Andrei Sokolov

Andrei Sokolov
Andrei Sokolov, 2008
Full name	Andrei Yurievich Sokolov
Country	Soviet Union France Russia
Born	(1963-03-20) 20 March 1963 (age 54) Vorkuta, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2510 (April 2017)
Peak rating	2645 (January 1987)

Andrei Yurievich Sokolov (Russian: Андрей Юрьевич Соколов; born 20 March 1963, in Vorkuta, Komi ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union) is a chess Grandmaster of Russian origin, now living in France. He was one of the leading players in the world in the late 1980s.

He learned the game from his father Yuri, a Soviet Army officer and Candidate Master. At just 6 years of age, inspiration arrived in the form of a book of Alekhine's games. At age 12, he attended one of the many chess schools that existed in and around Moscow and he occasionally frequented the legendary Pioneer Palace. Some major preparation followed in the years 1975–1982, mainly under the tutelage of renowned coach, Vladimir Yurkov.

Alexei Suetin attended the same sports club (Trud) and as senior Moscow coach, observed the youngster's progress closely. Sokolov won the minor championship of Moscow in 1981, but fared less well in the major Open Championship a short while later. He had yet to learn the subtleties of positional play, but already there was much to admire. Suetin described him as "a practical-minded chess player ... most concentrated, deprived of any impulsiveness and very persistent in attaining his aims."

By 1982, the groundwork was paying off as he went on to win the Junior World Chess Championship, held in Copenhagen. A strong entry had included Joel Benjamin, Ivan Morovic, Nigel Short and Niaz Murshed. At this time Sokolov was an International Master with an Elo rating of 2450. At that time FIDE automatically awarded the International Master title to the winner of the Junior Championship. (Later the rule would be changed to make the Junior Champion a grandmaster.) His Grandmaster status was achieved in 1984, a year of outstanding achievement for the 21-year-old as he rocked the chess world by winning the Championship of the Soviet Union at his first attempt. Impressive was his penultimate round effort against ex-champion Beliavsky who, playing white, quickly mounted a ferocious attack against Black's king position. It was however already a quality of Sokolov that he remain ice-cool under pressure. He not only repelled the attack, but launched a counter-offensive of his own and won a crucial game. It was also a year that saw him finish a creditable second at the strong Novi Sad tournament and advance his Elo rating up to 2550.