Valery Borisovich Salov

Valery Salov, 1989
Association	Russia
Born	May 26, 1964 Wroclaw
title	International Master (1984) Grand Master (1986)
Current  Elo rating	2644 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2715 (January 1995)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Valery Borissowitsch Salow ( Russian Валерий Борисович Салов , scientific transliteration Valerij Borisovič Salov ; born May 26, 1964 in Wrocław , Poland ) is a Russian chess master .

Life

In 1980 Salow was cadet world champion (youth U17), in 1983 he won the European youth championship in Groningen , was second behind Kiril Georgiev at the junior world championship in Belfort and in 1984 he was named international champion by the FIDE world chess federation . In 1986 he received the grandmaster title . He won the USSR championship together with Alexander Beliavsky in 1987, but was defeated by Beliavsky in the subsequent playoff with 1: 3 (+0 = 2 −2).

After his victory in Interzonal of Szirák 1987 Salow qualified first for the candidates tournament in 1988, but he left in the first match against Dutchman Jan Timman in Saint John 2.5: 3.5 (+0 = 5 -1) from. He did not finish the interzonal tournament in Manila in 1990: after 6 rounds he withdrew from the tournament due to illness. For this he succeeded in the re-qualification for the candidate fights at the interzonal tournament in Biel in 1993. This time Salow had far more success: he defeated the later FIDE world champion Alexander Chalifman in the round of 16 in Wijk aan Zee in 1994 with 5: 1 (+4 = 2 −0) and took revenge on Jan Timman in the quarter-finals in Sanghi Nagar ( India ) in 1994 with 4.5: 3.5 (+2 = 5 −1). In the semifinals, also played in Sanghi Nagar (1995), Salow Gata Kamsky lost out to 1.5: 5.5 (+0 = 3 −4). After the introduction of the knockout system at the FIDE World Championships since 1997, Salow did not achieve any major successes. He was eliminated in the first round in both 1997 and 1999.

From 1989 to 1995 Salow was a top ten player who always had high rankings on the Elo rankings. With his highest rating of 2715, he was tied with Viswanathan Anand and Wladimir Kramnik in January 1995 in third place in the world rankings. In this phase he achieved the most important tournament successes. His greatest triumph was the 1991 victory in Amsterdam (shared with Nigel Short ) ahead of Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov . In 1994 he won the Lev Polugajewski anniversary tournament in Buenos Aires ahead of Viswanathan Anand, Anatoli Karpov and others. At this tournament, the Sicilian Defense was mandatory as the opening . Salow also won the traditional and always strong blast furnace tournament in Wijk aan Zee twice : 1992 (shared with Boris Gelfand ) and 1997.

In 2000, Salow (at that time in 38th place in the world rankings) retired from chess. He has not played an Elo-rated game since then and is therefore listed as inactive at FIDE. He lives in Spain .

Elo development

Team chess

Salow won the European team championship in Haifa in 1989 with the Soviet national team and at the same time achieved the second-best individual result on the top board. Salov played club chess in the 1980s with the Moscow club Burevestnik , with which he reached the final of the European Club Cup in 1984 , in the 1990s at Lyon-Oyonnax , with whom he won the European Club Cup in 1993.

Web links

Commons : Valeri Salow  - Collection of Images

• Replayable chess games by Valeri Borissowitsch Salow on 365Chess.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Numbers according to FIDE Elo lists. Data sources: fide.com (period since 2001), olimpbase.org (period 1971 to 2001)
2. ↑ Valery Salov's results at European Team Championships on olimpbase.org (English)
3. ↑ Valeri Salow's results at European Club Cups on olimpbase.org (English)