In 2006, Malakhov tied for the first place with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Magnus Carlsen at the Bosna International Tournament (category 17, 2659) in Sarajevo.

[8] Malakhov reached the semifinal stage of the Chess World Cup 2009 and was eliminated by the eventual runner-up Ruslan Ponomariov, after sequentially defeating Bassem Amin, Ilia Smirin, Pavel Eljanov, Wesley So and Peter Svidler.

[10] Malakhov played on the reserve board for the Russian team that won silver at the 39th Chess Olympiad.

[11] In 2012, Malakhov finished equal second, third on tiebreak in the European Individual Championship with 8/11 and thus qualified for the Chess World Cup 2013.

[13] In February 2013, Malakhov placed equal first, second on tiebreak in the 2nd Vladimir Petrov Memorial, a rapid tournament held in Jūrmala, Latvia.