The Most Famous
CHESS PLAYERS from Moldova
This page contains a list of the greatest Moldovan Chess Players. The pantheon dataset contains 374 Chess Players, 3 of which were born in Moldova. This makes Moldova the birth place of the 31st most number of Chess Players behind Norway and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Top 3
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Moldovan Chess Players of all time. This list of famous Moldovan Chess Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Viktor Gavrikov (1957 - 2016)
With an HPI of 38.41, Viktor Gavrikov is the most famous Moldovan Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages on wikipedia.
Viktor Nikolaevich Gavrikov (Russian: Виктор Николаевич Гавриков; 29 July 1957 – 27 April 2016) was a Lithuanian-Swiss chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1984. Gavrikov shared first place with Gintautas Piešina in the 1978 Lithuanian Championship in Vilnius. In 1983 he won the under-26 Soviet championship. Two years later he jointly won the 52nd Soviet Championship with Mikhail Gurevich and Alexander Chernin in Riga, and tied for second place in the 1986 event, won by Vitaly Tseshkovsky. In 1988, Gavrikov tied for first place with Anatoly Karpov in the World Active Championship, held in Mazatlán, Mexico, finishing second on tiebreak. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he emigrated to Switzerland. He won the Grandmaster Tournament of the Biel Chess Festival in 1994, and the Swiss Championship at Arosa in 1996. He tied for first with Viktorija Čmilytė, Darius Ruzele, Aloyzas Kveinys, Vaidas Sakalauskas and Vytautas Slapikas in the Lithuanian Championship of 2000, taking third place on countback. Gavrikov spent the last years of his life in Bulgaria, where he moved to in 2010.
2. Almira Skripchenko (1976 - )
With an HPI of 38.37, Almira Skripchenko is the 2nd most famous Moldovan Chess Player. Her biography has been translated into 22 different languages.
Almira Skripchenko (born 17 February 1976) is a Moldovan-French chess player who holds the titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She won the European Women's Individual Chess Championship in 2001, and is a seven-time French Women's Chess Champion.
3. Victor Bologan (1971 - )
With an HPI of 31.95, Victor Bologan is the 3rd most famous Moldovan Chess Player. Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Victor (Viorel) Bologan (born 14 December 1971) is a Moldovan chess player and author. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1991.
Pantheon has 3 people classified as chess players born between 1957 and 1976. Of these 3, 2 (66.67%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living chess players include Almira Skripchenko and Victor Bologan. The most famous deceased chess players include Viktor Gavrikov. As of April 2022, 1 new chess players have been added to Pantheon including Viktor Gavrikov.
