Helgi Dam Ziska (born 26 July 1990 in

Tórshavn Tórshavn (; lit. "Thor's harbour"), usually locally referred to as simply ''Havn'', is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of the city lies the ...

) is a Faroese

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player. He completed the requirements for the title Grandmaster (GM) at the

42nd Chess Olympiad The 42nd Chess Olympiad ( az, 42-ci Şahmat Olimpiadası; also known as the Baku Chess Olympiad), organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and comprising an openAlthough sometimes referred to as the "men's division", this ...

on 12 September 2016. He is the first Faroese player to qualify for the Grandmaster title. Ziska is the top ranked and the highest ever rated player from his country, and has been rated number one amongst Faroese chess players since the age of 16. He has competed at the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

since 2006, representing the Faroe Islands. Helgi Dam Ziska was awarded the title

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(IM) by

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

in 2007. He achieved the

norm Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envir ...

s required for the title at the

Politiken Cup The Xtracon Chess Open (formerly the Politiken Cup) is an international chess tournament and the main feature event of the annual Copenhagen Chess Festival. History Organized by the Copenhagen Chess Federation (KSU), it was originally set up to giv ...

in July 2005, the

Reykjavik Open The Reykjavik Open is an annual chess tournament that takes place in the capital city of Iceland. It was held every two years up to 2008, currently it runs annually. The first edition was held in 1964 and was won by Mikhail Tal with a score of 12.5 ...

in March 2006, and the Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament in June 2006. In 2006 he competed at the

for the first time. In 2013, Ziska gained his first norm required for the GM title at the

Riga Technical University Open Riga Technical University Open (also RTU Open) is international "open" chess festival, annually held in Riga, Latvia in August. It is the largest classical chess tournament in the Baltic states. Abstract The Riga Technical University Open is ...

2013. At the same competition in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

, he won the

blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...

event (Tournament D) with a score of 9.5/11 points. Ziska has won the Faroese championship several times. Ziska won the Nordic Junior Chess Championship in 2006 for boys born in 1989 and 1990. In 2007 he took bronze and in 2008 he took silver together with Høgni Egilstoft Nielsen at the Nordic Junior Chess Championship. In 2009 he became Nordic Junior Champion in the oldest age group at the competition which was held in Ziska's hometown Tórshavn that year. In 2010

Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov ( rus, links=no, Анато́лий Евге́ньевич Ка́рпов, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈkarpəf; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet chess grandmaster, former World Ches ...

visited the Faroe Islands, and on that occasion Ziska won against him in fast chess, but also lost against him. Ziska finished second at the

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Chess Challenge in 2012 and 2014. He was second at the 2013

Danish Chess Championship The Danish Chess Championship was organised by the Danish Chess Union ( DSU) and first held in 1910. A masterclass was first introduced in 1915. But it is only from 1922 that the title of Danish chess champion was introduced, this was the first year ...

, behind Davor Palo. In April 2016 Ziska won the 2nd European Small Nations Individual Chess Championship in

Luxembourg City Luxembourg ( lb, Lëtzebuerg; french: Luxembourg; german: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City ( lb, Stad Lëtzebuerg, link=no or ; french: Ville de Luxembourg, link=no; german: Stadt Luxemburg, link=no or ), is the capital city of the Lu ...

to qualify to participate at the

Chess World Cup 2017 The Chess World Cup 2017 was a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament, held in Tbilisi, Georgia, from 2 to 27 September 2017. It was won by Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian. This was the second time he had won the Chess World Cup, 12 ye ...

Honour

*2006 - Sportsman of the Year 2006 in The Faroe Islands

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ziska, Helgi Dam 1990 births Living people Faroese chess players Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors People from Tórshavn