Ivan Sokolov Author

Ivan Sokolov was born in Bosnia in 1968. He was and still is one of the most flamboyant attacking players of his time, reaching several times, over a period of 13 years, the top 12 spot in the FIDE rankings. He notably has beaten world chess champions like Smyslov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand and Topalov. The list of first places he took in his life time achievement is immense, we remember him winning most recent, the World Open ( Philadelphia), the Politikin Cup ( joint first, in Denmark) in 2012 and the Admiral Niels Cup in 2013. Not to forget he was also the national Yugoslav champion in 1988 and Dutch in 1995 and 1998. He is also a successful and beloved writer bringing bestsellers as “Chess Middlegame Strategies 1 & 2. His columns in the last Chess Informants are also widely appraised. As a commentator he was best known to entertain his public at the Tata Steel tournaments in Wijk aan Zee. Iván Salgado López (29 May 1991, Ourense) is a Spanish Grandmaster. He learnt to play chess at the age of seven thanks to his brother Óscar. He became grandmaster at the age of 16. His best results in his chess career are: • Two times Spanish Champion and winner in all the youth categories. • 2nd in the World Championship U18 in 2009 • Iberoamerican Champion in 2012 • Member of the Spanish Olympic Team since 2009. • Winner in the Magistral Casino de Barcelona in 2011 • Winner in different open tournaments like Pamplona (2007) San Sebastian (2008), Festival Ruy López (2009), Vecindario (2010), Forni di Sopra (2012) and Bergamo (2017). He has been helping in the preparation of the ex-World Champions like Topalov and Ponomariov and other strong grandmasters. He loves chess very much but has many other interests as well. He likes to practice every sport (specially football) and like to read and study different things. Now he is studying in the National Sport Academy in Sofia (Bulgaria) “Sport trainer” and “Sport management”.