Ilya Smirin
| Ilya Smirin | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Full name | Илья Смирин |
| Country |
 Israel
|
| Born |
January 21, 1968 Vitebsk, Byelorussian SSR, USSR |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| FIDE rating |
2668 (March 2017) (No. 53 on the August 2016 FIDE ratings list) |
| Peak rating | 2702 (July 2001) |
Ilya (or Ilia) Yulievich Smirin (Hebrew: איליה יוליביץ' סמירין; Russian: Илья Юльевич Смирин; born January 21, 1968, in Vitebsk, Byelorussian SSR) is an Israeli chess Grandmaster.
Smirin's chess career began in the Soviet Union. He was certified as a chess teacher by the Belorussian State Institute of Physical Culture in Minsk. In 1992 he immigrated to Israel, and has since been one of the leading Israeli players at Chess Olympiads and other international events. He is a member of the Ashdod chess club and the Israel national team.
Smirin's tournament successes include equal first places at Sverdlovsk 1987, New York 1994, and the 2002 Israeli Championship.
He has also won the first league of the USSR Championship (1987, 1989), the Israel Championship (1992, 1994, 1999), and the qualifying tournaments for the 1994 and 1995 PCA World Grand Prix. In 2000 he won the prestigious NY Open and Dos Hermanas 2001. In 2007 he won the Acropolis International at Athens, scoring 7/9 to take first by half a point. In 2008 he tied for first with Evgeny Postny in Maalot-Tarshiha.
His handle on the Internet Chess Club is "tapuax".
Here Smirin, as Black, outplays the World Champion at the time:
...
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