IM (2001); GM (2005). U18 Russian Champion (2001); European Champion (2009); Russian Champion (2015).
Background
Evgeny Yurievich Tomashevsky (Russian: Евгений Томашевский) was born in Saratov, a port on the Volga River in the Saratov Oblast.
Championships
<Youth> Tomashevsky competed in numerous youth championships from an early age, his most notable achievements being a victory at the 1997 Russian U10 Championship, 5th in the U10 World Championship in 1997, 2nd in the 1999 Russian U12 Championship, =3rd in the Russian U14 Championship in 2000, and a victory in the Russian U18 Championship in 2001. In 2004 he was runner-up in the U18 World Youth Chess Championship and in 2005 he placed =3rd at the World U18 Championship.
<National> Tomashevsky first competed in the Russian Championship in 2001 at the age of 16 and scored a solid 4/9 in his first outing. He has competed in every Russian Higher League Championship qualifier for the Russian Superfinal since 2005, barring 2012, qualifying for the Superfinals in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2015 and 2016. His best results in the Higher League Championships were =1st in Russian Championship Higher League (2007) and outright 1st in the 62nd Russian Championship Higher League (2009). His best results in the Superfinals were 3rd in the Russian Superfinals (2007), 1st in the Russian Superfinals (2015) and =2nd at the Russian Superfinals (2016).
<Continental> Tomashevsky's consistency in the supremely difficult Russian championships extended to his results in the European Championships. At the European Individual Championship (2007), he scored an impressive 7.5/11, half point from the lead, qualifying for the World Cup 2007. The European Individual Championship (2008) was less successful but still solid with 6/11, but he then built on his experience to win the 10th European Individual Championship (2009) on tie-breaks after scoring 8/11, his result also qualifying him for the World Cup 2009. He repeated his superb scoring performance at the European Individual Championship (2010) with 8/11 (although not winning the event on this occasion), and thereby qualified for the World Cup (2011). He scored a modest 7/11 at the European Individual Championship (2013) and an even more modest 6.5/11 at the European Individual Championship (2014). His 7.5/11 at the European Individual Chess Championship (2017) may have qualified him for the World Cup in 2017 had he not all ready qualified via his rating.
<World> At the World Chess Cup (2007), Tomashevsky defeated Azeri GM Rauf Mamedov and Bangladeshi GM Enamul Hossain in the early rounds, but was eliminated in the third round when he lost to former FIDE World Champion, Ukrainian GM Ruslan Ponomariov. At the World Cup (2009), he beat veteran Russian-American GM Alexander Vladimirovich Ivanov and former FIDE World Champion, Russian GM Alexander Khalifman in the first two rounds, again bowing out in the third round, this time to former World Championship Challenger and (then) Spanish GM Alexey Shirov. In the World Cup (2011), he defeated Australian GM Zhao Zong-Yuan and countryman GM Dmitry Andreikin, before falling in the third round for the third time in three World Cups, this time to Azeri GM Vugar Gashimov. Having qualified via his rating to play in the World Cup (2013), he defeated Alejandro Ramirez Alvarez in the 1st round Armageddon tiebreaker, Filipino prodigy, GM Wesley So in the 2nd round by 1.5-0.5, top seeded GM and former Candidate Levon Aronian of Armenia in the third round, compatriot GM Alexander Morozevich in a gruelling marathon tiebreaker in the Round of 16 (round 4), and former World Championship Challenger and Candidate US GM Gata Kamsky in the quarter final (round 5). However, he lost to his friend and compatriot, GM Dmitry Andreikin, in the tiebreaker of the semi-final (round 6) and was eliminated. His place in the semi-final assured his qualification into the World Cup 2015, and also qualified him to play in the 2104-2015 Grand Prix series.
In the first leg of the Grand Prix series 2014-2015, the FIDE Grand Prix Baku (2014), Tomashevsky scored 6/11 to place 3rd-7th, earning 82 Grand Prix points. He skipped the event in Tashkent, playing in FIDE Grand Prix Tbilisi (2015), where he placed outright first with a round to spare, scoring 8/11 (+5 =6) and the maximum 170 GP points. With one leg to be played in Khanty-Mansiysk in May 2015, he now tops the Grand Prix 2014-15 leader board with with 252 point and was one of the three favorites to win one of the top two qualifying placements for the Candidates Tournament of 2016, the others being Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. Unfortunately, after a strong start, his form lapsed at the final leg at FIDE Grand Prix Khanty-Mansiysk (2015), and he finished 4th in the series, allowing the other two favorites to scoop the pool. Nevertheless, he moved on to compete in the World Cup (2015) and he defeated Ziaur Rahman and Ngoc Truongson Nguyen in the first two rounds but lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the second set of third round tiebreakers (the 10+10 games) to be eliminated from the tournament. Tomashevsky also participated in the 2017 Grand Prix series but was unsuccessful in progressing to the Candidates. He did however compete in the World Cup (2017) after qualifying through rating although he may have otherwise qualified via his 7.5/11 results in the European Individual Chess Championship (2017), but was eliminated in the second round by Francisco Vallejo Pons.
Standard Tournaments
Tomashevsky’s most notable results include:
- =1st at the Saratov GM International in 2004 alongside Nurlan Ibraev
- 2nd at the GM International in Seprukhov 2004;
- =1st at the 2005 Saratov Region Championship.Open;
- =2nd at the Russian Student Championship 2005, half a point behind Igor Lysyj
- =2nd at the Czech Pardubice Open 2006;
- =1st with Emil Davidovich Sutovsky and Alexander Moiseenko at the round robin GM Tournament in Saratov in 2006;
- 2nd in the 6th Aeroflot Festival (2007)
- =1st at the 7. N.K.Aratovsky Memorial Open in 2007;
- =3rd at the Aeroflot Open (2008) with 6/9, half a point behind Etienne Bacrot and Moiseenko;
- =1st with Nikita Vitiugov and Le Quang Liem in the Aeroflot Open (2011)
- 2nd at the category 19 Governor's Cup (2011), behind Morozevich; and
- =7th with 6/9 at the powerful Qatar Masters (2014)
Team Events
<National> Tomashevsky first played for a national team in 2003, when he played board 3 for Russia in the U16 Olympiad. He played board 4 for Russia 2 at the Chess Olympiad (2010), and for Russia at the Chess Olympiad (2012) in Istanbul (winning team silver) and in the Chess Olympiad (2016), this time winning team bronze. His game tally for the Olympiads was 11.5/20 (+5 =13 -2). He was a member of the Russian team in the 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2012 summit matches against China and a member of the gold-medal-winning Russian team at the World Team Chess Championship 2009 in Bursa. He played on the reserve for the silver-medal winning Russian team at the 17th European Team Championship (2009) and for the bronze-medal winning Russian team at the European Team Championship (2013). He played board 3 for Russia at the FIDE World Team Championship (2015), winning individual silver.
<Continental and National Leagues> Tomashevsky has played for Ekonomist SGSEU Saratov in the European Club Cup since 2007, winning an individual silver medal for board one in 2011, and helping his team to win gold medals in 2009 and 2010. He first played in the Russian League in 2002 for GShK Saratov. Since 2005, he has played with Ekonomist SGSEU Saratov, helping it to a bronze medal in 2010, and scoring individual gold medals in 2005 and 2009 on boards 6 and 3 respectively, and an individual silver for board 6 in 2007. However, in 2014 he switched to Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk, and playing on board 2, helped his team to fifth place. In 2016, shifting team membership once more, he played board three for Siberia Novosibirsk in the Russian Premier League, winning team bronze and individual gold. He also played with Siberia Novosibirsk in the European Club Cup (2016), the team placing sixth; he also also placed sixth on board four.
He also played in the Greek League in 2009 and in the Macedonian Team Championship of 2013.
<City> Representing the City of Saratov, he helped his team to the quarter finals of the World Cities Team Championship (2012).
Rapid/blitz
Tomashevsky is a formidable blitz player as evidenced by his second placement at the powerful IMSA Elite Mind Games (Blitz) (2016) with 18.5/30. He also placed equal second in the 2017 Russian Men's Rapid Championship staged in Sochi in September 2017. In April 2018, he won the Blitz Tournament to celebrate 150 years since the birth of Emanuel Lasker with 14/16 (+13 =2 -1).
Other
Tomashevsky is nicknamed "Professor" among his colleagues. He was one of Boris Gelfand ‘s seconds at the Anand - Gelfand World Chess Championship (2012). He is married to Lidia Tomashevskaya.
Rating and Rankings
Tomashevsky's highest rating to date was 2758 in September 2015 when he was ranked #13, which is also his highest world ranking to date.
He entered the top 100 in January 2007 while still a Junior.
References
Live rating list: http://www.2700chess.com/; Wikipedia article: Evgeny Tomashevsky
Kibitzing
