13 Facts About Ruslan Ponomariov

Ruslan Olehovych Ponomariov is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster.

Ruslan Ponomariov was FIDE World Chess Champion from 2002 to 2004.

Ruslan Ponomariov was runner-up in the Chess World Cup 2005 and Chess World Cup 2009, while reaching the semi-finals in 2011 and the quarterfinals in 2007.

Ruslan Ponomariov was taught to play chess by his father at the age of 5.

However, this was called off by FIDE on the grounds that Ruslan Ponomariov failed to sign the contract in time.

Ruslan Ponomariov remained FIDE champion until Rustam Kasimdzhanov won the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004.

In 2004, Ruslan Ponomariov won the gold medal at the 2004 Chess Olympiad held in Calvia, Spain, with the Ukrainian team.

Ruslan Ponomariov won a rapid tournament in Odesa, Ukraine, and the Golden Blitz Cup in Moscow.

Ruslan Ponomariov defeated Fritz under tournament conditions, at the 2nd Festival Internacional de Ajedrez Man-Machine in Bilbao, Spain.

Ruslan Ponomariov lost in the first round, in a six-game match against Sergei Rublevsky, and thus did not qualify for the 2007 World Championship tournament.

Ruslan Ponomariov got one more second place by tie-break that year in the 2009 Chess World Cup, where he reached the final against Israeli Boris Gelfand.

In July 2010, Ruslan Ponomariov won the prestigious Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund, one point ahead of Le Quang Liem from Vietnam.

In February 2011, after occupying last place at the World Blitz Championship in November 2010 in Moscow, Ruslan Ponomariov showed great improvement at the strong Aeroflot Blitz held in the same city by reaching second place, just half a point behind Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.