Rafael Vaganian
- October 15, 2025
Two-time Candidate Tournament participant (1985, 1988-90)
Ranking: highest world rank was fourth in 1985
Highest FIDE Elo Rating: 2670
Tournament career: winner of eleven super-tournaments:
winner of the USSR Championship 1989
2x winner of the Reggio Emilia chess tournament
winner of Las Palmas 1979 chess tournament, Hastings 1982/83 chess tournament, Biel Chess Festival 1985
and several others…
Chess Olympiads: for Armenia: bronze team and gold individual medal
What earned him this:
Rafael Vaganian is an Armenian grandmaster who played in the era of Karpov, Kasparov, and Ivanchuk. Although he was naturally overshadowed by his more famous contemporaries, he managed to put together a very impressive career. He became the USSR champion, which was one of the toughest tournaments one could win at that time. He also added victories in super-tournaments in Las Palmas, Hastings, and Biel.
In the world championship cycles, he played in the Candidates matches twice, but was defeated in the quarterfinals by Sokolov and later in the round of 16 by Lajos Portisch. An important achievement is undoubtedly the gold medal he won for his performance on the third board at the Chess Olympiad. Besides super-tournaments, he was also successful in very strong open tournaments, for example, celebrating victory at the Aeroflot Open in 2004.
Vaganian had amazing longevity, as even in his fifties he had a rating of 2670 and was part of the elite world top fifty.
Why not higher:
Vaganian was a consistent and reliable player, a long-time member of the chess elite, but he was never considered a serious threat in the fight for the world champion title. He also never managed to break the dominance of Karpov and Kasparov in the rankings.
Best games:
Samuel Reshevsky vs Rafael Vaganian
Skopje 1976
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Miroslav Janeček graduated in English Philology at Palacký University Olomouc. Currently he works in Prague as a content editor for a large marketing company. His roots are in Opava - the historic and cultural centre of the Czech part of Silesia. That city is also the home of Slezan Opava, the chess club where Miroslav started to play chess, later went on to work as a youth coach and which he to this day proudly represents. As an aspiring chess publicist, he is the main author of articles on ChessDB.cz. In his free time, in addition to chess and writing, he also devotes himself to racket sports, history, and literature.