No. 589, June 2009, p 29) the black victory against Ara Minasian from the Open Linares 1999:

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 b3 Nc6 4 Bb5 Bd7 6 Bb2 d6 5 0-0 Be7 Re1 Nf6 7 8 c3 0-0 9 Sa 3 a6 10 Lf1 b5 11 Sc2 Qb6 12 d4 d5 13 e5 Ne4 14 Bd3 f5 15 exf6 Nxf6 16 Tb1 c4 17 Lf1 Qc7 18 Dc1 Se4 19 bxc4 bxc4 20 Se3? Sxf2 21 Kxf2 Dxh2 22 Ke2 Txf3! 23 Sg4 Taf8! 24 Sxh2 Nxd4 ! 0-1

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