Ilya Smirin – Israeli Chess Grandmaster

Ilya Smirin is a Chess Grandmaster with Elo ratings exceeding 2600 from FIDE, making him one of the best Israeli Chess players ever to play the game.

Names: Ilya Smirin

Title: Grandmaster

Born: January 21, 1968

Place of birth: Israel

Ratings

World ranking: 213

Rapid: 2606

Blitz: 2499

Classical: 2601

Profiles

• FIDE
• Chessgames.com

Biography

Ilya Smirin was born on January 21, 1968, in the Soviet Union of Byelorussian. He lived in the Vitebsk area of the Soviet Union of Belarussian SSR until 1992. He then moved and settled in Israel in 1992, where he lives up to date. Smirin began his chess career in his youth when he was living in the Soviet Union. He was trained in chess games at the Belarussian Institute of Physical Culture in Minks in the Soviet Union. This made Smirin gain more knowledge in chess games to become a perfect chess player. It also made him qualify to participate in the 1987 Belarussian chess championships as his first competitive chess tournament.

The Beginning

Ilya Smirin started featuring in chess games when he secured a chance to compete in the Belarussian chess championships in 1987. He won the tournament and was announced the champion of the Soviet Union, which made him gain more popularity in his chess career. He later settled in Israel after migrating from the Soviet Union. In Israel, Smirin participated in up to four World chess championships, with his first appearance in the tournament being in 1999. He continued to feature as an Israeli chess player in 2000, 2002, and the 2004 editions of the game.

Smirin also competed thrice in the FIDE chess world cup, beginning in 2005, 2009, and 2015. He won the Israel chess championships in 2002 and the New York chess tournament in 1994. Smirin continued his lead as Israeli chess champion in 1992, 1994, and 1999. This made him become the champion of the Israel chess championships four times. Winning the Israel championships for the first time in 1992 made him qualify for the PCA world Grand Prix tournaments held in 1994 and 1995. He was also the winner of the New York open chess tournament in the last edition of the games in 2000.

In 2002, Smirin was named winner of the traditional grandmaster competitions of the Biel Festival. He also secured a chance to participate in the Maccabiah Games held in Israel in 2005. He successfully finished the tournament with great victory by winning a silver medal in the games. Smirin later competed in the 2007 Acropolis international chess tournament in Athens. He managed to score an impressive result of 7/0 points which made him become the winner of the tournament. He recorded a tiebreak performance with Evgeny Postny in the 2008 Maalot Tarshiha games. In 2014, Smirin competed in the World Open chess tournament. He won the match on a tiebreak after consecutively sharing first place in the competition in 2001, 2002, and 2003.

He was also named the Eliahu Levant memorial chess tournament winner in 2019. This was after he recorded a perfect score of 5/6 points in the games. He also played in the Israel national team and won a bronze medal with the team in the Chess Olympiad games in 2010. He also won two silver medals with the team in the European chess championships in 2003 and 2005. As part of the Israel national chess team, he played in the Chess Olympiads ten times and in European chess championships nine times. He also played with the team in the World chess championships four times.

Achievements

Ilya Smirin is a self-motivated chess player with outstanding achievements in the chess industry. He transformed his chess career from a beginner to a professional to become a high profiled chess player in Israel. Smirin won an international master’s title in 1989, which was awarded to him by the FIDE organization. He currently holds a grandmaster title he won the following year and is presently one of the top-ranked chess players in Israel with a peak rating of 2702 he reached in July 2001.

He is a four-time champion of the Israel chess championships and a winner of the Belarusian championships in 1987. He also won a silver and gold medal in a chess tournament as a team and individual category.

Did you like this article about Ilya Smirin? If you did, you might also be interested in reading about other players like Rey Enigma, Jan Smeets, and Jan Gustafsson.

Sources

1. Master Preparation
2. Events – ChessBase Archived 2007-04-05 at the Wayback Machine
3. “TWIC 559: Maccabiah Games”. The Week in Chess. Retrieved 2019-06-25.
4. “Ilya Smirin wins Acropolis 2007”. ChessBase News. 26 August 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
5. Crowther, Mark (2008-01-21). “TWIC 689: Maalot-Tarshiha”. London Chess Center. Archived from the original on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
6. “3rd Shlomo Tiran Memorial 2019 May 2019 Israel FIDE Chess Tournament report”. ratings.fide.com. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
7. “Eliahu Levant Memorial, Rapid Tournament A April 2019 Israel FIDE Chess Tournament report”. ratings.fide.com. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
8. “King’s Indian Warfare”. Quality Chess. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
9. Results Ilya Smirin at Chess Olympiads, www.olimpbase.org
10. Results Ilya Smirin at the E-ch teams, www.olimpbase.org
11. ^ results Ilya Smirin at the W-ch teams, www.olimpbase.org