Born in Rostov-on-Don, he was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1997.

[1] This victory qualified him for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2000.

Here he defeated Aleksandar Wohl in the first round and then lost to Alexander Beliavsky in the second, thus exiting the competition.

Galkin competed in the FIDE World Championship again in 2004; this time he was eliminated in the first round by Aleksander Delchev.

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