sentences:  In tournaments, he has been a winner of over 100 international events, including the 1990 World Open at Philadelphia, the 1998 Vienna Open, the 1999 Utrecht Open and the 2002 Zwolle Open (jointly with Mikhail Gurevich and others).Notable too, were his second place at Cappelle-la-Grande 1998 and joint second at the 9th Ordix Open (behind Viktor Bologan), a rapid chess event held in 2002.At the peak of his playing strength (1996) he was ranked world number 12 with an Elo rating of 2670.