IM (1995); GM (1997); Czech Champion (1998); Slovak Champion (2002 & 2007).
Preamble
Sergei Mushegovic Movsesian (born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, USSR) is a Grandmaster – since 1997 - of Armenian descent, a citizen of Slovakia and used to play for the Czech republic and for Slovakia before resuming playing for Armenia in 2011.
Championships:
<Junior> Movsesian came 3rd in the World Junior Championship of 1997
<National> He won the Czech Championship in 1998, the Slovakian Championship in 2002 and 2007.
<Continental> He was =2nd at the European Individual Championship (2008).
<World> Movsesian was seeded directly into the second round of the FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (1999) in Las Vegas, where he defeated Goran Dizdar, Peter Leko , and Alexei Fedorov in the preliminary rounds before losing in the quarter final to Vladimir Akopian. In the FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2000) held in New Delhi, he was again seeded directly into round 2 where he defeated Viorel Iordachescu before losing to Jaan Ehlvest in round 3. He qualified for the FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2001/02) in Moscow, defeating Vadim Malakhatko in round one before losing to Zurab Azmaiparashvili in round 2. In FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2004) in Tripoli, he beat Konstantin Landa and Peter Acs , before being defeated by Veselin Topalov in round 3.
The World Cup (2005) and World Cup (2009) saw Movsesian bowing out in the first round to Mark Paragua and Yu Yangyi respectively, while the World Cup (2011) saw him defeat Women's World Champion Yifan Hou in the first round, before losing to Hungarian GM Judit Polgar. He finished with 7.5/11 in the European Individual Championship (2013), qualifying for the World Cup (2013), where he lost to Jon Ludvig Hammer in the first round match.
<Rapid> In July 2013, Movsesian won the Czech Open 2013 with 7.5/9.
Standard Tournaments:
Movsesian’s early successes include 1st at Pardubice in 1995, Hamburg 1997, and Groningen 1998. He was a quarter finalist in the 1st FIDE World Cup (before it became part of the World Championship cycle), won Sarajevo outright in 2002 with 6/9 and in 2007 at the 37th Bosna Chess Tournament (2007) with 6.5/9. He came second in the 14th International GM Tournament at Salona in Croatia in 2006 behind Vladimir Malakhov, won the Czech Coal Carlsbad Tournament (2007) in Karlovy Vary with 4.5/7 on count back against co-leader Ruslan Ponomariov and also won the Mikhail Chigorin Memorial in Saint Petersburg in 2007 on countback from Alexei Gubajdullin. Other successes include winning Corus Group B (2008) with 9.5/13, one point ahead of Nigel Short and Etienne Bacrot ,
finishing =1st at the Gibraltar Masters with 7.5/10 and in
January 2011 came =3rd at the category 18 Reggio Emilia (2010) with 5/9 (+1 -0 =8) behind the co=leaders Francisco Vallejo Pons and Vugar Gashimov who finished with 6/9. He scored 7/10 (+5 -1 =4) at the Tradewise Gibraltar (2012), placing =6th. In August 2012, he won the Master Tournament in the Biel Chess Festival (2012) and in January 2013, he placed =3rd place behind Richard Rapport and Arkadij Naiditsch with 8.5/13 at the Tata Steel Group B (2013).
Movsesian started 2014 with a solid par-for-rating 7/10 (+5 -1 =4) at the Tradewise Gibraltar (2014), placing =10th. In November 2014, he scored 6/9, placing =7th at the Qatar Masters (2014). He also scored 7/10 at the Reykjavik Open (2015). His score of 6.5/9 at Teplice in Czechia in June 2014 earned him shared 5th place. He was second behind Viktor Laznicka at the 26th Czech Open 2015 held in July and August 2015.
Team competitions:
Despite his impressive results in classical tournaments and in age, national, continental championships and world championship cycles, Movsesian’s forte is in team competition.
<Olympiads> He represented the Czech Republic at the Olympiads of 1998 and 2000 on boards 3 and 1 respectively, and then went on to represent Slovakia on board 1 in the Olympiads of 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2010 before returning to his native Armenia to represent that country on board 2 at the 40th Istanbul Olympiad (2012) in Istanbul. There, despite a generally sub-standard performance, he came through to win the critical game against Hungarian board 2 Zoltan Almasi in the last round to secure team gold for Armenia. He played board 3 for Armenia in the Tromso Olympiad (2014).
<National Team Events> He has played in the European Team Championships four times: twice for the Czech republic in 1997 and 1999, and twice for Armenia in European Team Championship (2011) and the European Team Championship (2013). He participated for the first time in the World Chess Team Championship (2011) that were held in Ningbo in China in July due to Armenia being nominated by the FIDE President as the tenth team to participate. (3) Playing on board 2, he and his team mates took full advantage of the opportunity to win team gold, while Movsesian won bronze for his efforts on the second board, scoring 6/9 with a TPR of 2824. He played board 2 for Armenia at the FIDE World Team Championship (2013) and board 3 for that country in the FIDE World Team Championship (2015), where he won team bronze.
<European Club Cup> Movsesian has participated in the ECC since 2000 (apart from 2005). He played for ŠK Bosna Sarajevo in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2008 during which time he won 2 team golds, a team silver, an individual gold, two individual silvers and an individual bronze. He’s also played for Corpora Lipovec (2003), ŠK Pardubice (2006), and OSG Baden-Baden (2009). He has been a member of the Sankt Petersburg team from 2010 to 2014, winning team gold and team silver in 2011 and 2013 respectively and individual bronze for board 4 in 2013. His overall result for the period from 2000-2014 was +40 =45 -8 for a 67.2% result.
<National Leagues> The ultimate mobile team player, Movsesian has played in the national club championships of Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, French, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, Iceland, Russia, Slovakia and Spain.
With the exception of 2007, he has played in the Russian Premier League since 2006 on each occasion with the team Sankt Petersburg. During this time he has won team gold (2013); individual gold (2010 & 2012); team silver (2010 & 2012); individual silver (2008); team bronze (2011 & 2014); and individual bronze (2006 & 2013).
With the exception of 2009, Movsesian has played in the Czech Extraliga every year since 1996 inclusive. In 1996, he played with the ŠK Sokol Kolín club, and then moved to the ŠK Rapid Pardubice team, for whom he has played since. His team medal tally in 18 years of playing in the Extraliga has been 4 gold 4 silver and 1 bronze. His individual medal tally is not known at this stage. (1)
He played with the powerful ŠK Bosna Sarajevo in Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the periods from 2002-2005 and 2007-2008, winning 5 gold and 1 silver medal, and at least one individual gold, one individual silver and two individual bronzes. (2)
Matches
In 2003, he played and won a 6 game match in Iceland against (now) 11 times Iceland Champion Hannes Hlifar Stefansson by 4.5-1.5. In June 2011 he played another six game match, this time with David Navara, this time losing by 2.5-3.5.
Rapid and Blitz
Movsesian scored 9/15, 2 points from the lead, at the World Rapid Championship (2014). He won the 26th Czech Rapid (2015) that was staged the day after the Czech Open 2015 wound up.
Other
He is married to WGM Petra Krupkova.
Ratings and rankings
Movsesian's peak rating was 2751 in January 2009 when he was ranked #10 in the world, that being his peak ranking to date.
Sources and references
Live rating: http://www.2700chess.com/; Wikipedia article: Sergei Movsesian
(1) http://www.olimpbase.org/playerscz/...; (2) http://www.olimpbase.org/playersba/...; and
(3) http://www.fide.com/images/stories/...
Kibitzing
