 Around this time, he was also gifted at football, a sport for which he had major aspirations.Made aware of his split loyalties by his chess coach, Motylev's physical education teacher advised him to concentrate on chess and this proved to be good advice, as he went on to become national junior champion at both under 16 and under 18 level.Motylev was the runner-up in the 1998 European Junior Chess Championship, won by Levon Aronian.