A French National
He moved to France and acquired French nationality in 2000. While he has not yet managed to win the French Championship, he came close in 2003 when he tied first with Joël Lautier and Étienne Bacrot, losing out to Bacrot in a playoff. In 2005, he finished equal second with 14-year-old Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, behind Lautier.
There have been two appearances for the French Olympiad team (in 2002 and 2006) and he further represented his adopted country at the European Team Chess Championship of 2003, held in Plovdiv.
Read more about this topic: Andrei Sokolov
Famous quotes containing the words french and/or national:
“Like a French poem is life; being only perfect in structure
When with the masculine rhymes mingled the feminine are.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)
“Ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are the only causes of public misfortunes and of the corruption of governments.”
—French National Assembly. Declaration of the Rights of Man (drafted and discussed Aug. 1789, published Sept. 1791)