Alexander Lastin

Alexander Nikolaevich Lastin (Russian: Александр Ластин; 30 November 1976 – 23 January 2015) was a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1997.

Lastin was born in Arkhangelsk and at three years old he moved to Zheleznovodsk.^[1] In 2001 he tied for first with Alexander Motylev in the Russian Chess Championship and finished second on tiebreak.^[2] Lastin won it in 2002.^[3]

Lastin competed in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002, where he was eliminated by Zhang Zhong in round two, after knocking out Ognjen Cvitan in the first. At the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 he reached the third round, where he lost to Hikaru Nakamura and therefore was eliminated from the tournament. In March 2005 Lastin finished second at the Moscow Open.^[4] Later that year, he placed equal second (third on tiebreak) in the 9th Voronezh Open.^[5] and won the 7th Kuban Championship - Stepanov Memorial in Sochi.^[6]

Lastin took clear first place in the Moscow Open 2006 scoring 7½ points out of 9.^[7] In June 2007 he won the V.K.Doroshkevich Memorial tournament in Belorechensk.^[8] He tied for first in 2008^[9] and in 2009.^[10] In the 2007 Voronezh Open he tied for first, placing second on tiebreak.^[11]

In 2008 he tied for 1st–8th places with Nigel Short, Vadim Milov, Aleksej Aleksandrov, Tamaz Gelashvili, Baadur Jobava, Gadir Guseinov and Farid Abbasov in the President's Cup in Baku.^[12] At the Moscow Open 2008 he tied for second, finishing fifth on countback.^[13] In September 2008 Lastin placed fourth in the Russian Championship Higher League^[14] and qualified for the Superfinal of the Russian Championship, where he scored 5/11.^[15] In 2013 Lastin won the Dombay Open edging out Artur Gabrielian on tiebreak.^[16][17]

He died on 23 January 2015 in Zheleznovodsk.^[18]