Sergey Dolmatov
Sergey Viktorovich Dolmatov (born February 20, 1959) is a Russian Grandmaster of chess and former World Junior Chess Champion. Born in Kiselevsk in the former Soviet Union, Dolmatov's solid yet enterprising style of play was soon to launch him to the forefront of youth chess, culminating in him winning the World Junior Chess Championship in 1978. He was awarded the title of International Master in the same year and became a Grandmaster in 1982. Along with the titles, the early part of his chess career yielded many international tournament victories, including the Amsterdam Masters 1979, Bucharest 1981, Hradec Kralove 1981, Frunze 1983, Barcelona 1983, as well as the traditional closed Tallinn (Keres Memorial) 1985 and Sochi (Chigorin Memorial) 1988. Also notable was Dolmatov's second place (to Vitaly Tseshkovsky) at Minsk in 1982. However, as is often the case, such rapid early progress can be difficult to sustain. Despite winning at Hastings (1989–90, then still a major round-robin tournament) as clear first and qualifying as a World Championship candidate from the strong Manila Interzonal of 1990, Dolmatov narrowly failed to convert his 'preliminary round' match against his friend Artur Yusupov the following year. Nevertheless, during this period his Elo rating exceeded