Alexander Khalifman (1966, *)
Alexander
Khalifman, FIDE world master since 1999, was born in Russia on January 18,
1966. Already at the age of 16 years he became Soviet youth master and at
the age of 18 years he became Soviet master. In 1990 he got the grand master
title. In 1991 he immigrated together with his family to Frankfurt (Germany).
Private reasons are responsible that he went back to St. Petersburg. But he
kept to the German national league. In spring 2000 he played for the chess
club Köln-Porz at the third board.
In 1999 the world's championship of the FIDE was hold like a tournament. 100 grand masters played against each other in a K.O. system. But there were missing several important players like Kasparov, Viswanathan and the world master Karpov. Karpov was only willing to play against the winner of that tournament for the world master title. Alexander Khalifman showed nerves of steel at that tournament and received a well-deserved win. This victory was surprising because he reserves only the 29th place in the ELO-table. Subsequently he was a worthy world master. Khalifman is also teaching at a "Grand Master School". You will find it under: http://www.gmchess.spb.ru.