Vadim Zvjaginsev (Вади́м Ви́кторович Звя́гинцев; born 18 August 1976 in Moscow) is a Russian chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1994. He played for the gold medal-winning Russian team in the 1997 World Team Chess Championship and in the 1998 Chess Olympiad.
Zviagintsev started playing chess completitively at a young age at the Moscow Chess School of Olympic Reserve. Shortly after, he came into limelight by becoming one of the youngest Candidate Masters of Sport in USSR and then - one of the Youngerst Masters of Sport (National Masters)Zvjanginsev won the European under-16 championship in 1992. Two years later, he tied for first place in the Reykjavik Open with Hannes Stefánsson and Evgeny Pigusov.
In 2000, he was first at Essen (ahead of Dreev and Klaus Bischoff) and triumphed there again in 2002 (this time ahead of Leko). At the Mainz Chess Classic in 2003, he finished joint second behind Levon Aronian, repeating his placing the following year. At the Russian Championships of 2005, he took 3rd place at the Kazan qualifier and finished joint 4th at the Superfinal. In 2006, he tied for 2nd at the Poikovsky Karpov Tournament, behind Alexei Shirov.
In team competitions, he took team and individual silver medals at the 1997 European Team Chess Championship. At the 1994 Chess Olympiad, while still only an International Master, he helped the Russian second team obtain a team bronze medal. In the 1997 World Team Chess Championship Zvjanginsev won two gold medals, team and individual playing second reserve board. With the main Russian team, in 1998 and 2004, he contributed respectively to team gold and team silver medals at the Chess Olympiad.[5]
Playing style
Zvjaginsev has been described as a very aggressive, tactical player. Viktor Korchnoi in an interview described him as a very original player, with an unusual view on life, which is reflected in his chess.[6] He has been known to unleash the occasional outlandish opening novelty in order to catch his opponent off guard and avoid established theory and home preparation. At a number of events, he even rolled out his own startling antidote to the Sicilian Defence, which renders the game a battle of wits from the very start. The revolutionary 1.e4 c5 2.Na3!? surprised the entire chess world around 2005, not least top grandmasters Alexander Khalifman and Ruslan Ponomariov (both former FIDE World Champions), whom Zvjaginsev defeated with his creation.[1][2]
The following game demonstrates Zvjaginsev's opportunistic, tactical style. White probes black's defences on the kingside, the queenside and ultimately in the centre, forcing a series of weaknesses that spell disaster.
White, a queen up, is helpless against Black's two connected passed pawns, e.g. 44.Nxd2 Rxd2 45.Re1 Rd1! This was voted the fourth-best game in Volume 90 of Chess Informant.[6]
