 In the July 2009 FIDE world rankings Jakovenko became the fifth highest rated chess player in the world and overtook Vladimir Kramnik as the number one Russian (Kramnik regained the position in September that year).In the same month Jakovenko competed at the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting, finishing fourth on tiebreak with Peter Leko and Magnus Carlsen with a score of 5½/10, half a point behind Kramnik.Jakovenko won the 2012 European Individual Chess Championship in Plovdiv with a score of 8½/11 points.