GM Dmitry Andreikin
Bio
Dmitry Andreikin is a Russian super GM and a two-time Russian champion. He had a highly successful early career and became a GM at age 17. Andreikin’s top success, as of 2020, came at the 2013 World Cup where he was a finalist and qualified as a candidate for the world championship.
A top-30 player in standard chess, he is even better at blitz. Andreikin plays regularly on Chess.com (as @FairChess_on_YouTube). On June 23, 2020, he won the fourth Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix.
Early Life And Career
Andreikin was born in 1990 in the Russian city of Ryazan, southeast of Moscow on the Oka River.
In 1999, he won the under-10 division in both the World and Russian Youth Championships. At the 1999 World event, he defeated fellow future GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (who is eight months younger than Andreikin).
Andreikin was runner-up in the same Youth Championship division in 2000, and by 2001 he was a FIDE master with a rating above 2200. His IM title followed in 2003 as his rating climbed beyond 2400. In 2004, he nearly won the under-14 division of the World Youth Championships, losing on tiebreak to then-IM GM Ildar Khairullin.
In 2004 Andreikin also played in the qualifier for the Russian Championship. Although he did not end up qualifying, he did post a winning 5/9 score despite still only being an IM. Andreikin defeated GM Evgeny Gleizerov and drew his other eight contests.
Grandmaster
Andreikin reached his first GM norm in 2005 with a 6/10 score at the European Individual Championship. Despite reaching a 2495 rating in April 2005, however, he did not reach the coveted 2500 mark until July 2006. His second norm came with a 5.5/9 at the 2006 Aeroflot Open in February. That year, still only 16, he also played in the World Junior Championship for the first time, scoring 7.5/13. Finally, at the 2007 Moscow Open, Andreikin reached his third GM norm and obtained the title.
Now a GM, Andreikin was one of the world's 10 best junior players in 2009-10, winning the Russian Junior Championship in both years and the World Junior Championship in 2010.
Russian Champion and World Candidate
Andreikin won his first of two Russian chess championships in 2012, the same year he eclipsed the 2700 rating. With only 11 decisive games out of 45, the main portion of the event produced a six-way tie, including Andreikin, who defeated GMs Vladimir Potkin and Sanan Sjugirov but dropped his game against GM Alexander Grischuk. But Andreikin tore through the rapid tiebreak, winning three of his five games to beat GM Sergey Karjakin by a half-point.
The following year, Andreikin had a hugely successful run at the 2013 World Cup. After defeating three lower-seeded opponents in the first three rounds, the 21st-seeded Andreikin then scored his first upset of the event by beating number-five Karjakin in round four. From there, Andreikin defeated reigning World Cup winner GM Peter Svidler and GM Evgeny Tomashevsky.
Although Andreikin fell to GM Vladimir Kramnik in the final, his performance earned him a spot in the 2014 Candidates Tournament. Andreikin was the lowest-rated player in the tournament, but he scored 7/14 to tie for third, with wins over GMs Levon Aronian and Veselin Topalov counterbalanced by defeats to Svidler and GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Andreikin has yet to reappear at the Candidates as of 2020, but established himself as a super GM with his 2012-14 performance, first reaching 2700 and the top of Russia’s supremely difficult chess scene before nearly winning the World Cup and then performing very well at the Candidates.
Recent Years
Since then, Andreikin has consistently been rated 2700 while adding to his list of successes. He won his second Russian Championship in 2018. With three wins and no losses in 11 games of the main event, Andreikin advanced to another rapid playoff, but this was a much simpler two-player affair against a fellow GM Dmitry, Dmitry Jakovenko. Andreikin won with white and drew with black to win the title.
Andreikin has also become a strong blitz player in recent years. His 2782 blitz rating in September 2020 ranked 12th in the world, 12 points ahead of 13th place but just six points shy of being in the top eight. At the 2019 World Blitz Championship, Andreikin was the only player to defeat world champion and eventual tournament victor, GM Magnus Carlsen.
Andreikin was on the Russian team at the 2020 FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup, scoring 2.5/4. One of the top Russian players of the 2010s, Andreikin remains at the top of his game and looks to continue his success for the next decade or more.
