Person of day   -  14 DECEMBER 2023

VICTOR BOLOGAN

VICTOR BOLOGAN


Victor Bologan grew up in a large family with four brothers. Victor s father, an IT specialist, taught him to play chess when Viorel was 7. At 13, Victor became a candidate for master and at 15 he began to train with the famous Moldovan trainer Vyacheslav Chebanenko. The original and profound ideas of his mentor had a significant impact on Victor, who became his most famous and successful student.  

Victor became a grandmaster in 2001 and 1993 he graduated from the chess faculty of Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism and enrolled in graduate school, where he finished a dissertation and was awarded the title of “candidate on pedagogical sciences”. That same year, Bologan won tournaments in Ostrava and Las-Palmas, in 1995 he won in Moscow and Novgorod and in 1997 he won the famous “New York Open”. The peak of his chess career came at the start and middle of the 2000s, when Bologan came first in several large tournaments. After winning the Aeroflot Open in 2003, he came first in the super-tournament in Dortmund. Furthermore, Bologan won the Poikovsky Tournament, split first place at the Aeroflot Open in 2006, and, overall in his career, he has already won more than forty international tournaments.

Viorel has represented the Moldovan national team at the first table for many years: in the European championship in Iceland in 2015, his performance was the best in the tournament. Bologan is in demand as a team player and often performs for different clubs: in the European arena and Russian championships, he represents “Malachite” (Yekaterinburg). He is a strong and distinctive grandmaster, who has proven that he can defeat any opponent several times. Lately, Bologan has devoted a lot of time to literature work- he is an author of multiple books and learning materials that are very popular. Viorel is an experienced trainer, who has helped both young chess players and elite grandmasters many times.

In 2018, he joined the Arkady Dvorkovich Team at the FIDE Presidential elections and made a significant contribution to the Russian candidate's victory. Since November 2018, he is the Executive Director of the International Chess Federation.

Viorel Bologan and his wife Margarita have three children.