Alexander Motylev is a Russian Chess Grandmaster and former Russian champion with Elo ratings exceeding 2600 from FIDE, making him one of the best Russian chess players of all time.
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Full Name: Alexander Motylev
Title: Grandmaster (2000)
International Master (1997)
Place of birth:
Born: 1979
Federation: FIDE
Ratings
World ranking: 55
Rapid: 2656
Blitz: 2532
Classical: 2632
Peak rating: 2696
Profiles
Most Frequently Played Openings
With The White Pieces
- Sicilian Defense
- Ruy Lopez
- Caro-Kann
With The Black Pieces
- Sicilian Defense
- Caro-Kann
- Semi-Slav
Biography
Alexander Motylev is a Russian chess Grandmaster born on June 17, 1979, in Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. Motylev was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 2000. As of October 2022, his FIDE rating was 2632, while his Peak rating was 2710 as of July 2009. Motylev is also Sergey Karjakin’s coach and one of the Russian national team’s trainers.
The Beginning
Motylev began playing when he was four and a half years old and began team training at the age of six. Motylev was eleven years old when he became a Candidate Master. Around this time, he was also talented in football, a sport for which he had high hopes. Motylev’s physical education instructor recommended he focus on chess after his chess coach informed him of his divided loyalties.
This was confirmed to be sound guidance, as he was a nationwide junior title holder at both the U16 and U18 levels. Motylev finished second in the 1998 European Junior Chess Tournament, which Levon Aronian won.
In 2001, Motylev won the Russian Chess Tournament and represented Russia in the World Team Chess Tournament, where he helped the team to a silver medal by scoring 2/3. In 2002, Motylev was selected to participate in the Russia versus the rest of the global tournament in Moscow, where he scored 1/6 against the world’s best players. Motylev won the Corsican Open in Bastia in 2003, beating out a good lineup that included Loek van Wely, Krishnan Sasikiran, and Sergei Tiviakov.
In 2004, Motylev won the Tomsk qualifier and placed fourth in the Superfinal of the 57th Russian Tournament, behind Garry Kasparov, with whom he leveled, Alexander Grischuk, and Alexey Dreev. In 2005, Motylev finished second in the Aeroflot Open. Subsequently that year, Motylev came in second at the 2nd Sanjin Hotel Cup, trailing only Pentala Harikrishna, whom he trounced, and became eligible for the Russian Superfinal for the second time, this round completing equal third in Kazan. Motylev competed in the Biel Grandmaster Tournament in July of that same year and received a 3.5/10 to come in last.
Achievements
Motylev won the Corsican Open in 2003 in Bastia and the next year he was victorious at the Russian qualifier at Tomsk, performing well in the Superfinal, finishing strong by drawing with Garry Kasparov, and was the equal of leading grandmasters like Peter Svidler, Bareev, and Morozevich behind Kasparov, Dreev and Alexander Grischuk.
Motylev won the tenth tournament of Poikovsky Karpov in 2009 with a performance elo of 2694.
Motylev won the Russian championship in 2001 and the European championship in 2014.
Motylev and Magnus Carlsen shared the Corus B Tournament victory in Wijk aan Zee in 2006.
Motylev came in second place at the Aeroflot Open 2008 after Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Motylev triumphed the Poikovsky, Russia’s 10th Anatoly Karpov International Tournament, in June 2009.
Motylev won the 2014 European Individual Chess Championship in Yerevan with a score of 9/11 and a rating performance of 2872.
In the B event of the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Mkir, Azerbaijan, in April 2014, he came in second place, trailing Pavel Eljanov.
Notable Games
Herman Grooten vs Alexander Motylev – Essent Open, Round 8 – Hoogeveen, Netherlands – January 01, 2003
Alexander Motylev vs Boris Savchenko – World Cup, Round 1 – Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia – November 24, 2007
Alexander Motylev vs Michele Godena – European Championship, Round 5 – Rijeka, Croatia – March 10, 2010
Did you enjoy reading about Alexander Motylev? If you did, you might be interesting in reading other player profiles such as Hans Niemann, Bobby Fischer, and Rey Enigma.
Sources
- http://www.chessdom.com/motylev-and-potkin-appointed-coaches-of-russian-national-team/
- http://www.torneionline.com/loto_tornei_d.php?codice=1998ARM01&tipo=1
- http://www.olimpbase.org/playerst/g0k4qwii.html
- http://ruchess.ru/en/news/report/from_east_to_west/
- http://en.chessbase.com/post/aeroflot-open-sutovsky-winner-on-tiebreak
- http://www.theweekinchess.com/html/twic566.html#2
- https://web.archive.org/web/20121109074914/http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5508
- http://en.chessbase.com/post/gashimov-memorial-b-eljanov-and-motylev-shine
- http://www.theweekinchess.com/chessnews/events/47th-biel-chess-festival-2014
- https://chess24.com/en/read/news/artemiev-earns-showdown-with-russia-s-best
- http://ruchess.ru/en/news/all/chita_superfinal_11/
- http://ruchess.ru/en/news/all/alexander_motylev_wins_russian_rapid_championship_/