Rafael Vaganian
Rafael Vaganian (Armenian Ռաֆայել Վահանյան, transcription Rafael Wahanjan; * October 15, 1951 in Yerevan ) is an Armenian living in Germany grandmaster in chess.
Name
Rafael Vaganian is internationally under the name Vaganyan (in English transcription Vaganian ) known since he assumed as representative of the Soviet Union under the Russified form of the name Рафаэль Артёмович Ваганян ( Rafael Artjomowitsch Vaganyan ).
Achievements
In 1969 Vaganian won together with Zoltán Ribli and Karl -Heinz Maeder the European Youth Championships in Groningen, after fine rating he was second. After his victory in Vrnjačka Banja 1971 FIDE awarded him the grandmaster title. In the USSR championship in 1974, he was split third and fourth, in 1975, he shared space 2 to 4 In Soviet zone tournament in 1978 in Lviv Vaganian finished second and qualified for the interzonal tournament in Rio de Janeiro in 1979, where he finished 12th.
Vaganian has played in nine Chess Olympiads, namely at the Chess Olympiad 1978 in Buenos Aires, in 1984 in Thessaloniki and in 1986 in Dubai for the USSR. At the Chess Olympiad in 1992 in Manila and in the years 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2004, he represented Armenia. From 1978 to 1986 he was playing for the Soviet Union, three gold medals and two silver medals. In 2004, he won gold at board 3 with Armenia he won two bronze medals (1992 and 2004). He also played six times from 1985 to 2005 at the World Team Championship, which he won four gold medals, one silver and three bronze. He represented 1985 and 1989 the USSR ( 4 gold medals ) and Armenia since 1993.
After tournament victories in São Paulo in 1977, Las Palmas 1979, Manila 1981, Moscow 1982, Hastings 1982/1983, Tallinn 1983 and Lviv in 1984, but without success in his attempts to qualify for the World Cup, he succeeded his 1985 Interzonal of Biel to date the greatest success: he won the tournament by one point and qualified for the candidates Tournament in Montpellier 1985 When candidates tournament, he continued his winning streak and came together with Artur Yusupov and Andrei Sokolov on the shared first place, which is a qualification to the next. stage, the semi-final match in the candidates tournament meant. Vaganian got Andrei Sokolov randomly assigned, which he in Minsk 2:6 ( 0, -4, = 4) was defeated in 1986 and retired.
Vaganian continued his wins in international tournaments continue, so he won in Leningrad in 1987 and Marseille in 1987, before he intervened again in the candidate struggles in 1988, he was defeated in Saint John the Hungarian Lajos Portisch with 2,5:3,5 ( 0, - 1 = 5) in the first round. At the same place a few days later, he was vice-champion in blitz chess, in which for the first time officially aligned championship. The winner was Mikhail Tal, the Vaganian lost the final with 0:4. 1989 won Vaganian in Odessa the USSR championship in 1990, he won in Toronto.
In the 1990/1991 season, he began playing in the Chess League, with whom he has become several times German champion and cup winner for the German club SG Porz. Vaganian regularly achieves extremely good results ( in the 1996/1997 season 14.5 of 15! ) For his club and got so given the nickname Mr. Bundesliga. In 1994 he won the World Open in Philadelphia. In 2004, he was tied with the winner Sergei Rubljowski in the Aeroflot Open in Moscow.
His current Elo rating is 2570 (as of May 2012). His previous highest Elo rating was 2670 in January 2005.
Private
Vaganian is married to the chess player Irina Vaganian, which bears the title of International Champion of women. ( Elo rating 2269 as of January 2011) They designed the official website of the German Chess Bundesliga and their association SG Porz.