Vladimir Malaniuk | |
|---|---|
 Malaniuk in Kraków, 2006 | |
| Full name | Volodymyr Pavlovych Malanyuk |
| Country | Soviet Union Ukraine |
| Born | (1957-07-21)21 July 1957 Arkhangelsk,Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Died | 2 July 2017(2017-07-02) (aged 59)[1] Kyiv,Ukraine |
| Title | Grandmaster (1987) |
| Peak rating | 2635 (July 1993) |
Vladimir Pavlovich Malaniuk (Ukrainian:Володимир Павлович Маланюк,romanized: Volodymyr Pavlovych Malanyuk; 21 July 1957 – 2 July 2017) was aUkrainianchessgrandmaster and three-time Ukrainian champion. He competed in theFIDE World Chess Championship 1998. In team events, Malaniuk played for Ukraine in threeChess Olympiads (1994, 1996, 1998), twoWorld Team Chess Championships (1993, 1997) and 1997European Team Chess Championship. He won team silver and bronze medals in 1996 and 1998 Chess Olympiads respectively, team silver and an individual gold medals in the 1993 World Team Championship.
Malaniuk was a regular participant of theSoviet Chess Championship between 1983 and 1991, his best finish occurring in 1986, when he shared second place, behindVitaly Tseshkovsky.[2] In Ukraine, he won thenational championship on three occasions, in 1980, 1981 and 1986.
In 2005, he finished second at thePaul Keres Memorial rapid event inTallinn, behindAlexey Shirov and ahead ofAnatoly Karpov andBoris Gelfand. The same year, he took the silver medal at the 5th Amplico AIG Life International Chess Tournament - EuropeanRapid Championship,[3] behindZoltan Gyimesi.[4] In 2006, Malaniuk finished clear winner at theAjaccio Open Rapid event, ahead of a large group of strong grandmasters, includingRustam Kasimdzhanov,Vadim Milov,Evgeny Bareev,Alexander Motylev,Victor Bologan,Zoltán Almási,Ilya Smirin,Ivan Sokolov,Arkadij Naiditsch,Krishnan Sasikiran andLoek van Wely.
Malaniuk had also been a strong player at standard time limits, winning many national and international tournaments, includingMinsk 1985,Kostroma 1985 (USSR Championship semi-final),Lvov 1986 andFrunze 1987 on the road to securing his Grandmaster title (awarded in 1987). There were further victories recorded atForlì in 1990 and 1992,Porto San Giorgio 1994, Minsk 1997Krasnodar 2001,Arkhangelsk 2002, Krasnodar 2002,Koszalin 2002,Kolobrzeg 2003,Kraków 2003 andMielno 2006. Notable runner-up performances includeBaku 1983, Tallinn 1987, Lvov 1988,Świdnica 2001 and Kraków 2004.
Malaniuk has been credited with an important contribution tochess opening theory. Along withSergey Dolmatov,Mikhail Gurevich andEvgeny Bareev, his faithful adherence to the LeningradDutch Defence (described as a hybrid of the Dutch and theKing's Indian) helped shape a dynamic new approach to the system in the 1980s and this led to a dramatic resurgence of interest. That it affords black the opportunity to unbalance the position and fight for the full point is probably its main attraction. The system has since become a popular choice for players at all levels, following the publication of a number of books and theoretical guides. His own book on the opening (co-authored with Petr Marusenko) was published by Chess Stars in 2014.
In a more minor capacity, he andVladimir Akopian are noted for their attempts at reviving theSpielmann Variation (4.Qb3) of theNimzo-Indian Defence, but have not met with any real success.
In 2001, Russian player and chess journalist Evgeny Atarov reported that Malaniuk was severely ill and was undergoing a number of surgical operations, the funding of which had become a cause for concern.[5] Thankfully, Malaniuk got better and was able to resume his chess activities, even though his ailing health was making it difficult for him to play consistently.
Polugaevsky-Malaniuk, USSR Ch. 1983, Leningrad Dutch, 0-1 Black ventures forward on the kingside while carefully neutralising white's central threat.
