Mikhail Gurevich (chess player)

Chess career

Mikhail Gurevich claimed the Ukrainian Chess Championship in 1984, then became USSR Champion the following year. That 1985 title was contentious: after a three-way playoff with Alexander Chernin and Viktor Gavrikov ended with every game drawn, Gurevich won on tiebreak points. Despite this victory, Soviet authorities barred him from traveling to the Interzonal tournament; Chernin and Gavrikov went instead. Gurevich, who was Jewish, stated that the KGB blocked his departure because they feared he would defect to Israel.

He earned the International Master title in 1985 and became a Grandmaster in 1986. In 1987 he won in Moscow, finishing ahead of Oleg Romanishin and Sergey Dolmatov, and placed second at Leningrad behind Rafael Vaganian but ahead of Andrei Sokolov and Artur Yusupov. Between 1989 and 1991, Gurevich ranked among the world’s top ten players. He took first at Reggio Emilia in 1989, beating Vassily Ivanchuk, Jaan Ehlvest, and Viswanathan Anand, and shared first at Moscow in 1990 with Alexander Khalifman and Evgeny Bareev.

Struggle and comeback

His peak world ranking was a tie for fifth on the January 1990 and January 1991 FIDE lists, with ratings of 2645 and 2650. His results dipped in the late 1990s but rebounded in the early 2000s. He reached his highest rating of 2694 in January 2001, placing 14th globally, and that same year won the Belgian Chess Championship with a perfect 9/9 score. At the 2005 FIDE World Cup, he finished eighth, defeating Robert Markus, Pavel Eljanov, Alexei Shirov, and Vladimir Malakhov before losing to eventual champion Levon Aronian.

That performance earned him a spot in the Candidates Tournament for the 2007 FIDE World Chess Championship, where Peter Leko eliminated him 3.5–0.5 in the first round. In 2006 he won the Turkish Chess Championship, and in 2009 he tied for first with Michał Krasenkow at the World Chess Open in Leon.

Expertise

Mikhail Gurevich served as a longtime second for Vishwanathan Anand during the 1990s, before Anand became world champion. He is recognized for his deep knowledge of the French Defence, the Reshevsky variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defence, and the Petrosian variation of the Queen's Indian Defence.

In 1991, Batsford published his book on the latter, titled Queen's Indian Defence: Kasparov System. Gurevich received the FIDE senior trainer title in 2006 and also holds the FIDE arbiter title. He caused a stir at the Fourth ACP World Rapid Cup in Odesa, Ukraine, from 27 to 29 May 2010, by defeating two grandmasters, both rated above 2700.

Did You Know?

• Gurevich represented the USSR at the 1989 Haifa European Team Chess Championship, winning team gold and individual bronze.
• Playing for Belgium in 1992, he scored 75% on board 1 at the Manila Chess Olympiad.
• In 2006, playing top board for Turkey at the Turin Olympiad, he registered a 58% score.