Maxim Matlakov

Maxim Sergeevich Matlakov (Russian: Максим Сергеевич Матлаков; born 5 March 1991 in Leningrad) is a Russian chess grandmaster and Under-18 World Champion in 2009.

He was one of Peter Svidler's seconds in the Candidates Tournaments of 2013 and 2014.

Chess career

Matlakov was the bronze medalist at the World Under-12 Championship in 2003 and at the World Under-14 Championship in 2005. He won the World Under-18 Championship in 2009. In the same year he also won the Saint Petersburg City Chess Championship and the Aivars Gipslis Memorial. Matlakov won the Russian Junior (U20) Championship of 2011.

He tied for second, finishing sixth on tiebreak, at the 13th European Individual Chess Championship in 2012 with a score of 8/11 points and qualified for the Chess World Cup 2013. He defeated Dutch GM Jan Smeets in the first round and was eliminated by Azerbaijani GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the second round tiebreaker. In 2013 Matlakov tied for first, placing third on tiebreak behind Pavel Eljanov and Dmitry Kokarev, in the Chigorin Memorial in Saint Petersburg.

In February 2014, he was joint winner with Alexander Moiseenko of the Moscow Open. In July 2014, he tied for second with Parimarjan Negi, Gawain Jones and Maxim Rodshtein, placing third on countback, at the Politiken Cup in Helsingør and won its blitz tournament. At the Chess World Cup 2015 he was knocked out in the first round by Gadir Guseinov after losing the first set of rapid tiebreakers.

Team competitions

Matlakov won individual silver medal playing board 5 for Saint Petersburg in the 2013 European Club Cup. Two years later, in the same event he won team bronze medal with St. Petersburg's team "Mednyi Vasadnik".