View source for Alexander Morozevich

{{short description|Russian chess grandmaster (born 1977)}}
{{family name hatnote|Sergeyevich|Morozevich|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{Infobox chess player
| name = Alexander Morozevich
| image = Alexander Morozevic.jpg
| caption = Morozevich in 2008
| full_name = Alexander&nbsp;Sergeyevich&nbsp;Morozevich
| country = Russia
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1977|7|18}} 
| birth_place = [[Moscow]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], Soviet Union
| title = [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]] (1994)
| rating = <!-- automatically displayed via FideID parameter for ratings of 2400+ -->
| peakrating = 2788 (July 2008)
| peakranking = No. 2 (July 2008)
| FideID = 4116992
}}

'''Alexander Sergeyevich Morozevich''' ({{langx|ru|Александр Серге́евич Морозе́вич|translit=Aleksandr Sergéevich Morozévich}}; born July 18, 1977) is a Russian [[chess]] player. He was awarded the title of [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]] by [[FIDE]] in 1994. Morozevich is a two-time [[World Chess Championship|World Championship]] candidate (2005, 2007), two-time Russian champion and has represented Russia in seven Chess Olympiads, winning numerous team and board medals.

He has won both the Melody Amber (alone 2002, shared 2004, 2006, 2008) and Biel (2003, 2004, 2006) tournaments several times.

Morozevich is known for his aggressive and unusual playing style. His peak ranking was second in the world in July 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ratings.fide.com/toparc.phtml?cod=129 |title=Top 100 Players July 2008 FIDE Top players archive |website=[[FIDE.com]] |access-date=4 December 2016}}</ref>

==Career==
His first win in an international tournament was in 1994, when at the age of 17 he won the [[Lloyds Bank]] tournament in London with a score of 9½ points out of 10. In 1994 he also won the [[Pamplona]] tournament, a victory he repeated in 1998.

In 1997 Morozevich was the top seed at the [[World Junior Chess Championship]], but lost to the eventual champion, American [[Tal Shaked]], in a [[bishop and knight checkmate]]. That same year, Morozevich participated in the [[FIDE World Chess Championship 1998|FIDE World Championship]], where he eliminated former world champion [[Vassily Smyslov]] in the first round. He was knocked out in the second round by [[Lembit Oll]]. The next year Morozevich won the [[Russian Chess Championship|Russian Championship]].

In 1999 he played in his first super-tournament in [[Sarajevo]] and finished in fourth scoring 5½ points of 9. In beginning of 2000 Morozevich participated at the [[Corus chess tournament]] in [[Wijk aan Zee]] and finished fifth out of 14 players. The event was won by [[Garry Kasparov]] ahead of [[Vladimir Kramnik]], [[Viswanathan Anand]] and [[Peter Leko]].

In the same year he participated in the [[FIDE World Chess Championship 2000|FIDE World Championship]] played in New Delhi. Due to his rating he was seeded directly into the second round, in which he eliminated [[Gilberto Milos]] with the score of 2–0, then he proceeded to beat [[Evgeny Vladimirov]] 1½–½ in the third round before finally being eliminated in the fourth by [[Vladislav Tkachiev]].

In Wijk aan Zee 2001 Morozevich became the first player to defeat World Champion Vladimir Kramnik after beating him with black. He shared fifth together with [[Alexei Shirov]], behind Kasparov, Anand, [[Vassily Ivanchuk]] and Kramnik. In the [[FIDE World Chess Championship 2002|2001 FIDE World Championship]], Morozevich beat 	Nugzar Zeliakov, [[Krishnan Sasikiran]] and [[Mikhail Gurevich (chess player)|Mikhail Gurevich]] before losing in tie-breaks in the fourth round against the eventual winner of the event [[Ruslan Ponomariov]]. In September 2005, Morozevich played in the [[FIDE World Chess Championship 2005]] in [[San Luis, Argentina]], taking fourth place behind [[Veselin Topalov]], Anand and [[Peter Svidler]].

In December 2006, he won the strong [[Pamplona]] tournament with a score of 6 points out of 7 and an Elo performance of 2951.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chesspamplona.com/Oberena06/English.html |title=Chess Pamplona 2006<!-- Bot generated title --> |website=ChessPamplona.com |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071021202418/http://www.chesspamplona.com/Oberena06/English.html |archive-date=2007-10-21}}</ref> He shared second place with [[Magnus Carlsen]], behind Anand, at the 2007 [[Linares chess tournament|Linares tournament]].

His San Luis result earned him direct entry to the [[World Chess Championship 2007]]. In that tournament he scored 6 out of 14, placing sixth out of eight players. He was the only player who managed to defeat the reigning world champion Vladimir Kramnik (which was also Kramnik's only defeat in 2007).

In December 2007 Morozevich won the Russian Championship for the second time, winning the last six rounds. In June 2008 Morozevich won the Bosna tournament in Sarajevo with a margin of 1½ points ahead of second place. Two months later he shared second place in the [[Tal Memorial]] after leading the tournament in early rounds. While officially being fourth in the world, Morozevich unofficially climbed to the top spot of the world rating list, but fell back to fourth by the end of the tournament.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://chess.liverating.org/toplist.php?id=2008082401&track=4116992 |title=Live Top List World Provisional Chess Ratings |website=chess.liverating.org |author=Hans Arild Runde |date=24 August 2008 |access-date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140712062057/http://chess.liverating.org/toplist.php?id=2008082401&track=4116992 |archive-date=2014-07-12}}</ref>

In June 2011 he won the Russian Championship Higher League in [[Taganrog]] with 8/11, earning a spot in the [[Russian Chess Championship|Superfinal]], in which he came second behind the eventual winner Peter Svidler.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://theweekinchess.com/chessnews/events/russian-chess-championships-higher-league-2011 |title=Russian Chess Championships Higher League 2011 |website=[[The Week in Chess]] |last=Crowther |first=Mark |date=2011-06-27 |access-date=2019-07-27}}</ref> In October Morozevich won the [[Saratov]] Governor's Cup in Russia with a score 8½/11, one and a half points ahead of the field, and a performance of 2917.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://theweekinchess.com/chessnews/events/governors-cup-saratov-2011 |title=Governor's Cup Saratov 2011 |website=[[The Week in Chess]] |last=Crowther |first=Mark |date=2011-10-19 |access-date=2019-07-27}}</ref>

In February 2012 Morozevich came first in the [[Vladimirs Petrovs|Vladimir Petrov]] Memorial, a [[Fast chess|rapidplay]] tournament with the time control of 15 minutes plus 6 seconds per move.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chessdom.com/alexander-morozevich-winner-of-vladimir-petrov-memorial |title=Alexander Morozevich winner of Vladimir Petrov Memorial |date=2012-02-19 |website=Chessdom.com |access-date=19 February 2012}}</ref> In 2014 he won the 15th [[Anatoly Karpov|Karpov]] International tournament in Poikovsky.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://en.chessbase.com/post/xv-karpov-poikovsky-morozevich-takes-clear-first |title=XV Karpov-Poikovsky: Morozevich takes clear first |last=Silver |first=Albert |website=ChessBase.com |date=2014-05-22 |access-date=2 October 2015}}</ref> Morozevich won the ''Magistral Ciutat de [[Barcelona]]'' tournament in 2015 on tiebreak over [[Axel Bachmann]], having played more games with the black pieces.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fide.com/component/content/article/4-tournaments/9187-alexander-morozevich-wins-magistral-ciutat-de-barcelona.html |title=Alexander Morozevich Wins Magistral Ciutat de Barcelona |website=FIDE.com |date=2015-11-11 |access-date=18 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119202923/https://www.fide.com/component/content/article/4-tournaments/9187-alexander-morozevich-wins-magistral-ciutat-de-barcelona.html |archive-date=2015-11-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Alexander Morozevich wins Barcelona |url=http://en.chessbase.com/post/alexander-morozevich-wins-barcelona |website=ChessBase.com |last1=Silver |first1=Albert |date=2015-11-10 |access-date=18 November 2015}}</ref>

===Team competitions ===
Morozevich had great successes in team competitions: in the [[Chess Olympiad]] he won the gold medal with the Russian team three times (1998, 2000, 2002), one silver medal (2004) and a bronze medal (1994).

He also won the gold medal in the [[World Team Chess Championship|World Team Championships]] in 2005 in which he beat the member of the Chinese team in the last round in a must win situation. He also won two gold medals in the [[European Team Chess Championship|European Team Championships]] (2003 and 2007).

==Playing style==
Morozevich is known to be an aggressive player with an unorthodox opening repertoire. He has on occasion played the [[Chigorin Defense]] (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6) and the [[Albin Countergambit]] (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5). He is also well known for preferring complicated positions. Due to his risky and spectacular style which produces relatively few draws, Morozevich is popular among chess fans.

In 2007, Morozevich published, along with co-author Vladimir Barsky, a book about the [[Chigorin Defense]], called ''The Chigorin Defence According to Morozevich''.

==Blindfold chess ==
Morozevich is considered to be one of the best [[blindfold chess|blindfold chess players]] in the world. He has confirmed that status in blindfold sections of [[Amber_chess_tournament|Melody Amber]] tournaments:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! Year
! Placement
! Score
|-
| 2002
| First
| 9/11
|-
| 2003
| Shared second
| 7/11
|-
| 2004
| First
| 8½/11
|-
| 2005
| Shared second
| 6/11
|-
| 2006
| First
| 9½/11
|-
| 2007
| Shared second
| 7/11
|-
| 2008
| Shared first
| 6/11
|-
| 2009
| Shared fourth (with Anand)
| 6½/11
|}

==Go==
While in recent years, Morozevich has not been very active in chess competition, he has taken up Go. He has a [[Go (game)|Go]] ranking of 1 [[Go ranks and ratings|dan]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/Player_Card.php?&key=17850327 |title=E.G.D. - European Go Database - Main panel |website=EuropeanGoDatabase.eu |access-date=12 November 2018}}</ref> as of 2018. In July 2016, he beat [[Tiger Hillarp Persson]] in a 4-game mixed chess and go match.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chess.com/news/view/chess-go-chess-go-morozevich-beats-tiger-in-dizzying-match-2272 |title=Chess-Go-Chess-Go: Morozevich Beats Tiger In Dizzying Match |website=Chess.com |first=Mike |last=Klein |date=29 July 2016 |access-date=4 December 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009144356/https://www.chess.com/news/view/chess-go-chess-go-morozevich-beats-tiger-in-dizzying-match-2272 |archive-date=9 October 2017}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{FIDE}}
* {{OlimpBase FIDE ratings|Morozevich,%20Alexander}}
* {{OlimpBase player|2cs0ak6l}}
* {{Chessgames.com player|11719}}
* {{365Chess.com player|Alexander_Morozevich}}
* {{Chess.com player|alexander-morozevich|member=EgorGeroev}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-sports}}
{{succession box
 | before = [[Peter Svidler]]
 | title  = [[Russian Chess Champion]]
 | years  = 1998
 | after  = [[Konstantin Sakaev]]
}}
{{succession box
 | before = [[Evgeny Alekseev (chess player)|Evgeny Alekseev]]
 | title  = [[Russian Chess Champion]]
 | years  = 2007
 | after  = [[Peter Svidler]]
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morozevich, Alexander}}
[[Category:1977 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Chess players from Moscow]]
[[Category:Chess Grandmasters]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian chess players]]
[[Category:Chess Olympiad competitors]]
[[Category:Russian chess writers]]
[[Category:Russian Go players]]
[[Category:21st-century Russian chess players]]