It was only at the age of 14 that he joined the chess department at the House of Pioneers in the Dzerzhinsky suburb of Moscow.

[1] From 1984 Kalinichev was stationed as a chess player and trainer with the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany in Wünsdorf.

Kalinichev's students as coaches in post-reunification Germany included Dimitri Bunzmann, Atila Gajo Figura and Ilja Brener.

His son Andrej, born in 1986, is also a strong chess player with an Elo rating of over 2400 and he plays for Estonia.

In 1974 and 1975, Kalinichev won the Red Army Juniors tournament, beating Vladimir Epishin, Gregory Kaidanov and Zigurds Lanka among others.

In 1996 he won a First Saturday GM Tournament in Budapest where he defeated his student Dimitri Bunzmann accompanied.

Gulweida-Warneyer Memorial Tournament, the Tempelhof Chess Club and the Lichtenrader Herbst.

In East Germany he played club chess for Dynamo Potsdam from 1984, together with Rustem Dautov.

In 1978, the same year as Garry Kasparov, Kalinichev achieved the title of Master of Sports of the Soviet Union.

In the German backgammon rankings from July 2015, Kalinitschew has an Elo rating of 1606.7 with an experience of 218,[6] which puts him in 72nd place in Germany.