Education
At Skien in 1979, he entered the World Junior Championship and finished runner-up to Yasser Seirawan.
At Skien in 1979, he entered the World Junior Championship and finished runner-up to Yasser Seirawan.
Born in Kharkiv, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, as a youth he frequently succeeded in tournaments and climbed rapidly through the junior rankings to participate at the very highest level These prestigious successes soon led him to an International Master title and more importantly, laid the foundation stones for his continued development over the next few years. There were many tournament victories, either outright or shared, including Irkutsk 1980, Copenhagen 1984 (and 1986 with Vasily Smyslov), Stary Smokovec 1984, Polanica Zdroj 1988, Prague 1989 and Marseilles 1990 (with Evgeny Bareev).
Unfortunately, his World Championship Candidacy went no further, as he could only manage a mid-table finish.
At another first time event, the World Blitz Championship held in Saint John 1988, he finished joint third (with Kiril Georgiev, after Mikhail Tal and Rafael Vaganian). Into the 1990s, Chernin was still performing well in international competition.
First at Dortmund 1990 (ahead of Boris Gelfand) with further successes to follow at Buenos Aires 1992, Gothenburg 1996 and Aubervilliers 1996 (the latter, a rapid event). Chernin relocated to Budapest in 1992 and became a Hungarian national a year later.
He is also involved in coaching, his best known student being the young Italian-American master Fabiano Caruana.
In 2004 he was awarded the title of FIDE Senior Trainer. Alexander Chernin is a renowned theorist and has written analytical articles for New In Chess amongst other publications. In the chess openings arena, he is a noted expert on the Pirc Defence and in 2001, co-authored a repertoire book with Lev Alburt, named Pirc Alert!.
Alexander Chernin vs John Van der Wiel EUCup Grp3 1997, Zukertort Opening (A04), 1–0
Alexander Chernin vs Alexander Utnasunov FIDE World Ch 2000, Semi-Slav Defense (D45), 1-0
Peter K Wells vs Alexander Chernin Tch-AUT −01 2000, Benko Gambit: Accepted.
(A57), 0–1.