Quick Facts
Biography
Viktor Nikolaevich Gavrikov (Russian: Виктор Николаевич Гавриков; 29 July 1957 in Criuleni, Moldova – 27 April 2016 in Burgas, Bulgaria) was a Lithuanian-Swiss chess Grandmaster.
Gavrikov shared first place with Gintautas Piešina in the 1978 Lithuanian Chess Championship in Vilnius. In 1983 he won the under-26 Soviet championship. Two years later he jointly won the 52nd Soviet Chess Championship with Mikhail Gurevich and Alexander Chernin in Riga, and tied for second place in the 1986 event, won by Vitaly Tseshkovsky. In 1988, Gavrikov tied for first place with Anatoly Karpov in the World Active Championship, held in Mazatlán, Mexico, finishing second on tiebreak.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he emigrated to Switzerland. He won the Grandmaster Tournament of the Biel Chess Festival in 1994, and the Swiss Chess Championship at Arosa in 1996. He tied for first with Viktorija Čmilytė, Darius Ruzele, Aloyzas Kveinys, Vaidas Sakalauskas and Vytautas Slapikas in the Lithuanian Championship of 2000, taking third place on countback.
Gavrikov was awarded the GM title in 1984.
Gavrikov spent the last years of his life in Bulgaria, where he moved to in 2010.