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The Most Famous

CHESS PLAYERS from Belarus

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This page contains a list of the greatest Belarusian Chess Players. The pantheon dataset contains 374 Chess Players, 10 of which were born in Belarus. This makes Belarus the birth place of the 11th most number of Chess Players behind Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Belarusian Chess Players of all time. This list of famous Belarusian Chess Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Belarusian Chess Players.

Photo of Dawid Janowski

1. Dawid Janowski (1868 - 1927)

With an HPI of 53.89, Dawid Janowski is the most famous Belarusian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages on wikipedia.

Dawid Markelowicz Janowski [ˈd̪avʲit̪ ˈmaʁkəlɔvit͡ʂ ˈjanɔfski] (25 May 1868 – 15 January 1927; often spelled David) was a French chess player. Several openings variations are named after Janowski.

Photo of Lev Polugaevsky

2. Lev Polugaevsky (1934 - 1995)

With an HPI of 50.80, Lev Polugaevsky is the 2nd most famous Belarusian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Lev Abramovich Polugaevsky (Russian: Лев Абрамович Полугаевский, IPA: [pəlʊɡɐˈjefskʲɪj]; 20 November 1934 – 30 August 1995) was a Soviet chess player. He was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE in 1962 and was a frequent contender for the World Championship, although he never achieved that title. He was one of the strongest players in the world from the early 1960s until the late 1980s, as well as a distinguished author and opening theorist whose contributions in this field remain important to the present day.

Photo of Boris Gelfand

3. Boris Gelfand (1968 - )

With an HPI of 48.12, Boris Gelfand is the 3rd most famous Belarusian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 48 different languages.

Boris Gelfand (Hebrew: בוריס אברמוביץ' גלפנד; Belarusian: Барыс Абрамавіч Гельфанд, romanized: Barys Abramavič Heĺfand; Russian: Борис Абрамович Гельфанд, romanized: Boris Abramovich Gel'fand; born 24 June 1968) is a Belarusian-Israeli chess player. A six-time World Championship candidate (1991, 1994–95, 2002, 2007, 2011, 2013), he won the Chess World Cup 2009 and the 2011 Candidates Tournament, making him challenger for the World Chess Championship 2012. Although the match with defending champion Viswanathan Anand finished level at 6–6, Gelfand lost the deciding rapidplay tiebreak by 2½–1½.Gelfand has won major tournaments at Wijk aan Zee, Tilburg, Moscow, Linares and Dos Hermanas. He has competed in eleven Chess Olympiads and held a place within the top 30 players ranked by FIDE from January 1990 to October 2017.

Photo of Viktor Kupreichik

4. Viktor Kupreichik (1949 - 2017)

With an HPI of 40.31, Viktor Kupreichik is the 4th most famous Belarusian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Viktor Davidovich Kupreichik (Russian: Ви́ктор Давыдо́вич Купре́йчик, Belarusian: Віктар Давыдавіч Купрэйчык, Viktar Davydavič Kuprejčyk; 3 July 1949 – 22 May 2017) was a Belarusian chess grandmaster.

Photo of Ilya Smirin

5. Ilya Smirin (1968 - )

With an HPI of 35.59, Ilya Smirin is the 5th most famous Belarusian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Ilya (or Ilia) Smirin (Hebrew: איליה יוליביץ' סמירין; Belarusian: Ілля Юльевіч Смірын, romanized: Illa Juljevič Smiryn; Russian: Илья Юльевич Смирин, romanized: Ilya Yulievich Smirin; born January 21, 1968) is a Belarusian-Israeli chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1990.

Photo of Evgeny Agrest

6. Evgeny Agrest (1966 - )

With an HPI of 33.21, Evgeny Agrest is the 6th most famous Belarusian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Evgeny Agrest (born 15 August 1966 in Vitebsk, Belarus) is a Soviet-born Swedish chess grandmaster (1997). In 1994, he graduated with a degree in Economics and in the same year emigrated to Sweden. He is four-time Swedish champion (1998, 2001, 2003, and 2004), and thrice Nordic champion (2001 jointly with Artur Kogan, 2003 jointly with Curt Hansen, and 2005). In 2010 Agrest tied for 1st–6th in the European Union Championship, taking third place on tiebreak. He played for Sweden in the Chess Olympiads of 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2014.As of August 2015, he has been Nils Grandelius's trainer since 2013.Agrest is married to Woman International Master (WIM) Svetlana Agrest with both his wife and his daughter playing for the Swedish Women's chess team.

Photo of Aleksej Aleksandrov

7. Aleksej Aleksandrov (1973 - )

With an HPI of 28.30, Aleksej Aleksandrov is the 7th most famous Belarusian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Aleksej Aleksandrov (born 11 May 1973) is a Belarusian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1997. Aleksandrov is a five-time Belarusian champion and played on the Belarusian national team at the Chess Olympiad, the World Team Chess Championship and the European Team Chess Championship. He competed in the FIDE World Championship in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2004, and in the FIDE World Cup in 2017.

Photo of Sergei Zhigalko

8. Sergei Zhigalko (1989 - )

With an HPI of 27.44, Sergei Zhigalko is the 8th most famous Belarusian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Sergei Zhigalko (Belarusian: Сяргей Жыгалка, Syarheĭ Zhyhalka; born March 28, 1989) is a Belarusian chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster. He is a three-time national champion and also a European and world champion in his age category. Zhigalko competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2017.

Photo of Yury Shulman

9. Yury Shulman (1975 - )

With an HPI of 24.09, Yury Shulman is the 9th most famous Belarusian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Yuri Shulman (Belarusian: Юрый Маркавіч Шульман, Russian: Ю́рий Ма́ркович Шу́льман; born April 29, 1975, in Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, USSR) is a Belarusian American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). He also goes by the alternate spelling of "Yury Shulman." He's married to the Woman International Master (WIM) Viktorija Ni.

Photo of Sergei Azarov

10. Sergei Azarov (1983 - )

With an HPI of 22.12, Sergei Azarov is the 10th most famous Belarusian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Sergei Nikolayevich Azarov (Russian: Серге́й Николаевич Азаров; Belarusian: Сяргей Мікалаевіч Азараў, Siarhiej Mikalajevič Azaraŭ; born 19 May 1983) is a Belarusian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2003.

Pantheon has 10 people classified as chess players born between 1868 and 1989. Of these 10, 7 (70.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living chess players include Boris Gelfand, Ilya Smirin, and Evgeny Agrest. The most famous deceased chess players include Dawid Janowski, Lev Polugaevsky, and Viktor Kupreichik. As of April 2022, 2 new chess players have been added to Pantheon including Evgeny Agrest and Sergei Azarov.

Living Chess Players

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Deceased Chess Players

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Newly Added Chess Players (2022)

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Which Chess Players were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 3 most globally memorable Chess Players since 1700.