Viktor Nikolayevich Gavrikov was awarded the GM title in 1984 when he also entered the ranks of the world's top 100 players. He remained in top 100 for thirteen years until July 1997 and was still #6 overall in Lithuania at the time of his death.

Championships

<Age> Gavrikov was equal second to Alexander Nikolayevich Panchenko at the 1978 Soviet U26 Championship and won the same event with a round to spare in 1983. (1)

<National> He first competed in the qualifiers for the Soviet championship in 1978, making it to the semi final tournament in that year. A regular competitor in this arena, he became USSR champion in 1985 (and therefore Zonal Champion qualifying for the Interzonal, (2) sharing first place with Mikhail Gurevich and Alexander Chernin) (3), and finished equal second in the 1986 event behind Vitaly Tseshkovsky. Gavrikov was Lithuanian champion in 1978 (=Gintautas Albertas Piesina) and Swiss champion in 1996.

<World> His best result in the World Championship cycle was equal fourth place in the Tunis Interzonal in 1985, narrowly missing qualification for the Montpellier Candidates (1985). (4)

Tournaments

Gavrikov's best results included winning the Goglidze memorial tournament (staged in Tbilisi) in 1983 with a couple of rounds to spare (5) and the Nałęczów tournament in 1984 with a round to spare. (6) He also won at Biel in 1990 and 1994 (ahead of Rafael Vaganian in the latter). Gavrikov won the 2nd Principe de Asturias rapid in 1992, with 9.5/11. He was outright second behind Konstantin Rufovich Sakaev at the Paul Keres Memorial held in Tallinn in January 2001 and equal first alongside Sergey Leonidovich Kalinitschew at the Nibelungen Open held in Worms, Germany in September/October 2004.

Team

<Leagues> Gavrikov first played top level team chess for the Rural Societies team which won team bronze in the 1976 Soviet Team Cup; he subsequently played for the same team in 1978, 1980 and 1982. He represented the Moldavan SSR at the Soviet Spartakiad ("Soviet Olympiad") of 1979 and the Lithuanian SSR at the Spartakiad of 1983. (7) He played for CSHK-Moscow in the USSR Team Championship of 1990. (8)

He also played in the Estonian Club Cups of 2001 & 2002, the Swiss Leagues of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 & 2006, both the Bundesliga and the Bundesliga East in 2004-2005, the Oberliga Ost in 2005 & 2006, and the East Bundesliga in 2007, 2008 and 2009. His last rated game was a draw in round nine of the 2009 East Bundesliga against Wilfrid Wernert.

Ratings and Rankings

Gavrikov's peak rating was 2605 in July 1996 (when he was ranked world #55), and his peak ranking was world #19 in the latter half of 1985 when he was rated 2570. (9)

Sources and References

<Reference>

Wikipedia article: Viktor Gavrikov

<Sources>

(1) http://www.365chess.com/tournaments... (2) http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/zon... ; (3) [rusbase-1] (4) http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/858... (5) http://www.365chess.com/tournaments... (6) http://www.365chess.com/tournaments... (7) [rusbase-2] (8) [rusbase-3] (9) http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/player...