Alisa Galliamova

Alisa Galliamova, 1992
Full name	Alisa Mikhailovna Galliamova Алиса Михайловна Галлямова
Country	Russia
Born	18 January 1972 Soviet Union
Title	International Master Woman Grandmaster
Peak rating	2554 (January 2001)

Alisa Mikhailovna Galliamova (Russian: Алиса Михайловна Галлямова, Tatar: Cyrillic Алисә Михаил кызы Галләмова, Latin Alisä Mixail qızı Ğällämova; born 18 January 1972) is a Russian chess player, who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (GM). She is twice runner-up at the Women's World Chess Championship, in 1999 and 2006, and three-time Russian women's champion (1997, 2009, 2010).

Career

Galliamova won the World Under-16 Girls' Championship in 1987 and 1988. In 1988 she also won the World Junior Girls Championship.

In December 1997, she won the Candidates Tournament for the Women's World Chess Championship held in Groningen, Netherlands. She was scheduled to play a match with Xie Jun, who finished second, in August, 1998 and the winner of that match was supposed to play a match in November 1998 with Zsuzsa Polgar for the Women's World Chess Championship.

However, after the match with Xie Jun had already been scheduled, Galliamova objected because the entire match was scheduled to be played in China, the home of her rival. The reason for this was because only China had bid for the match. Galliamova wanted half of the match to be played in Kazan, Russia. However, the Russians did not have the money required. Finally, when Galliamova failed to show up to play the match, the match was declared forfeited to Xie Jun.

FIDE then scheduled a match between Xie Jun and Zsuzsa Polgar for November 1998. However, Polgar said that she could not play at that time because she was pregnant. After Polgar had given birth to her son, Tom, in March, 1999, FIDE again tried to schedule a match. This time Polgar said that she could not play the match because she was nursing.

Finally, after repeated efforts to organize a match which was supposed to have taken place in 1998, FIDE declared that Polgar had forfeited her title and that the title was vacant. FIDE decided to let Galliamova back into the cycle and held a match between Xie Jun and Galliamova for the Women's World Chess Championship 1999. This time, Galliamova was willing to play because her original demand had been met in that Russia had come up with the money to sponsor half of the match. The match was held in Kazan, Russia and Shenyang, China in August, 1999 and Xie Jun won by 8.5 - 6.5.

In March 2006, Galliamova again reached the finals of the FIDE Women's World Championship, competing against Xu Yuhua.

Personal life

She was born to Russian father and Tatar mother (Galliamova is the last name of her mother).

Galliamova was married to Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk, one of the top rated players in the world.