My Most Hated Not-So-Famous Players
Alright, let's go write another blog post!
Today, it will be the opposite of my last article. While last month I talked about my favorite players, now I will list the ones I hate the most and explain why. If you are one of those friends who forwards my articles to the players mentioned in the hope that they will read, please don't do that with this one. That's all I ask.
Just to be clear, when I say 'hate', it is as clickbait. I don't hate them in the truest sense of the word. I don't even know them personally and have nothing against them as individuals.
The goal is to let my readers know which players I usually root against, or who have left a negative impression on me despite doing nothing more than their job (except for one of them).
This polemic list includes former Candidates players, stubborn cheaters, and villains of dreams. It also features a guy who decided to play for longer than necessary just to show me that I wasn't as good at chess as I thought.
To build suspense, the table of contents won't include their names this time. I hope you will stay curious!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 - An Intruder In The Candidates
3 - Ruiner Of A Brazilian Dream
4 - Now I Must Study This Endgame
5 - The Quickest Dislike Of All
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1 - Kirill Alekseenko: An Intruder In The Candidates
Kirill Alexeyevich Alekseenko was born in Vyborg, Russia, on 22 June 1997, approximately 23 years before making me hate him. Although Russian by birth, he currently plays for Austria. His peak rating of 2715 was achieved in November 2019, which placed him as the 29th best player in the world.
In his early years, Alekseenko won many medals in European and World Youth chess tournaments, including a gold medal in the 2011 World U14 Championship. He achieved his third grandmaster norm in 2012. However, at the time, he did not yet have the necessary FIDE rating of 2500, which was only achieved in 2015.
But certainly, the greatest achievement of his career is also the reason why I don't like him. Sorry, Kirill. Nothing personal.
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Why him?
Imagine that you started following chess again in 2019, a few months after Carlsen beat Caruana in the World Championship. What would be the next big event you would look forward to? Still curious to watch Carlsen's next big match, I could not wait for the 2020 Candidates Tournament.
You start by opening the list of competitors. Caruana, Nepomniachtchi, Ding Liren... Wow! This is going to be so great and exciting! Then, suddenly, a wild, unknown name appears: Kirill (who?) Alekseenko.
Even worse, when his name was announced, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, a much stronger player and one of my favorites, had been overlooked. I was really upset about that.
I know it is not his fault. After all, at the 2019 FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament, he came third and became eligible to be chosen as the wildcard nominee for the Candidates. FIDE nominated him, so he went there to play. I would have done the same.
Fortunately, thanks to Teimour Radjabov's withdrawal due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Vachier-Lagrave was also able to play. But something still felt odd. With all due respect, Alekseenko was not at the required level to be playing alongside those giants, which made the tournament less exciting for me to watch.
As expected, his performance was not very good. He came seventh out of eight participants, achieving two wins, seven draws, and five losses. One of these victories came in the final round when he played as Black against Anish Giri. Check it out:
And let me finish being fair with him. I must mention that Alekseenko himself encouraged the abolition of the wildcard in the Candidates Tournament in a later interview.
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2 - Kirill Shevchenko: Why Doesn’t He Resign?
Kirill Serhiyovych Shevchenko, born in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 22 September 2002, is a chess grandmaster who became famous in October last year when he was suspended by FIDE for cheating. This made him the highest-rated player ever to have been punished for reasons relating to fair play.
He currently represents Romania, but will not be able to play professionally again until October 2026. In December 2024, a few months after the scandal, his Chess.com account was also banned for violating the platform's Fair Play Policy.
However, I should mention that he was a very strong player before the controversies, achieving his GM title in 2017. His peak rating of 2694 was achieved in June 2023, which placed him 39th in the world. As far as we know, playing honestly.
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Why him?
You might be thinking that I don't like him because of the cheating issues, right? But you are totally wrong. I can proudly say: 'I hated Shevchenko before it was cool!', and here is why.
During the 2022 Chess Olympiad, Brazil had just defeated England in Round 7, an epic result for us! Our opponents in Round 8 were Ukraine, another very strong team.
With the score tied at 1.5–1.5 after the games on the first, second, and fourth boards, the outcome would be decided in the final game on Board 3, where our GM Krikor Mekhitarian was playing Kirill Shevchenko.
The most unbelievable part was that Krikor was clearly winning with the black pieces, with an evaluation of around -4.0 according to Stockfish. I was really hoping he would convert and, at the same time, thinking: 'Why doesn't this idiot just resign? Stop fighting! We want to win!'
Defeating Ukraine right after England would have been monumental. But unfortunately, Shevchenko fought hard, Krikor made some mistakes, and the game ended in a disappointing draw. See below:
From that day on, I could no longer hear the name Shevchenko in the same way. He naturally became a player I did not appreciate at all.
So, to be honest, when the cheating scandal broke, I just thought, ‘Okay, now I finally have a good reason to dislike him.’ However, the painful draw against Krikor still hurts more than anything he has done relating to fair play.
One final but very important observation: If you don't want me to hate you, make sure your name is not Kirill [...]enko.
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3 - Robert Hungaski: Ruiner Of A Brazilian Dream
The third name on my list is Robert Andrew Hungaski, born on 8 December 1987 in Stamford, USA. Although American by birth and representing the country to this day, he also holds Argentine citizenship and frequently participates in tournaments in South America, where he is a well-known figure. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 2013.
Beyond his playing career, Hungaski has extensive experience as a chess coach and holds the FIDE Senior Trainer title. He frequently coaches young US players for the World Youth Chess Championships and was also captain of the Argentinian Open Section team at the 44th Chess Olympiad in 2022.
His peak rating of 2554 was achieved in March 2022. This is also the year that I started to dislike him. But did he do anything wrong? No! In fact, it was almost the opposite. In a particular game, he made hardly any mistakes and therefore ruined my expectations. Let's discuss it now.
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Why him?
Everything happened during the Floripa Chess Open in January 2022. Brazilian IM Diego Rafael Di Berardino was chasing his third and final Grandmaster norm.
At that moment, Brazil still had only 14 GMs. Since I had started playing chess again, I had not seen anyone from my country receiving the greatest title (Fortunately, Renato Quintiliano did it one month later), so I was very excited to watch it happen live!
And the best news? My fellow countryman only needed a draw against Hungaski in the final round to achieve it. Even better, he was playing with the white pieces. It all seemed set up for a happy ending!
However, the game was a real nightmare. Hungaski played better, Diego made some critical mistakes, and what started as the perfect scenario slowly became horror. In the end, the worst happened: Black won and ruined our dreams. Watch the tragedy unfold below:
The saddest part is that, even now, more than three years later, the Brazilian has not yet achieved his norm and remains an International Master.
Of course, I still hope that this will happen one day. However, I cannot forget that he came so close, only to lose his chance thanks to this American-Argentine killjoy. Seeing his name on any tournament list keeps bringing back bad memories to mind.
But is it fair to hate a player because he won a game, which, after all, is just his job? Yes, it is!
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4 - Gawain Jones: Now I Must Study This Endgame
Gawain Christopher Bernard Maroroa Jones (phew...) was born on 11 December 1987 in Keighley, England. He is a grandmaster since 2007 and has won the British Chess Championship three times (in 2012, 2017, and 2024). His highest rating, 2709, was achieved in June 2019, placing him 32nd in the world.
In 1997, Jones became the youngest player in the world to beat an International Master in an official tournament, when he defeated IM Malcolm Pein at the age of 12.
In January 2016, Jones won the most significant tournament of his career to date: the New Zealand Open! No, just kidding, I’m only mentioning this because a friend of mine would be interested to know.
However, his greatest achievement was winning the London Chess Classic in 2024, one of the most important tournaments in the FIDE Circuit.
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Why Him?
Admittedly, it may seem random that he features on my list of least appreciated players, but I promise you that the reasoning behind it will make sense, even if you don't agree.
This took place during the 2018 Chess Olympiad. Jones was playing against Rauf Mamedov. Despite knowing the game rules, I hadn’t played seriously or followed professional competitions for a long time.
Then a friend of mine, who knew that I could play chess, told me that there was a knight and bishop checkmate on the board, and showed me this game:
My first reaction was to ask, 'Why is it so special?', and he said that this particular checkmate was difficult to execute. I shrugged it off, saying something like, 'Yeah, right! Just control the squares and don't let the king escape. Jones is annoying for making his opponent do that.'
My friend then bet that I wouldn't be able to do it against him. We did the test, and... I obviously failed. I really had no idea it would be so hard.
After that, it became a matter of honor to learn this damn checkmate pattern. I succeeded, so perhaps I should thank Gawain Jones for providing the motivation.
But no, I still don’t like him. It was he who made me realize that I wasn't as good at chess as I thought. Thanks to him, I was embarrassed by failing to beat my friend in this endgame.
By the way, if you want to learn it too, check out this complete guide by @nova-stone: A bish of a knightmare.
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5 – Eline Roebers: The Quickest Dislike Of All
Finally, I felt the need to mention at least one woman. Even hatred should have some gender equality! Eline Roebers was born in Amsterdam on 22 May 2006. She won the 2022 Dutch Youth Championship in the Open Division and the 2020 Online World Youth Championship in the U14 Girls division.
Eline represented the Netherlands on board 1 at the 2022 Chess Olympiad, winning an individual silver medal with a performance rating of 2532. She played for the Netherlands again on board 1 at the 2024 Chess Olympiad.
In August 2023, Roebers was the highest-rated U18 female on the FIDE rating list, with an Elo of 2407. Her peak rating of 2421 was then achieved one month later, in September 2023. She has already played in the prestigious Tata Steel Challengers tournament twice.
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Why her?
OK, this one might be the most ridiculous reason mentioned in this article, but it does not make her any less hated.
On 15 November 2024, my friend @VOB96 posted a blog called 'Duel of Nations! Episode 1 - Argentina vs. Netherlands', in which she compared the two countries regarding chess strength. For those who don’t know, the Brazil vs. Argentina rivalry is very strong in football and other team sports, but not in chess.
Therefore, as a proud South American, I was naturally rooting for our Argentine brothers. After losing the first two categories, Vanessa finally awarded them one point with Faustino Oro, making the score 2–1 to the Netherlands. Their only chance of a draw would be in the “Women” category.
She then chose one of my favorite players to represent the country, Candela Belén Francisco Guecamburu. I thought, 'Hell yeah! There's no way she will lose! Let's go!' But then came the shocking reality. She introduced me to Eline Roebers and awarded her the final point of the match. Noooo!
Perhaps Vanessa should be the one to hate, for choosing the wrong player. However, having read more about them both, I think she made the right decision. This means my real anger is now directed at this poor Dutch girl, who did not even ask to be there. But that's life.
At the very least, I would like to try to compensate her by showing my readers one of her best games, which she played against GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov in the 2022 Untergrombach Open, thus winning the tournament. You can watch it below:
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I hope you enjoyed this article and found my reasons for disliking the aforementioned players interesting. As I said at the beginning, I don't really hate any of them, and none of this is a personal issue (except perhaps for the cheater), but I thought a title like that would sound cooler.
After all, we are talking about sportspeople in the public eye. Therefore, we must be honest about our feelings and admit that it is OK to support one player over another, hold grudges, and be happy when our rivals lose. These emotions are all part of what makes us love the game.
Please share the names of your least favorite players in the comments section below, along with your reasons for choosing them. I would love to find out more about it. They don't have to be well-reasoned or detailed explanations. Sometimes, it is the little things that make the big difference.
This time, I will not say that every blogger should have a post like this, but I still think it is a nice topic for people to write about. Perhaps my post will inspire you!
Thanks a lot for reading, and see you again next time!
