Alexey Eduardovich Kim (born April 5, 1986) is a Soviet-born South Korean chess player. He is the only South Korean to hold the FIDE title of Grandmaster.

Alexey Kim
Full nameAlexey Eduardovich Kim
CountryRussia (until 2006)
South Korea (since 2006)
Born (1986-04-05) April 5, 1986 (age 38)
Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, USSR
TitleGrandmaster (2004)
FIDE rating2465 (November 2024)
Peak rating2488 (September 2013)

Biography

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A third-generation ethnic Korean,[1] Kim was born on April 5, 1986, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in the Soviet Union.[2] He learned chess from his grandfather, Nikolay Vladimirovich Kim, at four years old. When he was eleven, he won the Moscow Junior Championship.[1] Kim became a FIDE master in 2000, an international master in 2001, and a grandmaster in 2004.[2] In 2006, he paid the required fee to FIDE (chess's international governing body) to switch his national federation to South Korea, in keeping with his grandfather's wishes.[1] Kim played on the South Korean team in the 2008 Chess Olympiad.[3] In 2013, he shared first place with Stanislav Novikov, Batuhan Dastan, Hagen Poetsch, Ralf Åkesson, Jonathan Hawkins and Kacper Drozdowski in the 18th Vienna Chess Open.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Ethnic Korean Chess Grandmaster Comes Home". The Chosun Ilbo. 2008-11-28. Retrieved 2018-05-15.
  2. ^ a b Di Felice, Gino (2017-11-22). Chess International Titleholders, 1950-2016. McFarland. p. 161. ISBN 9781476671321.
  3. ^ Alexey Kim team record at Olimpbase.org
  4. ^ "Seven players share first place in Vienna Chess Open". Chessdom. 2013-08-27. Archived from the original on 2018-07-08. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
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