IM (1980) and GM (1984) Sergey Viktorovich Kudrin.
Background
A qualified mathematician (1), Sergey Kudrin is a popular and respected US Grandmaster who was born in Novosibirsk, the administrative center of Siberia in what was then the USSR. Since he arrived in the USA in 1978 (1), he has been one of the country's leading and most active players, participating in local, regional and national contests wherever they have been held. His first participation in a US tournament was the 1979 Marshall Open held in March of that year. He gained both his IM and GM titles after he arrived in the USA, and contested the World Championship at the 1999 and 2004 Knockout Tournaments.
Tournaments
Kudrin has built an impressive tournament record in the Americas and Europe, having played mainly in local, regional and national opens, and round robin invitational tournaments up to an including category 10 events. Some of the highlights of his career since 1980 are as follows:
• =2nd at Manchester in 1981 and 1982;
• =1st in Manchester in 1982;
• =1st at the Category 10 New York Tournament in 1983 behind Dmitry Gurevich and Miguel Quinteros
• =1st alongside Istvan Csom in the category 9 Politiken Cup held in Copenhagen in 1983;
• =1st at the category 2 Beer-Sheba Round Robin Tournament in 1984 alongside Viktor Korchnoi and ahead of Wolfgang Unzicker
• 2nd at the category 7 Valjevo Tournament in 1984 behind Vladimir Raicevic
• =2nd at the category 8 Bor Tournament in 1984 behind Slobodan Martinovic
• 1st in the United States Open Championship in 1984 and 2007;
• =1st at Torremolinos 1985;
• =1st at New York in 1985;
• =1st at the Midwest Masters Open in Chicago in 1986 and 1987;
• =2nd at the strong New York Open in 1987, behind Andras Adorjan, but ahead of players like Boris Spassky and Lajos Portisch
• =3rd at the category 10 Marseille event in 1987;
• =2nd at the category 8 Bern Tournament in 1988 behind Miso Cebalo
• =1st at the category 10 London NWYM in 1988 alongside Michael Adams and David Norwood
• =1st at the category 9 Salamanca Tournament in Brazil in 1989 alongside Manuel Rivas Pastor and Tamaz Giorgadze
• 1st at the Las Palmas Open in 1989;
• 1st at the Chania Open in Greece in 1995;
• =1st at the category 3 Mermaid Beach round robin tournament in 1997 alongside William John Donaldson
• =1st at the 3rd Foxwoods Open in 2001;
• 1st at the North East Winter Getaway in 2002;
• =1st at the 5th Foxwoods Open in 2003;
• 1st at the 2nd Annual Fairfield County Open in 2008;
• in 2008 and 2009, he finished runner-up to Aleksandr Lenderman in the USCF Grand Prix standings;
• =1st 41st Annual National Chess Congress in 2010;
• =1st at the Philadelphia Open in 2010;
• 1st at the 5th Annual Fairfield County Open in 2008 and 2011;
• 1st at the 2012 Manhattan Open;
• =1st at the 2013 US Senior Championship;
• 1st at the 2013 Northeast Open in Connecticut;
• =1st at the 31st Annual Sands Regency Reno - Western States Open, played in Reno, Nevada in October 2013;
• 1st at the 32nd Annual Empire City Open 2013 in New York City;
• =1st at the 13th Annual Manhattan Open 2014 in July; and
• 1st at the 44th Annual Continental Open 2014 held in Sturbridge, USA in August 2014.
Championships
<National> Kudrin has been participating in the US Championship since at least 1983. His 3rd place at the 1998 US Championship in Denver Colorado earned him a spot in the 1999 World Championship Knockout Tournament. His 4th place at the US Championship in 2004 qualified him for the World Cup 2005. He also won third place in the US Championship (2008) in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
<World> Kudrin earned his qualification into the FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (1999) when he won the playoff for 3rd in the 1998 US Championship (which doubled as Zonal 2.1) against Yasser Seirawan and Roman Dzindzichashvili. There he met Ivan Sokolov in the first round, losing by 1.5-0.5. Seeded directly into the 2nd round of the FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2004) in Tripoli, Kudrin was no more fortunate than in 1999, meeting Hichem Hamdouchi and losing by 4-3 in the Armageddon blitz tiebreaker. At the World Cup (2005), his run of luck continued when he met Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov in round 1, again losing in the blitz tiebreaker. At the World Cup (2007), he again lost in the first round this time to Francisco Vallejo Pons.
Olympiads
In 1985, Kudrin played board 2 for the USA at the U26 Olympiad, winning team silver. He also represented the USA in the Olympiads of 1988 and 1994, helping his team to 4th place and 7th place respectively.
Ratings and Rankings
Kudrin was ranked in the world's top 100 for extended periods of time between 1983 and 1993. In July 1984, he was rated 2550 and reached his peak world ranking of #32. He reached his peak rating of 2580 in July 1992 when he was ranked #67 in the world. (2)
References and Sources
(1) Profile: http://www.edenhell.net/en/persons/...; (2) http://translate.googleusercontent....; Wikipedia article: Sergey Kudrin; http://rarplayer.appspot.com/wiki/S... (Polish)
Kibitzing
