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:
“... the French know that you must not succeed you must rise from the ashes and how could you rise from the ashes if there were no ashes, but the Germans never think of ashes and so when there are ashes there is no rising, not at all and every day and in every way this is clearer and clearer.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“I would dodge, not lie, in the national interest.”
—Larry Speakes (b. 1939)