Ia faaauau pea lenei palakalafa - Sa avea Panchenko ma faiaʻoga sili o le taaloga a le 4th juniors i Kramatorsk, Soviet Union, lea e aofia ai siamupini o le taʻaloga e pei o Alexey Dreev, Igor Khenkin, Ruslan Shcherbakov, Maxim Sorokin, ma Mikhail Ulibin. Na ia taitaia foi le au a tamaitai o le Olimipeka i le 30th Chess Olympiad
. Na tusia e Panchenko le tusi e lua o le "Theory and Practice of Chess Endings", lea o loo faaaogaina pea e le au tusitala i aso nei, ma le "Mastering Chess Middlegames: Lectures from the All-Russian School of Grandmasters".