Kirill Shevchenko is a Ukrainian grandmaster who nowadays is among the top 100 best players in the world. Curious that he is only 19 years old, and he is already reaching the top level with his incredible play.
He is known to be the only top-level Ukrainian player who is not leaving Ukraine, at least for now. Not to mention of course his incredible strength as a grandmaster and his amazing chess career.
It’s always exciting to review the achievements and life of these young players stunning the world with their abilities. And it always makes us wonder how far they will get, the greatest way to know this reviewing their success.
It’s also very interesting to wonder what they did, or how these recent prodigies progress in their chess. Today we will have a look at Kirill Shevchenko’s life and how he studied and developed his chess.
Ukrainian players are some of the most skilled in the world, so we will be looking at one of his master games too. If you want to know how Kirill Shevchenko reached the best level of chess, makes sure to read until the end.
Table of Contents
Kirill’s progression in chess and career
Being one of the youngest to participate, Kirill Shevchenko participated in the 2018 Aeroflot open tournament. In March of the same year, he competed in the European individual chess championship.
These were his first steps into top-level chess, now he has attracted more attention, because in November 2021 won a tournament in Riga. The prestigious Lindores Abbey Blitz tournament was the one Kirill won in 2021.
He finished this tournament an impressive 14 out of 18 points on the leaderboard, amazing considering his rivals. He won having a whole point ahead of GM Fabiano Caruana and Arjun Erigaisi.
These successes and their incredible chess level gave them many opportunities to keep developing their skills. He represented Ukraine in the European team chess championship, Kirill Shevchenko was playing on board 4.
And it all went very well for them, they won the gold medal for Ukraine in that tournament. His brilliant play has earned him a place in the online geniuses’ club, where you can find a review of him.
Kirill Shevchenko was the best U-18 player in 2020, and he is currently positioned as the 20th best player of Ukraine.
Kirill Shevchenko’s playstyle
If you analyze most of the Kirill Shevchenko games, you will notice that there is a clear inclination to positional approaches. Probably characteristic of every grandmaster in the world, but he has a very precise style.
He likes to assure all the odds are in his favor before starting some unnecessary actions, a very secure type of play. Although his playstyle is still being developed, you can clearly see how he is probably going for a quiet path.
He likes to calculate, and especially, he likes to have everything in order, so he plays very positionally.
However, as every grandmaster of his kind, when the time to attack and calculate tactics come, he is prepared. But in most of his games, you see that he likes to temp their rivals to commit mistakes.
Once this is done, he proceeds to seize little advantages, until the rival collapses, which is an interesting way to play chess. Kirill Shevchenko is great at seizing rival’s positional mistakes but sometimes panics when under attack.
However, there is a long way for him to go, it’s about just waiting and seeing how his game develops. Let’s review some of the best of Kirill Shevchenko’s games, so we can have a look at his ways in the game.
Interesting games by Kirill Shevchenko
Kirill Shevchenko’s curious facts
Different from many other chess grandmasters Kirill Shevchenko is really extroverted for a chess player. Most chess players this age seem a little overwhelmed in interviews and events, but not Kirill.
He has shown himself pretty ease in front of the cameras and is very chill to answer.
Although Kirill hasn’t participated in many tournaments, he has progressed mainly by playing chess online. It’s another proof, that you can actually get really good at chess by training with online resources.
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