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Snowdrops and Oldhands - Vršanská uhelná chess match 2013
GM Boris Gulko (2543)
Boris Franzevich Gulko (born February 9, 1947) is the only international grandmaster, who won both the USSR and USA championship titles. His life story is very interesting. Boris was born in East Germany as a son of a soldier of the Red Army. Gulko´s family returned to the Soviet Union early. Boris became a grandmaster and in 1977 won the USSR championship, the strongest tournament around the world that time.Then he asked to be allowed to emigrate to Israel, but awaited rejection and persecution followed instead. Communist country prohibits him to play in top-level chess competitions until the period of „glasnost” in eighties. In 1986 Boris is finally allowed to immigrate and he settled in United States, where he won the country championship twice (1994 and 1999).
In 2004 he qualified to the World chess championship held in Libya. Son of dictator Caddafi announced though, that “Libya will not invite the Zionist enemies to this championship.“
He participated in Snowdrops vs. Oldhands in 2011, when he gained 5 points out of 8 games.
GM Borislav Ivkov (2408)
Legend of Yugoslav and Serbian chess, Borislav Ivkov, was born on 12th November 1933 in Belgrade. He celebrated his 80th birthday recently and he will be the oldest participant in Snowdrops and Oldhands match.
In 1951 he became the first World junior champion in history. He participated in the Candidates Tournament in 1964, where he dropped from the 1st round with Bent Larsen. Then he battled into the Interzonal Tournament for four times (1967 Sousse, 1970 Palma de Mallorca, 1973 Petrópolis, 1979 Rio de Janeiro). He also palyed in the first match USSR vs. World in 1970. He was defeated by Paul Keres on 10th chessboard 1 : 3. In years 1956-1980 he represented Yugoslavia in twelve chess olympiades and gained 15 medals there (5 individual, 10 for team), thereby he became the most successful unsoviet chess Olympian in history.
He battled the victorious laurels in many strong cast tournaments. For all of them we can name first places in Mar del Plata 1955, Beverwijk 1961, Amsterdam 1974 or Moscow 1999.
GM Iossif Dorfman (2580)
In times of famous matches Karpov – Kasparov, GM Dorfman was the second to the second-named. As a coach he became famous for several times, e.g. when he led Etienne Bacrot to GM title.
Iossif Dorfman was born on the 1th May 1952 in Ukraine. He won several international tournaments (e.g. Warsaw 1983, Lviv 1984 or Moscow 1985) and most importantly the USSR Championship (in 1977 together with Boris Gulko).
He's the author of two excellent textbooks for intermediate club players – The Method in Chess and The Critical Moment.
GM Wolfgang Uhlmann (2334)
He was born on 29th March 1935 in Germany. He acquires the GM title in his 21 years. He was a multiple champion of the German Democratic Republic. He represented his country on eleven chess Olympics, except the last one he played always on the first board. In 1964 he was the best player of the Olympiad and two years later he was bronze in the individual evaluation. He won or shared the first place in a number of prestigious tournaments, such as Erfurt 1955, Hastings 1958/59, in 1965/66 he shared first place with Boris Spassky. Uhlmann played in Marianske Lazne the famous interzonal tournament in 1961 and he participated in the match of Snowdrops versus Oldhands at the same place in 2008 and in 2010.
In 2012 GM Uhlmann wasn't missing in Poděbrady in fifth sequel of contest of rough Oldhands towards tender Snowdrops, where with his great finish 2,5/3 he contributed to overall win of Oldhands in ratio 17-15.
WGM Alina Kashlinskaya (2422)
Alina Kashlinskaya, born on 28th of October 1993 in Moscow, became the youngest Woman Grandmaster in Europe when she was only 15 years old. This year, she became a Woman Champion of Russia in category to 21 years and she also gained the brozne medal on World Championship of juniors in Turkish Kocaeli. In rating, she is the fifth best woman junior of the planet, at the moment- Alina has already played in Czech republic, on GM tournament in Mariánské Lázně in 2009, where she beated Pavel Šimáček in a very nice game. She will be playing for Snowdrops for the second time. Last year, she racked up the scalps of Oldhands GM Hort and GM Romanišin. Except chess, she composes poems and songs likewise (see kashlinskaya.ru).
IM Maria Muzyčuk (2491)
Mariya Muzychuk was born on 21 September 1992 in Ukraine. She made her mark in high level Girls U10 competitions: in 2001, she won the Championship of Ukraine, and in the same year was the third in the European Championship and the second in the World Championship. She gained a number of precious metals in the categories of Girls U14 and U16. In 2007 she gained Woman Grandmaster title and a year later the title of International Master. In 2008 she took second place in the World Championship among Girls U20 in Gaziantep. Her actual rating is 2491. Last year, she became a Woman Champion of Ukraine, beating Kateryna Lahno and Anna Ushenina, who became a Women's World Champion not long after this tournament. On the same Women's World Championship, Mariya ended the same as in 2010 just before the quarterfinals. Mariya played for Snowdrops in 2011 and she supported her team with gain of 5/8 (2 wins, 6 ties, without any lost!). She has two years older sister Anna (rating 2566), who plays for Slovenia.
GM Viktorija Cmilyte (2506)
She was born on 6th August 1983. Lithuanian grandmaster is a double champion of her country. First successes she recorded in 1993 on the Junior European Championship in the category of girls under 10 years, where she won a gold medal. Two years later in Verdun she defended the gold and the same metal she added on the Junior World Championship in Szeged, Hungary. She has represented Lithuania on the chess Olympiads six times, mostly on the first board. Although the team ended with the losers, Cmilyte twice managed to win the individual evaluation of the first chessboards. Currently she is the 17th player of the FIDE women's ranking. She participated in Snowdrops and Oldhands match in 2008 a 2010 and in both cases she belonged to the support of the team. Cmilyte has got two children, she was the wife of GM Alexei Shirov.
WGM Anastasia Zjazjulkina (2350)
Currently the strongest Belarus woman chess player and the fourth woman player of the world under 18 years was born on 6th October 1995 in Minsk. She is two-times Woman World Champion under 16 years and Woman European Champion under 18 years from Budva this year. IN 2010 and 2012 she gained home women's Belarus title. She already managed to represent Belarus on chess Olympiade fot two times (2010, 2012). She achieved the best rating in September 2012 – 2376 elo points. She obtained the title WFM already in 2009, a year later WIM, she's been a grandmaster (WGM) since 2012.