Ruslan Ponomarev: history and achievements of a chess player

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

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

Ruslan Ponomarev: biography of a chess player

The future genius of world chess was born on October 11, 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 was a simple primary school teacher in a secondary school. Chess successes and the first titles began to appear already at the age of seven. From a young age, Ruslan Ponomarev improves his chess skills, and already at the age of nine he receives his first sports category, at eleven - the title of candidate 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 the president of the local chess school, his namesake Mikhail Nikitich Ponomarev, who in subsequent years will betrain Ruslan at a professional level.

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

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

Preparing for the championship

It should be noted that Ruslan Ponomarev prepared very hard and thoroughly for the world chess championship. His advisers 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. This has never happened before in the history of world chess! For the first time, a 12-year-old student was the official assistant to a world champion contender.

Young Sergey Karjakin memorized chess openings phenomenally and could give out “reference information” about the arrangement of pieces and all classes of positions in a matter of seconds, so he was a “tactics coach”. Then, back in 2002, the world of chess did not yet know that Sergey Karjakin was the future contender for the world chess crown.

Final meeting of Ukrainians Ponomarev - Ivanchuk

The 2001-2002 World Championship was held inMoscow. The total prize fund of the tournament amounted to three million dollars. Cash rewards were distributed as follows: 1st place - 500 thousand dollars, 2nd place - 250 thousand dollars. The path to the final was not easy, Ponomarev had to overcome such chess players as Li Wenliang (China), Sergey Tiviakov (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 reigning world champion Indian Viswanathan Anand. The final confrontation took place in January 2002. This year, interest in chess in Ukraine has grown to the maximum, indeed, because two Ukrainians met in the final of the World Championship - an 18-year-old guy from Donbass and a 32-year-old Lviv chess player. As a result of a tense confrontation, Ponomariov won with a total score of 4.5 to 2.5 points.

Ruslan Ponomarev becomes the FIDE World Champion by defeating the eminent grandmaster from Lvov Vassily Ivanchuk in the final match. Of course, this achievement turns into a world record - the youngest FIDE world champion. After the World Championship, Ruslan Olegovich takes a month-long break, after which he goes to the famous chess tournament in Linares, where he takes second place. Officially, according to FIDE, R. O. Ponomarev remained world champion until 2004.

Vasily Ivanchuk after defeat

Head of the Chess Federation Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced a new championpeace. After the victory of Ponomarev, Vasily Ivanchuk did not behave in the best way. Instead of accepting defeat with dignity and like a man and being happy for his compatriot, V. Ivanchuk began to say unpleasant things about the already official world champion. “The confrontation with Ponomarev is a farce. I am laughing now because of what happened, and from the current world champion. This should not have happened at all, this is a fantasy and just a funny accident. It feels like I was not playing chess, but roulette, where the winner is determined by luck. Now that I have carefully studied Ponomariov's game, I can assure you that he has no more chances against me.”

The most interesting and funny things followed. A month later, the famous 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 impeccable style confidently beat the revenge-seeking Vasily Ivanchuk. Once again it has been proved that Ruslan Ponomarev is a chess player with a capital letter!