GMAlexander G Beliavsky

Alexander Beliavsky was born in Lviv in 1953. He won the World Junior Championship in 1973 and the first of four Soviet championship titles in 1974. FIDE awarded him the grandmaster title in 1975. He later won the Soviet championship in 1980, 1987 and 1990. In the 1983 Candidates matches he lost to Garry Kasparov, who went on to become world champion.

Beliavsky won Tilburg in 1981 and shared first at Wijk aan Zee in 1984. That year he played first board for the Soviet Olympiad champions and was the Soviet team’s top scorer in the USSR-Rest of the World match. He later settled in Slovenia and began representing its national team in 1996. Between 1999 and 2005 he won the Vidmar Memorial four times. His work as a coach brought the FIDE Senior Trainer title in 2004.