Alexander Beliavsky

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Alexander Beliavsky
Beliavsky at the 35th chess olympiad, Bled 2002
Full name Олександр Белявський
Country Flag of Slovenia Slovenia
Born December 17, 1953 (1953-12-17) (age 54)
Lviv, Soviet Union
Title Grandmaster (1975)
FIDE rating 2641
(No. 79 on the April 2008 FIDE ratings list)
Peak rating 2710 (July 1997)

Alexander Henrikhovich Beliavsky (sometimes transliterated as Belyavsky, born December 17, 1953) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster.

Beliavsky was born in Lviv. He currently lives in Slovenia and he plays for the Olympic team there. He is noted for his uncompromising style of play and for his classical opening repertoire, including openings such as the Queen's Gambit, Ruy Lopez and French Defence, for example.

Beliavsky won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1973 and the USSR Chess Championship in 1974 and 1990.

Touted in the early 1980s as a potential future World Champion, Beliavsky qualified for the Candidates matches only once, losing in the quarterfinals to Garry Kasparov in 1983.

In tournaments, he was first equal at Baden 1980, first at Tilburg 1981, second equal at Tilburg 1984, joint winner at Wijk aan Zee 1984 and joint second at the same venue a year later. At the second Russia (USSR) vs Rest of the World match in 1984, he was top scorer for the victorious Soviet team, thwarting the combined efforts of Seirawan and Larsen with some ease.

Beliavsky was also a first-class endgame study composer. Three of his studies, composed together with Leopold Mitrofanov, won first prize in composition tourneys.

As of January 2008, he is the second oldest person in the world's top 100 players, behind Anatoly Karpov.

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