Ukrainian chess grandmaster (1957?2017)
Vladimir Pavlovich Malaniuk
(
Ukrainian
:
Володимир Павлович Маланюк
,
romanized
:
Volodymyr Pavlovych Malanyuk
; 21 July 1957 ? 2 July 2017) was a
Ukrainian
chess
grandmaster
and three-time Ukrainian champion. He competed in the
FIDE World Chess Championship 1998
. In team events, Malaniuk played for Ukraine in three
Chess Olympiads
(1994, 1996, 1998), two
World Team Chess Championships
(1993, 1997) and 1997
European Team Chess Championship
. He won team silver and bronze medals in 1996 and 1998 Chess Olympiads respectively, team silver and an individual gold medals in the 1993 World Team Championship.
Career
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Malaniuk was a regular participant of the
Soviet Chess Championship
between 1983 and 1991, his best finish occurring in 1986, when he shared second place, behind
Vitaly Tseshkovsky
.
[2]
In Ukraine, he won the
national championship
on three occasions, in 1980, 1981 and 1986.
In 2005, he finished second at the
Paul Keres Memorial rapid event
in
Tallinn
, behind
Alexey Shirov
and ahead of
Anatoly Karpov
and
Boris Gelfand
. The same year, he took the silver medal at the 5th Amplico AIG Life International Chess Tournament - European
Rapid
Championship,
[3]
behind
Zoltan Gyimesi
.
[4]
In 2006, Malaniuk finished clear winner at the
Ajaccio
Open Rapid event, ahead of a large group of strong grandmasters, including
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
,
Vadim Milov
,
Evgeny Bareev
,
Alexander Motylev
,
Victor Bologan
,
Zoltan Almasi
,
Ilya Smirin
,
Ivan Sokolov
,
Arkadij Naiditsch
,
Krishnan Sasikiran
and
Loek van Wely
.
Malaniuk had also been a strong player at standard time limits, winning many national and international tournaments, including
Minsk
1985,
Kostroma
1985 (USSR Championship semi-final),
Lvov
1986 and
Frunze
1987 on the road to securing his Grandmaster title (awarded in 1987). There were further victories recorded at
Forli
in 1990 and 1992,
Porto San Giorgio
1994, Minsk 1997
Krasnodar
2001,
Arkhangelsk
2002, Krasnodar 2002,
Koszalin
2002,
Kolobrzeg
2003,
Krakow
2003 and
Mielno
2006. Notable runner-up performances include
Baku
1983, Tallinn 1987, Lvov 1988,
?widnica
2001 and Krakow 2004.
Chess opening theory
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Malaniuk has been credited with an important contribution to
chess opening
theory. Along with
Sergey Dolmatov
,
Mikhail Gurevich
and
Evgeny Bareev
, his faithful adherence to the Leningrad
Dutch Defence
(described as a hybrid of the Dutch and the
King's Indian
) helped shape a dynamic new approach to the system in the 1980s and this led to a dramatic resurgence of interest. That it affords black the opportunity to unbalance the position and fight for the full point is probably its main attraction. The system has since become a popular choice for players at all levels, following the publication of a number of books and theoretical guides. His own book on the opening (co-authored with Petr Marusenko) was published by Chess Stars in 2014.
In a more minor capacity, he and
Vladimir Akopian
are noted for their attempts at reviving the
Spielmann
Variation (4.Qb3) of the
Nimzo-Indian Defence
, but have not met with any real success.
Personal life
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]
In 2001, Russian player and chess journalist Evgeny Atarov reported that Malaniuk was severely ill and was undergoing a number of surgical operations, the funding of which had become a cause for concern.
[5]
Thankfully, Malaniuk got better and was able to resume his chess activities, even though his ailing health was making it difficult for him to play consistently.
Sample game
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Polugaevsky-Malaniuk, USSR Ch. 1983, Leningrad Dutch, 0-1
Black ventures forward on the kingside while carefully neutralising white's central threat.
References
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External links
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