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Happened Today in the Chess World - May 26, 2024

SALOV IN THE SUNSET

GM Valery Salov - Photo by Rosa de las Nieves, "Jaque" magazine

Today is Grandmaster Valery Salov's birthday. He was born in Wrocław, Poland, on May 26, 1964.
Salov earned the title of International Master in 1984 and Grandmaster in 1986.
In January 1995, Salov was ranked as the 3rd player in the world, tied with Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, behind Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. He reached his peak Elo rating in October of the same year, with 2715 points.
Salov was the Under-16 World Champion in 1980 and the European Junior Champion in 1983/84.
In the 54th USSR Championship in Minsk (1987), he tied for 1st place with Alexander Beliavsky but lost the tiebreak match (+0 =2 –2). In that 1988 championship, Salov tied for 2nd place, with Artur Yusupov behind the winners Karpov and Kasparov.
Salov qualified for the Candidates Tournament but was eliminated in the round of 16 by Jan Timman. In 1996, Salov reached the semifinals of the FIDE World Championship held in Sanghi Nagar, India, but lost to Gata Kamsky. Valery Salov has not participated in any FIDE-rated tournaments since January 2000.

Jan Timman vs Valery Salov - Amsterdam VSB (1991), Amsterdam NED
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