15 Facts About Kirill Alekseenko

Kirill Alexeyevich Alekseenko is a Russian-born chess grandmaster who currently plays for Austria.

Kirill Alekseenko's father was a soldier and his mother was a teacher.

Together with 43 other Russian elite chess players, Kirill Alekseenko signed an open letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin, protesting against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

Kirill Alekseenko's grandfather was a chess enthusiast and taught Kirill Alekseenko the rules of the game when he was four years old.

At the age of seven, Kirill Alekseenko played his first tournament, the St Petersburg U8 Championship.

At the World U14 Chess Championship, Kirill Alekseenko won bronze in 2010, and gold in 2011.

Kirill Alekseenko then won silver and bronze in 2012 and 2013, respectively, at the World U16 Chess Championship.

Kirill Alekseenko achieved the necessary norms for the grandmaster title in 2012, but did not reach a FIDE rating of 2500 necessary for the granting of the title until 2015.

Kirill Alekseenko defeated Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Johan-Sebastian Christiansen in rounds one and two, then eliminated the 17th-seed Pentala Harikrishna in the third round.

Kirill Alekseenko faced the 1st-seed Ding Liren in the fourth round.

Kirill Alekseenko drew both of the classical games but lost in the rapid tiebreaks.

At the 2019 European Team Chess Championship held in Batumi from 24 October to 2 November, Kirill Alekseenko represented Russia on the third board.

Kirill Alekseenko defeated Kacper Piorun of Poland in the final round, which proved decisive to Russia's first-place finish.

Kirill Alekseenko thus became eligible to be chosen as the wildcard nominee for the Candidates Tournament 2020 as the next-highest placed finisher at the Grand Swiss, apart from Caruana.

On 23 December 2019, Kirill Alekseenko was announced as the wildcard nominee for the Candidates Tournament, scheduled to be held in Yekaterinburg from 17 March to 3 April 2020.