Interview with Adrian Mikhalchishin
By Özgür Akman
Please, tell us a few words about your playing career.
I was very lucky to enter into the famous Lvov Chess School. The founder was the famous trainer, Viktor Kart, a close friend of the great Leonid Stein, who came to our training sessions to show his most recent games. He was our hero and we wanted to be like him. We being: future GMs Marta Litynska, Oleg Romanishin, Aleksandr Beliavsky, Iossif Dorfman, and me. Then came Zoya Lelchuk and Vassily Ivanchuk, later followed by Andrei Volokitin, the Muzychuk sisters and a group of young GMs.
We were brought in with fighting spirits – playing for a win in every game against each other, and climbed quickly to the top. I was the USSR Junior Champion, and had a best result of fourth place in the Soviet Championships of 1984. I was also a member of many winning teams in the Soviet, Ukrainian, Slovenian, and Yugoslavian team championships. A few times, we won the World Youth Championships, in addition to the European Cup in 1984. I mean we – always we – played together: Romanishin, Beliavsky, Dorfman and me.
In 1980, I was invited by Igor Zaicev to join Karpov’s team, and gained great experience there until 1986. These were fantastic times, and communication with such titans as Efim Geller was an unbelieveable experience for me. I have also had, for 30 years, a very close relationship with Vasily Smyslow, from whom I studied a lot.
Here is the full interview.
He’s a fantastic trainer.