Person of day   -  1 JULY 2023

EVGENY TOMASHEVSKY

EVGENY TOMASHEVSKY

Evgeny Tomashevsky, one of the Russia’s strongest grandmasters, was born in Saratov. He graduated from the economics faculty of that city’s university, whose team he represented for many years. Evgeny continues to live in that city. 

His parents, who aretypical Russian intelligentsia, sent their son to a chess school at a young age. Evgeny quickly demonstrated considerable aptitude, performing wonderfully at Russian, European and world juniors’ championships. In the mid-Noughties, he won several prizes at juniors’ tournaments, but he never won a single one of them. Nonetheless, experts realised that a strong grandmaster was emerging in Russia.  

An important event for Tomashevsky was his meeting with Yuri Razuvaev, who had a very high opinion of his pupil’s potential. A thorough understanding of positions, a splendid technique and a respect for chess culture always distinguished the young grandmaster. A curious and intelligent player, Tomashevsky began to play a higher level of chess under the guidance of his exceptional mentor, and success came quickly. 

In 2007, he came third at the Superfinal of the Russian championship, before coming first in the 2009 Higher League. In that same year, he also won the European championship. Tomashevsky is a wonderful team plater: he won two European Cup’s with teams from Saratov University and in 2010, he made a telling contribution to Russia’s triumph at the world team championship. In recent times, Tomashevsky has changed his style: he began to play more aggressively and with greater determination. This drive helped the grandmaster from Saratov during the 2013 World Cup, when he consecutively defeated several grandmasters of the highest level, such as Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Alexander Morozevich and Gata Kamsky. 

In 2012, Evgeny worked in Boris Gelfand’s team during the world championship. Towards the end of that year, he completed his economics dissertation. Tomashevsky plays for the grandmasters’ team in a game titled “Who? Where? When?”

Evgeny Tomashevsky is a laureate of the Fair Play award, which is bestowed by an Association of Chess Professionals. In 2012, during the Russian team championship, his opponent softly changed the clock after his move while he was in a drawing position, thus wasting time. Tomashevksy demanded that a draw be recorded. He justified his action: “I always try to abide by the principles of fair play. For me, they are not just empty words. I think that if we play fairly in all aspects of life, life will be better.”

In February 2015, Evgeny Tomashevsky won a clean first place at a stage of the FIDE Grand Prix in Tbilisi with a wonderful result of 8 out of 11, while demonstrating a performance of 2921. Alas, a sub-par performance at the final stage of the Grand Prix in Khanty-Mansiysk in May 2015 prevented him from qualifying for the candidates tournament. Evgeny got his own revenge in August 2015, when he won the Superfinal of the Russian championship, overtaking Sergey Karjakin- the candidate of 2016. 

In 2019, Tomashevsky won the Russian Championship Superfinal for the second time (the event was held in Votkinsk and Izhevsk). At the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Evgeny eliminated Nikita Petrov and Aravind Chithambaram but lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi on a tiebreak in the third round. In March 2020, he played for the Kings team at the Nutcracker generation tournament and showed the best result among all participants. Evgeny is the silver medalist of the Play For Russia charity tournament (May 2020). 

Evgeny is married- his wife Lidiya is the 2014 world champion among girls under 18 years old. The spouses have a daughter.