Leonid Yudasin

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Leonid Yudasin

Full name	Leonid Grigoryevich Yudasin
Country	Soviet Union Israel
Born	August 8, 1959 (1959-08-08) (age 48) Leningrad, USSR

Title	Grandmaster


FIDE rating	2550
Peak rating	2645 (January 1991)

Leonid Grigoryevich Yudasin (Hebrew: ליאוניד גריגורייביץ' יודסין‎; Russian: Леонид Григорьевич Юдасин; born in Leningrad, August 8, 1959) is a prominent chess master and trainer, now living in New York City.

Awarded the International Master title in 1982 and the International Grandmaster title some time later, he was Leningrad Champion in 1984 and took the USSR Cup for rapid chess in 1988.

Those early achievements were surpassed when he became joint winner of the USSR Championship in 1990 (with Belyavsky, Bareev and Vyzmanavin, the title going to Belyavsky on tie-break). 1990 was also the year that he won individual bronze and team gold medals at the Novi Sad Olympiad, representing the USSR and registering the best performance of any of his team-mates. In 1994 and again in 1996, he played under the Israeli flag at the Moscow and Yerevan Olympiads, respectively.

A world championship Candidate in 1991, he qualified again in 1994 and this time progressed to the latter stages, losing out to Vladimir Kramnik in the quarter finals by a score of 2.5-4.5.

Arguably his most impressive international tournament success occurred at León in 1993, where he won ahead of Vyzmanavin, Topalov, Karpov and a young Peter Leko.

His prolific tournament record features many more victories, including Leningrad 1989, Calcutta 1990 Pamplona 1990/91 (also 1991/92, jointly with Illescas), Dos Hermanas 1992, Botvinnik Memorial 1995, Haifa Super Tournament 1996, Reggio Emilia 1997 (also 1998) and the St. Petersburg White Knights 1998.

Yudasin lived in Israel for many years and was twice the Israeli champion, in Tel-Aviv 1994 and Jerusalem 1996. He has won tournaments all over the USA, perhaps most notably, second place at the US Open 1990 and Pennsylvania World Open 2001. Since 2002, he has spent most of his time in New York, dominating the weekly Masters tournament (top money winner), along with the likes of Hikaru Nakamura, Jaan Ehlvest, and the late Aleksander Wojtkiewicz. In 2004, he topped a strong tournament in Montreal, Canada.

His Elo rating was 2550 as of April 2007, but has been 2645^[1]. He is also a respected coach and Director of the Brooklyn Chess Academy. His many students include Varuzhan Akobian, Irina Krush, Jennifer Shahade and the late Lembit Oll.