GMYuri S Balashov

Yuri Balashov was born in Shadrinsk in 1949. He won the Moscow championship in 1970 and became a grandmaster in 1973. In 1976 he finished runner-up to Anatoly Karpov in the Soviet championship. He shared tournament victories at Lone Pine in 1977 and Wijk aan Zee in 1982. At the 1980 Olympiad he helped the Soviet Union win gold.

Balashov also worked as a second for Karpov and assisted Boris Spassky in his 1992 rematch with Bobby Fischer. He received the FIDE Senior Trainer title in 2005. In senior competition he won world over-65 silver medals in 2014 and 2018, finishing level on points with the winners. He was also part of Russia’s winning teams in five consecutive world senior team championships from 2015 through 2019.