Yuri Balashov
| Yuri Balashov | |
|---|---|
Yuri Balashov in 1973
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| Full name | Yuri Sergeyevich Balashov |
| Country |
 Soviet Union →  Russia
|
| Born |
12 March 1949 Shadrinsk, Kurgan Oblast, RSFSR, USSR |
| Title | Grandmaster (1973) |
| FIDE rating | 2404 (April 2016) |
| Peak rating | 2600 (January 1979) |
Yuri Sergeyevich Balashov (Russian: Юрий Серге́евич Балашов; born 12 March 1949 in Shadrinsk) is a Russian chess grandmaster.
He was awarded the grandmaster title in 1973. Balashov was champion of Moscow in 1970 and runner-up to Anatoly Karpov in the 1976 USSR Chess Championship. In 1977 he won Lithuanian Chess Championship. He tied for 1st at Lone Pine 1977 and tied for 1st at Wijk aan Zee 1982.
Balashov represented the USSR in several team events. He played second board for the USSR team at the 1971, 1972, and 1974 World Student Team Championships, winning the second board individual gold in 1971 when he was an IM with 6.5/8. Balashov played in four European Team Chess Championships, 1970, 1973, 1977, and 1980, winning the fifth board individual gold in 1977. At the 24th Chess Olympiad in 1980, he scored 7.5/10 as the first board reserve to help the USSR team win the gold medal.
In 2014, he won the Senior Tournament at the Moscow Open, and played for "Russia 1" team which won the European Senior Team Championship in Sibenik.
In the 1970s and early 1980s he was one of the top 25 chess players in the world. According to Chessmetrics, at his peak in July 1977 Balashov's play was equivalent to a rating of 2715, and he was ranked number 11 in the world. His best single performance was at Moscow (URS Championship), 1976, where he scored 10.5/16 possible points (66%) against 2688-rated opposition, for a performance rating of 2773.
In 1992, he was Boris Spassky’s second in Yugoslavia during the "Revenge Match of the 20th century" against Bobby Fischer. In 2005 Balashov was awarded the title of FIDE Senior Trainer.
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