Ruslan Ponomariov

This article is an extract from the chess website bestofchess.com.... you can read the full article by clicking on the link below. He is from Horlivka, Ukraine, born on 11th October 1983. His chess experience started early in life, this led him being the third in the world under-12 championship at the age of ten.  That was in 1994 and in 1996 he won the world under-18 championship. His father was an engineer and his mother was a teacher. His father introduced and taught him to play chess from 6 years of age.  At the age of 9 he moved to stay with the family of his namesakes at Kramatorsk. His namesake Mikhail Nikitich Ponomariov was a director of chess in the school that he attended. Nikitich discovered that he had talent and he offered his parents to train him personally.  Receiving lessons from experienced people made him prosper in the chess field, they made sure he succeeds. As a young boy he was serious and reasoned with great intelligence thus made him conquer. His championships came early and he has still maintained it.

He started young and strong making him beat people who least expected.  He started to succeed very early, at the age of 9 he had entered class A players and his match were much older competitors. At the age o 12 and 13 he had secured two championships and was cloned the first youngest grandmaster below 18 years until 1999. He has played many tournaments from 1998 some which were tough some were easy depending with the competitor.  Ruslan has also faced with the best competitors in the world. Superstar hotel Bali which was held in 2002 was a great tournament. He won on this tournament; by playing 13 games he only tied 5 matches. The least moves he made were 24 against C Amura. The 16th ciudad de leon Tournament whish he played 8 matches whereby he only won 4 games.In the same year he came second behind Kasparov at Linares. In 2005 he attended and played in the Efim Geller Memorial (2005) Tournament. These games were good, he had only one tie and had won the rest of the matches. The most moves he did were 66 and were against Korchnoi. The same year he participated in the FIDE world cup (2005). The game was a big challenge to him as it had many challenges, from the strong competitors to the number of games that he had to play (20 games).  In the game he won 9 matches and lost two to Aronian and the rest were a tie.  World chess cup tournament held on 2007 was also tight as it had 14 games. He managed to win 4 matches,  lost 3 and tied 7 matches. He lost the matches while playing against E EL Gindy, Wang Hao. In 2008 Pivdenny  bank Chess cup tournament was held in Ukraine on 30th May to first June. Ruslan participated on this tournament and played 14 games against top competitors and grandmasters. He won 7 matches and lost 3 tying the rest games. World cup 2009 tournament came and he participated and took the cup. There were 39 games. He managed to score high by beating the best chess players. In 2009he came first with Hikaru nakamura second in the tournament held in San Sebastian for Donostia chess festivals. 2010 July he won Sparkassen tournament in Dortmund, in the same year the Ukranians won the 2010 chess Olympiad. The Ukraine championship tournament was held on June 2011 and he participated. Played 11 games whereby he won 6 games and he tied the rest. One of the toughest tournaments that he played was the 28 games he played in the 2011 world cup. He tied most of the games but he won 8 of the games played. Russian team championship tournament in the same year was held in Ukraine and he participated. He won the tournament by winning 5 matches and drawing the rest. This was a rapid tournament held in Riga on September from 12th to 15th 2013. He played 8 matches winning 4 and losing 3. He lost to I Nepomniachtchi. The same year he participated in the Sport Accord World Mind Games (Men, Basque) (2013) on June 30th. He played 10 games wining only 4 of them, he lost to Karjakin and Ivanchuk and tied the rest. He took the title for the FIDE World Championship knockout on 2001 held in Moscow. It had 128 players who were paired and the winner would move to the next level. The finalists were Ruslan Ponomariov and Vassily Ivanchuk. He was 18 years by then and he won the FIDE title. He defeated great players like; A.Morozevich, S. Tiviakov, Ki. Georgiev, E. Bareev, P. Svidler, and V. Ivanchuk to become the youngest ever FIDE champion. By March 1st 2014, he held the following ratings: standard- 2721, rapid-2738 and Blitz-2758

Apart from being an excellent player, Ruslan Ponomariov has also learnt in the institute of Law. Later he enrolled at Kiev State University of physical Education after they launched chess specialization. In his leisure time he enjoys traveling and playing sports; swims, roller-skates, goes to walking tours, gym and practices yoga. He has a girlfriend named Iness who accompanies him to tournaments from time to time. He is an active person both in at home and socially. He has active accounts in both tweeter and facebook where he has funs. The updates are usually on the time of a tournament and the results of a game, people also reach him through these sites and ask for advice. Because the salary for the Ukraine National team is small (around $350 USD) per month, he does not play for the national team. He is a team leader as he had written to the World chess Olyimpiad on the issue but it was not dealt on. Ruslan is a go getter and does not give up easily, he has lost many games but he still play again. He has lost so many titles and being second place but he is positive minded and considers chess as a game even if it is his profession.