Alexander Motylev

Alexander Motylev
Full name	Александр Анатольевич Мотылёв
Country	Russia
Born	17 June 1979 (1979-06-17) (age 32) Yekaterinburg, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2690 (No. 54 in the September 2011 FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating	2710 (July 2009)

Alexander Anatolyevich Motylev (Russian: Александр Анатольевич Мотылёв; born 17 June 1979) is an International Grandmaster of chess and a former champion of Russia.

He learnt how to play at the age of four and a half years and at age six took part in group instruction sessions. This is not uncommon in Russia where chess is very much part of the school curriculum. His progress remained good and by the time he was eleven, Motylev was already a Candidate Master (a title previously achieved by his father). Around this time, he was also gifted at football, a sport for which he had major aspirations. Made aware of his split loyalties by his chess coach, Motylev's physical education teacher advised him to concentrate on chess and this proved to be good advice, as he went on to become national junior champion at both under 16 and under 18 level.

In 2001, he shocked the chess world with a surprise win of the Russian Championship, but in the years that followed, his indifferent form lead to both good and bad results. In 2002, he was invited to take part in the prestigious Russia vs Rest of the World match in Moscow and in the company of the world's elite players, scored only 1/6. In 2003, he won the Corsican Open at Bastia (ahead of a strong field including Van Wely, Sasikiran and Tiviakov). In 2004, he swept to a comfortable victory at the Tomsk qualifier and then performed well in the Russian Superfinal. In the latter contest, a fighting draw with Kasparov saw him finish strongly, level with leading grandmasters Svidler, Morozevich and Bareev (behind Kasparov, Grischuk and Dreev). In 2005, he finished second at the 2nd Sanjin Hotel Cup (after Harikrishna, who he defeated) and in the same year, qualified again for the Russian Superfinal, this time by taking 3rd place at Kazan. In 2006, he was the joint winner of the Corus "B" Tournament at Wijk aan Zee with Magnus Carlsen. In June 2009 he won 10th Poikovsky Karpov tournament (category 18, 2694) in Poikovsky, Russia.^[1]

In regular team events, he played for Russia in the 2001 World Team Championships and contributed a 2/3 performance, helping the team to a silver medal. At the European Team Championship of 2005, his own sub-50% score and the whole team effort was far less convincing, as the Russians crashed to a surprising 14th place finish.

Preceded by Sergey Volkov

Russian Chess Champion 2001

Succeeded by Alexander Lastin

References

1. ^ ChessBase.com - Chess News - Motylev wins 10th Karpov Poikovsky

• Olimpbase - Olympiads and other Team event information
• Chesscafe interview

External links

• Alexander Motylev player profile at ChessGames.com
• Alexander Motylev player profile at the Internet Chess Club
• FIDE rating card for Alexander Motylev

Persondata
Name	Motylev, Alexander
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	17 June 1979
Place of birth	Yekaterinburg, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Date of death
Place of death