Leonid Yudasin

Leonid Grigoryevich Judassin (Russian Леонид Григорьевич Юдасин; Hebrew ליאוניד יודסין, the World Chess Federation FIDE Leonid Yudasin; born August 8, 1959 in Leningrad) is an Israeli chess master of Russian origin.

Career

Judassin has been twice world championship candidate: the first time he managed to jump into the candidate struggles Interzonal in Manila in 1990, in which he took 9th place. In the second round battle in 1991 in Riga defeated, Judassin the Ukrainian Vasyl Ivanchuk with 0,5:4,5 and retired. Interzonal in Biel in 1993 Judassin succeeded with the 6th place again the qualifications of the candidates. Again he dropped out in the first round: With 2,5:4,5 ( 0, -2, = 5) Judassin Vladimir Kramnik defeated in Wijk aan Zee 1994.

To Judassins important tournament successes include: second place in the USSR Championship in 1990 in Leningrad ( equal on points on Sonneborn- Berger-Tie behind Alexander Beliavsky and before Evgeny Bareev and Alexei Wyschmanawin ), victories in Pamplona 1990 ( before Viktor Korchnoi ) and 1991 ( shared with Miguel Illescas Córdoba ), 1st place in Dos Hermanas 1992 ( ahead of Vladimir Hakobyan ), 1st place in León ( inter alia Anatoly Karpov, Veselin Topalov and Péter Lékó ) as well as his victory in the Israeli Championships in Tel Aviv in 1994. 2006 he shared first place at the World Open in Philadelphia.

Twice won Judassin gold medals at the Chess Olympiad, both in Novi Sad 1990: with the Soviet team and as the best single player on the first replacement board. Since 1993 he plays for Israel: 1994 and 1996 he represented Israel at the Chess Olympiads. Meanwhile Judassin lives mostly in the U.S., where he runs a chess academy. His current Elo rating is 2522 (as of May 2011). His previous highest Elo rating of 2645, he reached in January 1991.