Dmitry Jakovenko

Dmitry Olegovich Jakovenko (Russian: Дмитрий Олегович Яковенко; born 29 June 1983) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team at the 2009 World Team Chess Championship and at the European Team Chess Championships of 2007 and 2015.

Chess career

He learned chess from his father at age 3, and was later coached by former Garry Kasparov's trainer Alexander Nikitin. In 2001 he won the World Under-18 Championship and the Saint-Vincent Open.

He tied for first place in the Russian Championship Superfinal 2006, but lost the playoff against Evgeny Alekseev, got second place at Pamplona 2006/2007, Corus B Group 2007, and Aeroflot Open 2007. He finished first in the Anatoly Karpov International Tournament in Poikovsky 2007 and 2012.

In the July 2009 FIDE World Rankings Jakovenko became the fifth highest rated chess player in the world and overtook Vladimir Kramnik as the number one Russian (Kramnik regained the position in September that year). In the same month Jakovenko competed at Dortmund, finishing fourth on tiebreak with Peter Leko and Magnus Carlsen with 5.5/10, half a point behind Kramnik.

Jakovenko won the 2012 European Individual Chess Championship in Plovdiv with a score of 8½/11 points. He won the Russian Cup knockout tournament in 2013, 2014 and 2016. In December 2014, Jakovenko took second place, behind Igor Lysyj, in the Superfinal of the 67th Russian championship in Kazan.

Jakovenko shared the first place with Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana in the last stage, held in Khanty Mansyisk, of the FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15. He placed third in the Grand Prix overall standings with 310 points.

Notable chess games

• Evgeny Najer vs Dmitry Jakovenko, Russian Championship Superfinal 2006, Nimzo-Indian Defense: Romanishin Variation, English Hybrid (E20), 0-1
• Dmitry Jakovenko vs Emil Sutovsky, 8th Poikovsky Karpov Tournament 2007, Spanish Game: Open Variations, Main Lines (C80), 1-0
• Vugar Gashimov vs Dmitry Jakovenko, Elista Grand Prix 2008, Caro-Kann Defense: Classical Variation, Main lines (B18), ½-½