Khalifman won the 1982 Soviet Union Youth Championship,[2] the 1984 Soviet Union Youth championship,[3] the 1985 European Under-20 Championship in Groningen, the 1985 and 1987 Moscow championships, 1990 Groningen, 1993 Ter Apel, 1994 Chess Open of Eupen, 1995 Chess Open St. Petersburg, the Russian Championship in 1996, the Saint Petersburg Championship in 1996 and 1997, 1997 Chess Grand Master Tournament St. Petersburg, 1997 Aarhus, 1997 and 1998 Bad Wiessee,[4] 2000 Hoogeveen.
He was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team at the Chess Olympiads in 1992, 2000 and 2002, and at the 1997 World Team Chess Championship.
Khalifman gained the Grandmaster title in 1990 with one particularly good early result being his first place in the 1990 New York City Open ahead of a host of strong players. His most notable achievement was winning the FIDE World Chess Championship in 1999, a title he held until the following year. He was rated 44th in the world at the time,[5] while “Classical” World Champion Garry Kasparov was rated No. 1. Khalifman said after the tournament, “Rating systems work perfectly for players who play only in round robin closed events. I think most of them are overrated. Organizers invite same people over and over because they have the same rating and their rating stays high.”[6] Khalifman played in the Linares chess tournament next year, and performed credibly (though placing below joint winner Kasparov)