Introduction
`Vladimir Akopian (Russian: Владимир Акопян; born December 7, 1971 in Baku, Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union) is an Armenian chess Grandmaster.
Career
Akopian won the World Under-16 Championship in 1986 at the age of 14 and the World Under-18 Championship at 16. In 1991 he won the World Junior Chess Championship.
He won the Armenian Chess Championship in 1996 and 1997. In 1999 he made his way through to the final of the FIDE knockout World Chess Championship, but lost to Alexander Khalifman by 3.5-2.5. In the 2004 event, he was knocked out in the quarter-finals by the player he had defeated in the 1999 semi-finals, Michael Adams.
In 2005 he tied for 1st–5th with Emil Sutovsky, Andrei Kharlov, Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Motylev at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow.
Early in 2007, Akopian won the Gibtelecom Masters in Gibraltar with a score of 7.5/9 ahead of a group of players tied at 7/9 including Michael Adams.
In December 2009, he was awarded the title of "Honoured Master of Sport of the Republic of Armenia".
Team competitions
Akopian was one of the contributing players on the Armenian chess team which won gold at the 2006 Chess Olympiad ahead of second placed China and third placed United States and the 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden, 2008. He was a member of the gold-medal winning Armenian team at the World Team Chess Championship in 2011.
Notable games
- Vladimir Akopian vs Kiril D Georgiev, Ch World FIDE, Las Vegas (USA) 1999, Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation, Romanishin Attack (E12), 1-0
- Junior (Computer) vs Vladimir Akopian, SuperGM 2000, Owen Defense: General (B00), 1/2-1/2
- Vladimir Akopian vs Garry Kasparov, Russia vs The Rest of the World 2002, Sicilian Defense: Nyezhmetdinov-Rossolimo Attack (B30), 1-0
- Alexey Korotylev vs Vladimir Akopian, Aeroflot Open 2006, Benoni Defense: Classical Variation, General (A70), 0-1