Alexander Areshchenko

Alexander Valentinovich Areshchenko (; born June 15, 1986) is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 2002. He has competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2005, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2021.

Career In 2000, Areshchenko won the Under 14 division of the World Youth Chess Championships, held in Oropesa del Mar, Spain, ahead of future super-grandmaster Wang Yue. He won the Ukrainian Championship in 2005. In 2007 he tied for 2nd–4th with Hikaru Nakamura and Emil Sutovsky in the 5th GibTelecom Chess Festival.

In 2009 he tied for 1st–4th with Koneru Humpy, Evgenij Miroshnichenko and Magesh Panchanathan in the Mumbai Mayor Cup, which he won on a tiebreak. In the same year, he tied for first with Boris Avrukh in the Zurich Jubilee Open tournament and again won the event on a tiebreak.

In 2011, Areshchenko tied for 1st–5th with Yuriy Kuzubov, Parimarjan Negi, Markus Ragger and Ni Hua in the 9th Parsvnath Open tournament. The following year, he won the Chigorin Memorial and the Botvinnik Memorial tournaments, both held in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2015, he tied for 1st-5th places with Nils Grandelius, Martyn Kravtsiv, Baadur Jobava and Richárd Rapport in the Masters tournament of the 22nd Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival. In 2016, he won the 20th Open International Bavarian Championship in Bad Wiessee, Germany. In 2017 he tied for 4th-14th places at the European Individual Chess Championship.

Playing for Ukraine, Areshchenko has won the team bronze medal at the World Team Chess Championship in 2011 and 2013, and an individual silver medal in the European Team Chess Championship in 2007.

In 2017, Areshchenko announced that he was retiring from chess. He has continued to play in leagues and tournaments since then.

Sample game

White: Sergei Rublevsky Black: Alexander Areshchenko 2005, Russian team championships