I was born January 31, 1986 in the city of Krasniy Luch of the Luhansk region, Ukraine. When I was five my parents taught me how to play chess. From then on chess was an important part of my life.
MY CHESS CAREER I had a few bright moments in my chess career that I want to share with you.
BRIGHT MOMENT #1: At the age of twelve I won the Ukrainian rapid chess championship for ages twelve and under. That qualified me for the World Rapid Chess Championship at Disneyland in Paris. There I won a silver medal for my country scoring 7.5 out of 9. The awards ceremony was hosted by Karpov! When you are 12 and Karpov awards you in Disneyland it’s awesome! It was one of the happiest days of my childhood!
But right after that I got sick with star fever. I was twice third on Ukrainian Championships U-16. Once I was the whole point ahead of the field with three rounds to play, but a bad finish followed and all efforts were for naught.
In 2002 I was awarded the title of International Master by FIDE. Then I won the Ukrainian Championship U-18 and went to the World Championship in Greece. Though our team had no coaches and I had never played before with an increment time control, I managed to finish in 5th place with 7.5 out of 11.
BRIGHT MOMENT #2: In 2006 I scored a third GM norm and at age of 20, not unusually early in modern chess. I became an International Grandmaster. That was the last round of open tournament in Minsk (Belarus). I needed a win in the game against Dydyshko Viacheslav who was 11 times Belarus Champion and who lost just once throughout the last year before our game. I encountered a surprise in the opening where he played 6...e5 instead of 6...e6 like he played in all his previous games. I was not sure about the line I selected but I understood that he had chosen 6...e5 to surprise me. I went to a rare line 9.Qd3 where I had lost a game with Black six months earlier. I have managed to create a strong novelty (Qd3-g3, Be2-c4 and Qg3-d3 with a total control under d5-square). Then I blundered a typical d6-d5 at some moment and lost all advantage. Move by move my confidence was leaving me. But somehow in the 4-rooks endgame I have got a passed pawn that finally brought me the win and the title! That was really great to beat so solid an opponent at the moment when a win was so badly needed.
Three months later I went to the USA for six months to play some chess and to improve my English. Actually I still need to improve it; this process can last a whole life. I lived in Omaha, Nebraska with my relatives who helped me feel good far away from my homeland. In the USA I had a couple of good results – winning an Open in Oklahoma (winning in 23 moves over many time USA Champion Alexandr Shabalov) and scoring 5.5 out of 7 in the Chicago Open (wins against Shabalov and Ehlvest and only one loss to Vadim Milov from Switzerland who won that event).
At the end of my stay I played three tournaments in Canada, where my results was far away from good, but where I have got a lot of positive emotions. Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Niagara Falls, Montreal... after that I loved Canada!. I returned to the Ukraine from USA in the latter half of 2007.
BRIGHT MOMENT #3: The academy where I learnt (and where now I’m getting my PhD) hosted the national championship of 2007. I didn’t have the right to play in this competition on the sport principles, but the organizers had a couple of vacancies and I got one of them. I started 2 out of 2 and from round 3 played 6 games on the board 1. I beat such good players as Kryvoruchko and Drozdovskiy. After round 7 I was a whole point ahead of the rivals. But in round 8 I lost with Black pieces to Kuzubov. After that I needed only to win in the last round to take first place. It was one of the most memorable games in my career. Despite sleeping with difficulty the night before, I somehow managed to focus well enough. I went into a complex Ruy Lopez position and seized a strong initiative that ended with tactics. I had won the national championship and become the 76th champion of my country, something I had not even dreamt about!
BRIGHT MOMENT #4: In 2008 I joined the national team and played in the 1st World Sports Mind Games in Beijing, where I won three medals. It was the first competition of such sort, which is why many countries didn’t participate (like the Russian men's team or Azerbaijan). But anyway, there were many good teams and players. Although our team was not the strongest possible, it included promising young players like Korobov, Drozdovskiy, Kryvoruchko, Kravtsiv (and me). Also we had a Women's Team. Ultimately, we scored 7 medals and it helped our national team to share 3rd-4th places in general standings (out of more than 100 countries) after China and Russia. I took home 3 medals. One was won in conjunction with Tatiana Vasilevich. We were just 9th by rating but both played very well and we lost only to India in the semifinal. Another two medals were won with my teammates (silver – in rapid, where I scored 7,5 out of 8, and bronze – in blitz).
After that I slowly reduced the number of tournaments I played in. The reason was that my rating stuck around 2530 that was not enough to become a strong professional. At the same time I already achieved something that was enough for me: GM, the title of Ukrainian Champion, 4 medals of World competitions. So, I decided to move on in the direction of coaching and publishing.
MY COACHING During March 2008, I trained the best ever woman chess player of Indonesia, Sukandar Irine Kharisma, who became a WGM at the end of that year. That was my first coaching experience. When I recollect those 2 weeks, I see I was a clumsy coach. I could do very little: some sort of analysis of games and...that’s all actually. Later I took a few students on ICC. I decided to see if I could be a good coach or not. I should say I liked that and now I can’t live without coaching! I have a huge number of different instructive materials on many chess areas (all sorts of endgames, strategic ideas, tactical stuff that is unique, opening files etc.). I am always ready to share these materials with my students and, hopefully, it helps them.
So far I’m still quite young coach and there is not so much to be proud of. I try to build up a long-lasting training process and many of students work with me more than 1 or 2 years that evidences they like my services. You can see more about results and testimonials of my students here.
PUBLISHING In August, 2012, Gambit Publications Ltd. printed my first chess book "Attack with Black". You can read my interview where I described the book's contents.
SECONDING In 2011 I twice was a second to Ukrainian top player GM Alexandr Moiseenko. Once he shared 3-4 places in Ukrainian Championship (lost in the last round to Ponomariov; the win would give the title). And another time we worked together on the World Cup in Khanty-Manssiysk (Russia). Alexandr beated Esen Baris (Turkey) and Ernesto Inarkiev (Russia), but in round 3 he lost to David Navara (Czech Republic). Hopefully, my openings ideas were not too bad and still can be useful for him.
LIFE I graduated the National Law Academy of Ukraine with a master's degree in law in 2009. After that I left the Academy to get a PhD in labor law. A theme of my research is Annual Leaves. According to the time table, in 2014 I should get the degree.
On July 17, 2010 I married the best woman in the world – Irina! She supports me in all my beginnings and understands me perfectly! On March 9, 2012 she gave us a son Ivan! And he also seems to understand me!
