Zahar Efimenko is a Ukrainian

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 player. He has been a grandmaster since 2002.

Chess career

In 1999 Efimenko won the U-14 World Youth Chess Championship in Oropesa del Mar

Oropesa del Mar

Oropesa del Mar is a municipality in the comarca of Plana Alta in the Valencian Community, Spain....

, Spain. In the same year he was a member of the Ukrainian national youth team, which won the U-16 Chess Olympiad

Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...

 in Artek

Artek (camp)

Artek is a Young Pioneer camp near Gurzuf, Ukraine. It was established on June 16 1925 on the Black Sea in the town of Gurzuf located on the Crimean peninsula, near Medved Mountain, Ukraine. The camp first hosted only 80 children but then grew rapidly. In 1969 it had an area of 3.2 km²...

, Ukraine. Efimenko has won several chess tournaments since then, among them the 2001 Stork Young Masters in Hengelo

Hengelo

Hengelo is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The city lies along the motorways A1/E30 and A35 and it has a station for the International Amsterdam – Hannover – Berlin service.-Traffic and transport:...

, Netherlands. He became champion of Ukraine

Ukrainian Chess Championship

This is a list of all the winners of the Ukrainian Chess Championship, including those held when Ukraine was a Soviet republic and those held after Ukraine became independent. Players' names listed in parentheses indicate that the player won the tournament but did not receive the title since he...

 in 2006. In 2007, he tied for 1st-6th with Vitali Golod

Vitali Golod

Vitali Golod is a Soviet–Israeli chess grandmaster.As of April 2007, his Elo rating was 2597, making him the # 7 player in Israel and the 152nd-highest rated player in the world. It is his peak rating so far.-Chess career:...

, Mateusz Bartel

Mateusz Bartel

Mateusz Bartel is a Polish chess player who holds the title of International Grandmaster . He won the under-18 European championship in 2003....

, Yuri Yakovich

Yuri Yakovich

Yuri Yakovich is a Russian chess Grandmaster . He was a member of the silver medal winning Russian team at the 1997 European Team Chess Championship....

, Michael Roiz

Michael Roiz

Michael Roiz is an Israeli chess Grandmaster.He learned to play chess at the age of 7. At the age of 9, he finished 2nd in the national championship under-10 category...

 and Mikhail Kobalia

Mikhail Kobalia

Mikhail Kobalia is a Russian chess Grandmaster .In 1994 he won European Youth Chess Championship in Guarapuava. In 2001 was clear first in the Chigorin Memorial at St. Petersburg. In 2005 came first in the Masters Open Tournament in Biel...

 in the 16th Monarch Assurance Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

 International tournament.
In May 2010, he tied for 1st-2nd with Victor Bologan

Victor Bologan

Viktor Viorel Bologan is a Moldovan chess grandmaster.On the April 2005 FIDE list, he had an Elo rating of 2700, making him number 18 in the world and Moldova's best chess player. His major accomplishment has been winning the Dortmund Sparkassen 2003, ahead of higher-rated and well-known players...

 in the 40th Bosna International tournament in Sarajevo

Sarajevo

Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....

.

Efimenko was a member of the victorious Ukrainian team that won the gold medal at the 2010 chess olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk

39th Chess Olympiad

The 39th Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place in 2010 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, on to...

. In the direct encounter against main rival Russia, he defeated Vladimir Malakhov.