IM Andrianov first started playing chess at the age of 3. By age 7, Nikolay was already recognized as a young chess prodigy, and at age 11, he was invited to one of the best chess schools in the Ukraine.

Nikolay became the chess champion of the Ukraine at age 15. Shortly after this championship, he gained the title of Master and was next invited to train at the world’s best Chess Training school in Moscow with some of the world’s best Chess coaches.

At age 18, Nikolay became the Soviet Chess Champion Under 20 years old. It was after this time that Nikolay experienced a tremendous disappointment in his chess career. Due to political maneuvering, Nikolay was told one week before (and after months of preparing for the 1980 World Chess Championship as the rightful Soviet Chess Champion) that he would not be allowed to attend this world event—Garry Kasparov would go instead, even though Nikolay had beaten Kasparov in a previous tournament. He also was not allowed to leave the country to go to other chess events he’d been invited to attend.

Still, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Chess Training from the Moscow Central Physical Culture & Sport Institute, and at age 26, Nikolay attained his title of International Master. Interestingly, most GM’s and IM’s now in the U.S. have their degrees in fields other than Chess Training. Only an elite few chess masters have an actual degree specifically in Chess Training from, what was at its peak, the top Soviet training school in Chess.

Nikolay has been a coach/trainer for 7 World Champions: Women’s World Champion Maya Chiburdanidze; World Champion Vassily Smyslov; World Jr. Champion Under 20 yrs Vladimir Akopian; Girls World Champion Under 20 yrs Nino Khurtsidze; Girls World Champion Under 16 yrs Tea Bosboom-Lanchava; World Champion Rapid Youth Under 14 yrs Mark Paragua; and Girls World Champion Rapid Youth Under 12 yrs Arianne Caoili. Nikolay has also been the coach/trainer for the Greek National team; the Indonesian National team; and the Philippines Best Juniors team.

IM Andrianov next came to the U.S. to play in national tournaments and coach chess.

It was here in Phoenix that Nikolay met the love of his life, Susie. They married and have started the World Champion Chess Academy. IM Andrianov coaches and trains future world champion caliber students, both in Phoenix and nationally.

Coach Nikolay believes in leading by example. He believes that excellent chess training and coaching also includes the coach doing what he tells his students to do to excel in chess. Even after over 40 years of playing and studying chess, Nikolay feels there is still much to learn and understand about the game of chess.

Therefore, Coach Nikolay also studies, and practices with smaller tournaments to keep himself very competitive in the major tournaments. As you will see from the list below, this simple learning method has excellent results.

As mentioned earlier, before becoming a full-time chess coach and trainer, IM Andrianov won many Soviet and European chess tournaments, even beating now World Champion Garry Kasparov in the 1978 Soviet Spartakiad. During the years training the Greek, Indonesian, and Philippines chess teams, he was only able to go to one or two tournaments a year and yet, he won a few more tournaments here and there.

The following is a list of some of his U.S. tournament highlights, often against many top world Grandmasters with excellent results:

• 1999 Western States Open, 1st place
• 1999 American Open, 3rd place tie
• 2000 Rocky Mountain Open, 1st place
• 2000 North American Open, 1st place tie
• 2001 Tucson Open, 1st place
• 2001 Space Coast Open, 2nd place
• 2002 Rocky Mountain Open, 1st place
• 2002 US Open, 3rd place tie
• 2002 Copper State Open, 1st place tie
• 2003 Space Coast Open, 1st place tie
• 2003 Rocky Mountain Open, 1st place
• 2004 Tucson Open, 2nd place tie
• 2004 Western Pacific Open, 1st place tie
• 2004 El Paso International, 1st place tie
• 2005 P. Webb AZ State Championship, 1st place
• 2006 Western Pacific Open, 1st place tie