Alexandre Dinerchtein

Alexandre Grigorievich Dinerchtein is a professional Go player from Russia. He is one of only a few nonAsian players to reach professional status, which he achieved in 2002 at the Hanguk Kiwon . He has won the European Championship seven times between 1999 and 2009.

Dinerchtein started playing go in 1986, when he was justyears old. He was born and raised in Kazan, Russia where he grew up around strong Russian Go players, such as Ivan Detkov and Valeryi Solovyev. He first learned Go from his father. He was both a chess and Go player, but by the age ofhe stopped playing chess and went deeper into Go with his new teacher Valery Shikshin.

Source: Wikipedia