The Kishinev born Bologan learned how to play chess at the age of 7, when his father taught him. Recognized as a kid with potential, he got his chess education through some very prominent coaches, such as Chebanenko and Mark Dvoretzky. Viorel, who has a Doctorate from the Russian Academy of Physical Culture, has by far the most experience in high-level chess of all players in group B. He participated in Corus A in 2004, scoring an impressive 7.5/13 and sharing 4th place.

Bologan’s resume includes scores of wins in strong open and closed tournaments. His most commendable achievements to date have to be his shocking win in the 2003 Dortmund super GM tournament, ahead of Kramnik, Anand and Leko. Viorel has twice won the toughest open tourney in the world, the Aeroflot Open – most recently tying for first in its 2006 edition with 6.5/9. He also took an unshared third place in the very strong Aerosvit Closed in 2006 with 6.5/11. He got his GM title in 1991, and has consistently been his country’s number one player, and its board one player in world team events. He is also an experienced second, having worked with the likes of Shirov and Ponomariov in the past. Clearly his replacement of Kosteniuk shifts the balance in group B.