Alexander Grischuk

Alexander Igorevich Grischuk (born October 31, 1983) is a Russian chess grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015).

He has competed in five Candidates Tournaments: in 2007, 2011 (when he reached the final), 2013, 2018 and 2020. He also reached the semifinals of the 2000 FIDE World Championship.

Grischuk has won two team gold medals, three team silvers, one team bronze, and one individual bronze medal at Chess Olympiads. He also holds three team gold medals, one team silver and individual gold, two silver and one bronze from the World Team Chess Championship.

In 1996, Grischuk finished in 21st place in the Boys Under-14 section of the World Youth Festival and tied for third place in the same section of the Disney Rapid Chess Championships.

By January 1998 Grischuk had become a FIDE Master, finished 24th in the Moscow leg of the Russian Cup with 6/9, and finished 18th at Nizhnij Novgorod. He finished 44th in his first Russian Chess Championship, scoring 5/11 points, and was International Master and rating favourite when he tied for 8th place at the Boys Under 16 section of the World Youth Championships.

In January 1999, Grischuk tied for 13th at the Hotel Anibal Open, defeating third seed Artashes Minasian in the third round. He started strongly at the Hotel Ubeda Open but slipped to tie for 7th place with 6.5/10. At Bled Open in March he finished 9th with 6/9 and at the Biel MTO Open in July finished 11th with 7/10. At the Porto San Giorgio Grischuk finished 4th with 6.5/9. In November 1999, Grischuk scored 7/9 to share first place with Sergei Volkov at the Chigorin Memorial. He made four draws as reserve board at the European Team Championship held in Batumi then was knocked out of the Russian Championship in the quarterfinals by Alexei Bezgodov.

Grischuk made his first Grandmaster norm in January 2000 at the Hotel Ubeda Open scoring 7/10 for 4th place then placed 4th at the Reykjavik Open, scoring 6.5/9. At the New York Open he finished 10th with 6.5/9. In June 2000, he won the Lausanne Young Masters, defeating Ruslan Ponomariov in the final. His success gave him his first appearance in the FIDE Top 100 at 78th, with 2606 and third top Junior in July 2000. Grischuk finished 4th on tiebreaks with 5/9 at the North Sea Cup. Now a Grandmaster, he finished third with 6/11 at the 4th Russian Cup Final in Elista and won the Torshavn International in October on tiebreak with Ponomariov. He claimed individual bronze medal for his second reserve board result at the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul. In the 2000 FIDE World Chess Championship, Grischuk reached the semifinals, losing to Alexei Shirov.

In September 2001, Grischuk scored 4/6 at the inaugural Russia-Chess Summit. In January 2002, he finished second at his first Corus event with 8.5/13, half a point behind Evgeny Bareev.