Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
n
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 ...
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 2001.
He has won the
Estonian Chess Championship
The Estonian Chess Championship is played to determine the Estonian champion in chess.
The first unofficial championship in Estonia was held in 1903 and was organized by a chess club from Tallinn (then Reval, Russian Empire). After World War I, ...
in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2020. Külaots has represented Estonia in 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 ...
(in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2018) and the
European Team Chess Championship
The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...
(in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2019).
He tied for 1st–2nd with Evgeny Alekseev at the Rector Cup,
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Vladislav Nevednichy at
Paks
Paks is a small town in Tolna county, in the south of Hungary, on the right bank of the Danube River, 100 km south of Budapest. Paks as a former agricultural settlement is now the home of the only Hungarian nuclear power plant, which provi ...
2003, tied for 1st–6th with
Evgeniy Najer
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 n ...
Oleg Korneev
Oleg Anatolyevich Korneev (; born 25 July 1969) is a Russian-born chess player, who now represents Spain. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1995.
Chess career
Korneev was not a child prodigy; he finished in the lower half of the 1987 Mosco ...
at the
Cappelle-la-Grande Open
The Cappelle-la-Grande Open is a chess tournament held every year in Cappelle-la-Grande, France, since 1985. It is usually played in the second half of February with an accelerated Swiss-system format in nine rounds. It is organized by the chess cl ...
2004, tied for 1st–2nd with Artjom Smirnov at the Paul Keres Chess Festival in Tallinn 2004, came 2nd behind
Sergei Tiviakov
Sergei Tiviakov (russian: Серге́й Тивяков; born 14 February 1973) is a Russian–Dutch chess grandmaster. He is a three-time Dutch Champion and was European Champion in 2008.
Chess career
Tiviakov won the World Under-18 Champion ...
and ahead of Oleg Korneev at the
Gausdal
Gausdal is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Segalstad bru. Other villages in Gausdal include Follebu, Forse ...
Classics 2005, came 1st at the Heart of Finland Open in
Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...
Gedeon Barcza
Gedeon (Gideon) Barcza (August 21, 1911, in Kisújszállás – February 27, 1986, in Budapest) was a Hungarian chess grandmaster. He was eight-time chess champion of Hungary.
Chess career
In 1940, Barcza took third place, behind Max Euwe and ...
Memorial 2008, tied for 3rd–6th with
Šarūnas Šulskis
Šarūnas Šulskis (born 26 November 1972, in Kėdainiai) is a Lithuanian chess Grandmaster (1996).
Chess career
He won the Lithuanian Chess Championship on five occasions: in 1991, 1994, 1998 (shared with Vidmantas Mališauskas), 2007 and 20 ...
,
Tiger Hillarp Persson
Tiger Hillarp Persson (born ''Tigger Christopher Robin Hillarp Persson'', 28 October 1970) is a Swedish chess grandmaster. He is a three-time Swedish Chess Champion. In 2015 he attained the level of 1-Dan in Go.
Chess career
He won tournament ...
and
Hans Tikkanen
Hans Christian Tikkanen (born 6 February 1985 in Karlstad) is a Swedish chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster. He is a five-time Swedish Chess Champion.
Chess career
He won the Swedish Junior Chess Championship in 2002. In 2010 he won the Lithu ...
Gif-sur-Yvette
Gif-sur-Yvette (, literally ''Gif on Yvette'') is a commune in south-western Ile de France, France. It is located from the center of Paris.
Geography
The town is crossed by and named after the river Yvette.
The total area is and is green sp ...
2010. Külaots competed in the
FIDE World Cup
The FIDE World Cup refers to three different events over the years. Since 2000, it has been a major chess event organized by FIDE, the International Chess Federation. Since 2005, it has been a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament, form ...
in
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
as a FIDE nominee. Here he was knocked out in the first round after losing to
Nikita Vitiugov
Nikita Kirillovich Vitiugov (russian: Никита Кириллович Витюгов; born 4 February 1987) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2007. He was a member of the victorious Russian team at th ...
by ½–1½. In February 2019 Külaots won the
Aeroflot Open The Aeroflot Open is an annual open chess tournament played in Moscow and sponsored by the airline Aeroflot. It was established in 2002 and quickly grew to be the strongest open tournament; in 2013 it was converted to a rapid and blitz event, whil ...
edging out Haik Martirosyan on tiebreak, after both players scored 7/9 points. Thanks to this victory, Külaots earned an invitation to play in the
Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting
The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting is an elite chess tournament held every summer in Dortmund, Germany. Dortmund is an invite-only event, with the exception that one slot at Dortmund is awarded to the winner of the annual Aeroflot Open in Moscow ...
. Külaots is one of the few players to have a positive lifetime record against World Champion
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...
Chessmetrics
Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo rating system.
Implementation
Chessmetrics is a weighted average of past performance. The score considers a player's win percen ...