GMVladimir Baklan

Vladimir Baklan was born in Kyiv in 1978. He became an international master in 1995 and a grandmaster in 1998. His rise included consecutive Ukrainian championship victories in 1997 and 1998. He subsequently helped Ukraine win the 2001 World Team Championship. In 2005 he won the Essent Open in the Netherlands. He also won the Dutch Open Blitz Championship that year, demonstrating success at a much faster time control. His other open-tournament results included sharing first at Balaguer in 2005. He won the Narciso Yepes Memorial in Lorca in 2006. In 2011 he finished in the six-player tie for first at the Reykjavik Open.