 Malakhov at the 2012 European Rapid Chess Championship in Warsaw | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1980-11-27)27 November 1980 (age 45) Ivanovo,Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia) |
| Chess career | |
| Country | Russia (until 2022) FIDE (since 2022) |
| Title | Grandmaster (1998) |
| FIDE rating | 2634 (November 2025) |
| Peak rating | 2732 (July 2010) |
| Ranking | No. 92 (November 2025) |
| Peak ranking | No. 17 (April 2004) |
Vladimir Nailievich Malakhov (Russian:Владимир Малахов; born 27 November 1980) is a Russianchessgrandmaster. He was a member of the Russian team that won gold at the 2009World Team Chess Championship.
Born inIvanovo in 1980,[1] Malakhov's father taught him to play chess at the age of five and he participated in his first tournament at age seven. He won the Under-12 Russian Championship in 1992 and won theWorld Under-14 Chess Championship in 1993.[2] He earned hisinternational master title in 1995 and hisgrandmaster tile in 1998.
He was the runner-up in theEuropean Individual Chess Championship in 2003[3] and in 2009.[4]
In theFIDE World Chess Championship 2000 and in theFIDE World Chess Championship 2004, Malakhov made it to the second round.
Malakhov finished 11th in theChess World Cup 2005, which qualified him for theCandidates for theFIDE World Chess Championship 2007, being played in May–June 2007.[5][6] He was eliminated in the first round, losing his match toAlexander Grischuk 3½–1½.
In 2006, Malakhov tied for the first place withLiviu-Dieter Nisipeanu andMagnus Carlsen at the Bosna International Tournament (category 17, 2659) inSarajevo.[7] In 2007 he won the 3rd Tournament of the Stars inBenidorm.[8]
Malakhov reached the semifinal stage of theChess World Cup 2009 and was eliminated by the eventual runner-upRuslan Ponomariov, after sequentially defeatingBassem Amin,Ilia Smirin,Pavel Eljanov,Wesley So andPeter Svidler. This result qualified him for theChess World Cup 2011, in which he was eliminated in the first round byRubén Felgaer. He won the EuropeanRapid Chess Championship of 2009 held inWarsaw.[9]
He contributed to Russia's team gold at the 2009 World Team Championship, scoring 5/7 and this effort earned him the gold medal on board five.[10]Malakhov played on the reserve board for the Russian team that won silver at the39th Chess Olympiad.[11]
In 2012, Malakhov finished equal second, third on tiebreak in the European Individual Championship with 8/11 and thus qualified for theChess World Cup 2013.[12] In the latter he defeatedEric Hansen andLaurent Fressinet, before losing toFabiano Caruana in the third round. In September 2012, he came second in theMoscowBlitz Championship, behindAlexander Morozevich.[13]
In February 2013, Malakhov placed equal first, second on tiebreak in the 2ndVladimir Petrov Memorial, arapid tournament held inJūrmala, Latvia.[14]At the 29thEuropean Club Cup he helped his team "Malachite" to win silver.[15]
In 2014, he finished second, behindVassily Ivanchuk, at the Latvian Railway Rapid Open inRiga.[16]In 2015, he won the Vladimir Petrov Memorial blitz tournament.[17]
Both of Malakhov's parents are physicists; his father a researcher and his mother a lecturer at a university inDubna. As of 2010,[update] Malakhov is a part-time nuclear physicist and a father to two children.[2]
