Yuri Sergeyevich Balashov (Russian: Ю́рий Серге́евич Балашо́в; born 12 March 1949) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1973.
Balashov represented the USSR in several team events. He played on the 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 international master, with a score of 6½/8 points. Balashov played in four European Team Chess Championships, 1970, 1973, 1977, and 1980, winning the individual gold on the fifth board in 1977. At the 24th Chess Olympiad in 1980, he scored 7½/10 as the first board reserve to help the USSR team win the gold medal.[5]
Balashov played for team "Russia 1" which won the European Senior Team Championship in 2014.[6] He also played for the gold medal-winning Russian team at the World Senior Team Championships in the 65+ section in 2015, 2016,[7] 2017, 2018,[8] 2019.[9]
Chess strength
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 10½/16 possible points (66%) against 2688-rated opposition, for a performance rating of 2773.[10] Unfortunately for his chess-playing career, he had to spend a lot of time assisting Karpov at world championship matches and other events as a second and it has taken its toll on his career as a player.
Trainer
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.
