Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin (genus. At the age of 12 years and 211 days, he became the youngest grandmaster in history, as a result of which he was in the Guinness Book of Records.
Winner of the FIDE World Cup, world champion in rapid chess, world champion in blitz and 2-time winner of the World Team Championship with the Russian national team.
There are many interesting facts in the biography of Karjakin, which we will tell about in this article.
So, here is a short biography of Sergey Karjakin.
Biography of Karjakin
Sergey Karjakin was born on January 12, 1990 in Simferopol. His father was a businessman, and his mother worked as a programmer. When he was barely 5 years old, he became interested in chess.
The boy was so absorbed in the game that he sat at the board all day, playing with himself. Soon his parents sent him to the local chess and checkers club, where he managed to get a lot of useful knowledge. As a result, even in primary school, Karjakin became the champion of Ukraine and Europe in the children's championships.
Later he was invited to one of the best chess clubs in the country, located in Kramatorsk (Donetsk region). Here he was able to fully reveal his potential, adding to the list of outstanding figures in the world of chess.
Sergey studied in Kramatorsk for about 2 years, having achieved record figures. In 2009, he received a Russian passport, and 4 years later he graduated from the Russian State Social University, becoming a “social teacher”.
Chess
From an early age, Sergei Karjakin participated in various chess tournaments, defeating both his peers and adult athletes. At the age of 12, he was awarded the title of grandmaster, becoming the youngest holder of this title in history.
As a teenager, Karjakin already had his own students, whom he taught chess. By the time of his biography, he managed to become the champion of the 36th World Chess Olympiad (2004) as part of the Ukrainian national team.
An interesting fact is that after 6 years Sergey will win silver at the Olympics, but already as a player of the Russian national team. During his career from 2012 to 2014, he became the champion of Russia as part of the Tomsk-400 and Malakhit club teams, and also won the world championship, playing for the national team.
In addition, Karjakin won the Corus Tournament, one of the most prestigious chess tournaments in the world. After that, the guy set out to become the world champion.
In the spring of 2016, Sergey was able to win the so-called Candidates Tournament, thanks to which he got a ticket to play in the final for the title of world champion. His opponent turned out to be the famous Norwegian and reigning champion Magnus Carlsen, who showed an equally bright game.
In the autumn of the same year, the chess players entered into a fight for the title, playing 12 games among themselves. It is curious that 10 games ended in a draw, as a result of which Karjakin and Carlsen got one victory each.
In a tie-break, the opponents played 4 games of rapid chess, 2 of which ended in a draw, and the remaining 2 were won by the Norwegian. Thus, Sergey Karjakin was unable to win the championship. An interesting fact is that after these competitions, the Russians began to be called the "Minister of Defense", for the chosen style of play.
A record audience watched the fights of young Karjakin and Karlsen on the Internet. A month later, Sergei accepted an invitation to take part in the World Rapid and Blitz Championship, showing an excellent game.
During the 21st round, Karjakin scored 16.5 points, as did his recent rival Magnus Carlsen. Nevertheless, the Russian was ahead of the Norwegian in additional indicators (he won the game of Carlsen), which allowed him to be awarded the title of world blitz champion for the first time in his sports biography.
In 2017, it became known that Garry Kasparov was returning to chess. In the summer of the same year, Kasparov played his first game with Karjakin, which ended in a draw. At about the same time, Sergei visited London, where he conducted a simultaneous chess game against 72 opponents!
An interesting fact is that in 6 hours of playing with his 72 rivals, the man walked more than 10 km through the hall. In 2019, he took 1st place in the team competition held in the capital of Kazakhstan, as part of the Russian national team.
Today the chess player is a member of the Public Chamber of Russia of the 6th convocation at the invitation of Vladimir Putin. Since 2016, the official partner of Karjakin is Kaspersky Lab.
Personal life
At the age of 19, Karjakin married a Ukrainian professional chess player Yekaterina Dolzhikova. However, soon the young people decided to divorce.
After that, Sergei married Galia Kamalova, the secretary of the Moscow Chess Federation. In this union, the couple had two sons - Alexei and Mikhail.
In his free time, Karjakin pays great attention to active sports in order to maintain not only intellectual, but also physical shape. It is noteworthy that the world famous American grandmaster Bobby Fischer was also keenly fond of active sports.
Sergei tries to swim and cycle regularly. He is a fan of tennis, football, basketball and bowling. He jogs and walks every week.
Sergey Karjakin today
Now Sergey still participates in various singles and club tournaments. At the moment in his biography, he is in the TOP-10 players in the FIDE rating.
According to the 2020 regulation, Karjakin's Elo rating (the world coefficient of relative strength of chess players) is 2752 points. Curiously, the maximum rating in his career reached 2788 points. He has an Instagram account, where he periodically posts photos.
Karjakin Photos
