Alexey Vyzmanavin

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Alexey Vyzmanavin

Alexey Vyzmanavin (January 1, 1960 – January 6, 2000) was a Russian chess Grandmaster.

During the early part of his career, he was a winner of the Moscow Championships in 1984 and 1986.

Qualifying as a grandmaster in 1989, he went on to register 1st= at the 1990 USSR Championship in Leningrad (the title going to Alexander Belyavsky on tie-break). He placed 5th-9th the following year at the final (58th) Soviet Championship, held in Moscow. These championship successes contributed to his selection for the national team and this included participating at the 1992 Manila Olympiad. Playing board 2, he scored +3 =6 −0, helping the Russian team to the gold medal.

Among his international tournament successes, was a share of first place at Moscow 1988 (equal with Yuri Razuvaev, Gregory Kaidanov and Lev Psakhis). Additionally, he won the 1990/91 edition of the Rilton Cup in Stockholm and finished a very creditable second at Leon 1993, when both he, and tournament winner Leonid Yudasin, had to restrict Anatoly Karpov to a share of third place (with Veselin Topalov and Peter Leko).

As a player of rapid and blitz chess, his reputation was that of a 'speed demon', competing at the PCA rapidplay events of the 1990s and frequently outplaying his more illustrious opponents. At the Moscow event in 1994, he reached the semi-final, narrowly losing out to Vladimir Kramnik, having already beaten Alexei Shirov and Victor Korchnoi.

His highest Elo rating was 2620 (1993) and he ceased playing around 1997.

Vyzmanavin's early death, aged only 40, was officially described as being caused by a heart attack. He lived alone, but had been out with friends in Moscow on January 6, 2000 (the Russian New Year) and his body was discovered some six days later. There were also reports of poverty and depression. Grandmaster Alexander Baburin believes that there had been serious problems with drinking, which had worsened following the breakdown of his marriage.