Person of day   -  13 FEBRUARY 2024

ARTUR JUSSUPOW

ARTUR JUSSUPOW

One of the world’s strongest chess players at the end of the 1980s, Artur Jussupow learned to play at the age of 6. He began to train at the Pioneers’ Palace on Lenin Hills and soon became one of the most promising young chess players in Moscow. At one of the sessions in Botvinnik’s school he met Mark Dvoretsky, who became not only his long-time trainer but his older friend. 

The story of this partnership has been recounted by Mark Dvoretsky many times and is well-known. Under his guidance, Artur Jussupow became the USSR champion among juniors. In 1979, Jussupow made his debut at the USSR champion and immediately won second place. He quickly rose to become one the strongest chess players in the country, he was included in the USSR national team and he won five Olympiads between 1982 and 1990. In 1985, he won the first team world championship.  

In individual competitions, Jussupow also achieved notable success. He won in zonal, inter-zonal and candidates’ tournaments, played in three candidates’ matches and made it to the final in 1986, where he lost to Andrey Sokolov by a minimal margin. Jussupow repeatedly won in competitions of the highest level and in 1987 he was third in FIDE’s rating list.

At the start of the 1990s, the grandmaster was robbed and wounded in his Moscow flat. He soon moved to Germany and became a citizen of the country where he lives to this day. Jussupow regularly represented Germany at Olympiads and other team tournaments and he worked as a second-trainer- for example, he helped Vishy Anand.

In recent years, A. Jussupow has not played often but he devotes considerable time to training. At the end of the 1980s, the “Dvoretsky-Jussupow School” was founded. Later on, with M. Dvoretsky as co- author as well as on his own, Artur Jussupow wrote several textbooks which have been very popular in the West and which are re-published in multiple languages.