Evgeniy Yuryevich Najer (russian: Евгений Юревич Наер, translit=Evgeniy Yuryevich Nayer; born 22 June 1977) is a Russian chess grandmaster and the European champion of 2015. He is also one of the coaches of the Russian women's national team.

Career

He won the Moscow City Chess Championship in 1998 and 2003. In 2002 he shared the victory of the U.S. Open Chess Championship with

Gennadi Zaichik Gennadi Zaichik (russian: Геннадий Львович Зайчик; born 11 February 1957) is a Georgian chess and American (from 2002) Grandmaster (GM) (1984), two-times Georgian Chess Championship winner (1977, 1978). Biography Gennadi ...

. Najer won the Cappelle-la-Grande Open of 2004 on tiebreak over

Kaido Külaots Kaido Külaots (born 28 February 1976) is an Estonian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2001. He has won the Estonian Chess Championship in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2020. Külaots has represe ...

, Artyom Timofeev,

Zoltan Gyimesi Zoltán Gyimesi (born 31 March 1977) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster and national champion in 2005. He has participated in four Chess Olympiads (1998, 2002, 2004, 2006) with a record of +11=18-4. In 2002, at the 35th Chess Olympiad, the Hun ...

Sergey Grigoriants Sergey Mikhailovich Grigoriants (russian: Сергей Михайлович Григорьянц; born 2 November 1983) is a Russian chess player, who was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 2003. Chess career Grigoriants won the U14 sect ...

and Oleg Korneev. In the same year he tied for 1st–3rd with

Michael Roiz Michael Roiz (russian: Михаил Владимирович Ройз, translit=Mikhail Vladimirovich Royz, born 12 October 1983 in Russia) is an Israeli chess Grandmaster. He learned to play chess at the age of 7. At 9, he finished 2nd in the n ...

and Leonid Gofshtein in the

Ashdod Ashdod ( he, ''ʾašdōḏ''; ar, أسدود or إسدود ''ʾisdūd'' or '' ʾasdūd'' ; Philistine: 𐤀𐤔𐤃𐤃 *''ʾašdūd'') is the sixth-largest city in Israel. Located in the country's Southern District, it lies on the Mediterran ...

Chess Festival. He won a gold medal at the

2005 Maccabiah Games The 17th Maccabiah Games ( he, המכביה ה-17 ישראל תשס"ה), held in Israel, were an incarnation of the 'Jewish Olympics.' They attracted the largest attendance of any Maccabiah Games, including more than 900 representatives from the Un ...

in Israel. In 2007 he won the 3rd Moscow Open edging out on tiebreak Vasily Yemelin. Najer won the World Open in Philadelphia consecutively in 2008 and 2009. He was one of the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

s of Gata Kamsky in his 2009 match against Veselin Topalov (" Challenger Match"). In July 2009, Najer won the strong

rapid Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero ...

, whose field included Boris Gelfand and

Judit Polgar Judit is a feminine given name related to Judith. Notable people with the name include: *Judit Bar-Ilan (1958–2019), Israeli computer scientist *Judit Elek (born 1937), Hungarian film director and screenwriter *Judit Földing-Nagy (born 1965), ...

among others, of the Richard Riordan Chess Festival at the

2009 Maccabiah Games The 18th Maccabiah Games ( he, המכביה ה-18 ישראל תשס"ט), were held in July 2009. According to the organizing committee these were the largest games held yet. These Games were the world's fifth-largest sporting event, behind the Ol ...

. Soon afterwards, in the same month, he tied for first with

Robert Fontaine Robert Fontaine (born 18 November 1980) is a French chess player and journalist. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2002. He played under Monaco flag from 2016 to 2018 and now plays for Switzerland. Chess career Born in 1980, ...

in the

Paleochora Palaiochora ( el, Παλαιόχωρα or Παλιόχωρα) is a small town in Chania regional unit, Greece. It is located 70 km south of Chania, on the southwest coast of Crete and occupies a small peninsula 400 m wide and 700 m long. Th ...

Open Tournament. In 2010, he tied for 2nd–5th with Michael Adams,

Victor Mikhalevski Victor (Viktor) Mikhalevski ( he, ויקטור מיכלבסקי; born 8 July 1972) is an Israeli chess grandmaster who lives in Beersheba. his Elo rating was 2611, making him the #7 player in Israel and the 171st-highest rated player in the ...

and

Jiří Štoček Jiří Štoček (born 10 May 1977) is a Czech chess grandmaster. He won the Czech Chess Championship in 2011. Chess career Born in 1977, Štoček earned his international master (IM) title in 1994 and his grandmaster (GM) title in 1998. He wo ...

the 14th Chicago Open. In 2015 he won the European Individual Chess Championship in Jerusalem with 8½/11. This victory qualified him for the Chess World Cup 2015, where he was eliminated in the first round by

Rauf Mamedov Rauf Mamedov ( az, Rauf Məmmədov; born 26 April 1988) is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster and a three-time national champion. He competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2015. Career Born in Baku, Mamedov started playing chess a ...

. Najer won the 2016 Aeroflot Open edging out Boris Gelfand on tiebreak, after both scored 6½/9 points; this achievement earned him a spot in the 2016 Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting. In 2017, he tied for first place with Emil Sutovsky in the 18th Karpov Chess Tournament in Poikovsky, Russia. In 2019, whilst competing at the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019, Najer created a first round upset defeating Viswanathan Anand in 30 moves, the fourth seeded player in the tournament and former world chess champion.

Personal life

Najer is Jewish. Together with 43 other Russian elite chess players, Najer signed an open letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin, protesting against the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

and expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people."'Stop the war.' 44 Top Russian Players Publish Open Letter To Putin"
Chess.com, 3 March 2022

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Najer, Evgeniy 1977 births Living people Chess grandmasters European Chess Champions Russian chess players Jewish chess players National team coaches Russian Jews Sportspeople from Moscow Maccabiah Games medalists in chess Competitors at the 2005 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 2009 Maccabiah Games Maccabiah Games competitors for Russia Maccabiah Games gold medalists for Russia Chess coaches