Ruslan Ponomarev: history and achievements of a chess player

Ruslan Ponomarev is an outstanding Ukrainian chess player, grandmaster, winner of the chess crown according to the version of FIDE 2002-2004. The best rating of the chess player was fixed in July 2011 - 2768 points.

Ruslan Ponomarev: biography of a chess player

The future genius of world chess was born on October 11 in 1983 in Gorlovka. His father was an engineer, took part in the liquidation of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and his mother - a simple elementary school teacher in a comprehensive school. Chess successes and first titles began to appear at the age of seven. From a young age, Ruslan Ponomarev improves his chess skills, and at the age of nine he gets his first sports category, at eleven - the title of candidate for the master of sports, and very soon the young prodigy proves his superiority in the chess world championship among children under 12.

The youngest grandmaster in the world

In 1995 Ruslan Ponomarev moved with his family to the city of Kramatorsk, not far from Gorlovka. Here he meets with the president of the local chess school, his namesake Mikhail Nikitich Ponomarev, who in the following years will train Ruslan on a professional level.

In 1996, at the age of thirteen, Ruslan wins the European Championship to 18 years, and in 1997 wins in a similar tournament, but already at the world championship. After a string of such victories, Ruslan was awarded the title of Grandmaster at the age of 14, and he became the world record holder - the youngest grandmaster on the planet (now this record belongs to Sergey Karjakin, who was awarded the title at 12 years and 211 days).

After winning the World Championship in 2002, Ruslan Ponomarev was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of Ukraine.

Preparation for the championship

It should be noted that Ruslan Ponomarev prepared very stubbornly and thoroughly for the world chess championship. His advisors were such outstanding grandmasters as Veselin Topalov, Gennady Kuzmin, Silvio Danailov and 12-year-old Sergey Karyakin, who at that time was the world champion in his age category. In the history of world chess, this has not happened yet! For the first time a 12-year-old schoolboy was an official assistant to the contender for the title of world champion.

Young Sergey Karyakin phenomenally memorized chess debuts and could give out "reference information" about the arrangement of figures and all classes of positions in a matter of seconds, so he was a "trainer in tactics". Back in 2002, the chess world did not yet know that Sergey Karyakin was the future contender for the world chess crown.

Final meeting of Ukrainians Ponomarev - Ivanchuk

The World Championship 2001-2002 was held in Moscow. The total prize fund of the tournament was three million dollars. Cash awards were distributed as follows: 1 place - 500 thousand dollars, 2 place - 250 thousand dollars. The way to the final was not an easy one, Ponomarev had to overcome such chess players as Li Venlian (China), Sergey Tivyakov (Holland), Kiril Georgiev (Bulgaria), Alexander Morozevich (Russia), Evgeny Bareev (Russia), Peter Svidler (Russia) .

Vasily Ivanchuk also had difficult confrontations, one of which was the most significant - the semi-final stage with the current world champion Indian Viswanathan Anand. The final standoff took place in January 2002. In this year in Ukraine, the interest in chess has increased as much as it would, because in the finals of the World Cup two Ukrainians met - an 18-year-old guy from Donbass and a 32-year-old Lviv chess player. As a result of the intense confrontation, Ponomarev won with a total score of 4.5 to 2.5 points.

Ruslan Ponomarev becomes the champion of the world of FIDE, winning the final match over the famous grandmaster from Lviv Vasily Ivanchuk. Undoubtedly, this achievement turns into a world record - the youngest FIDE world champion. After the World Cup Ruslan Olegovich takes a month's pause, after which he goes to the famous chess tournament in Linares, where he takes second place. Officially, according to FIDE, RO Ponomarev remained world champion until 2004.

Vasily Ivanchuk after the defeat

The head of the chess federation Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced a new world champion. After the victory of Ponomarev Vasily Ivanchuk did not behave in the best way. Instead of worthy and masculine to accept defeat and rejoice for compatriot, V. Ivanchuk began to express impartial things against the already official world champion. "Confrontation with Ponomarev is a farce. To me, now it's funny because of what happened, and from the current world champion. This should not have happened, it's fantastic and just a ridiculous accident. It feels like I'm not playing chess, but roulette, where luck is the winner. Now that I've carefully studied Ponomarev's game, I can assure you that he has no more chances against me. "

The most interesting and amusing followed further. A month later, the well-known chess tournament in Linares started, where, according to the results of the draw, the recent Ukrainian finalists had to meet again at the chessboard. And what do you think happened? Ruslan Ponomarev in a beautiful and irreproachable style confidently beat the thirsty Vassily Ivanchuk. Once again it was proved that Ruslan Ponomarev is a chess player with a capital letter!